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“Change is the only constant.”
It’s a phrase we’re all familiar with, first said by Greek philosopher Heraclitus over 2,000 years ago. Over the past few years, his point keeps hitting home. After the world was rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the fallout continued through 2021, many expected 2022 to be a year of recovery. Despite our expectations, 2022 has saddled us with even more challenges.
While the average consumer may no longer be tethered to their homes like most were a couple of years ago, new economic complexities are impacting their daily lives and again shifting their behaviors. From interest rate hikes, to an impending recession, to supply chain shortages, there are numerous factors at play. And when consumer behaviors change because of what’s happening in the world, so too must marketers.
Advertisers who quickly lean into an altered marketplace set themselves apart from those who see themselves as victims of unmanageable change. To that end, let’s take some time to evaluate the ever-changing economic landscape, its implications for marketers, and tactics that can be used to adapt to its complexity.
There are many factors shaping the marketing landscape today. Here are some of the biggest:
Here are a few stats to know on the current economic situation in the US:
The global supply chain was first rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the disruption has since been exacerbated by fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Here’s what marketers should know:
With uncertainty surrounding the conflict in Ukraine, supply chain challenges will likely remain a reality for brands and marketers to grapple with for the foreseeable future.
Beyond these economic and geopolitical circumstances, there are other significant issues impacting consumers and marketers in the US:
Taken together, these varied factors result in substantial instability for consumers—which puts the pressure on brands to adapt.
Marketers may want to wait until these proverbial storms clear, but there’s no knowing when additional challenges will follow. Instead of surviving the crises of the present, marketers can engage in cognitive reframing to adapt and think flexibly.
For those new to the concept, cognitive reframing is the process of identifying your current perspective, naming the challenges or shortcomings of that viewpoint, and then shifting to a new way of thinking. At its core, reframing “encourage[s] us to look at situations from different perspectives in search of unique and improved solutions.”
A few examples: A difficult conversation with a colleague could be reframed as a chance to problem-solve collaboratively; a quarter in which earnings are missed could be reframed as an opportunity to test new sales strategies; a team losing yet another member due to the Great Resignation reframed as a moment to take an honest look at company culture.
Through reframing, brands can approach today’s moments of adversity as opportunities for reflection and change. Leaders looking to make reframing an organizational habit can benefit from asking the following questions:
So far, we’ve explored the complexity of today’s landscape and how reframing can serve as a beneficial tool. Now, let’s dive into the marketing strategies teams can use to adapt. While there’s no silver bullet for advertising during times like these, there are methods brands and agencies can use to remain flexible and agile:
During economic downturns, it’s tempting for brands to pause or cut back on advertising budgets. There are signs of some taking that approach today, as July 2022 was the worst month for ad spending in two years, with a contraction of 12.7% YoY.
However, there are many reasons to maintain advertising levels through tough times—and preserving brand recognition is perhaps the most significant one. If you want your brand to remain at the forefront of consumers’ minds, it needs to be visible. This is especially crucial for smaller brands or those with less name recognition—just a few months out of the spotlight could result in significant damages and losses.
Another reason to keep marketing levels consistent is to build brand loyalty. For younger generations in particular, consumers want brands to share their values and take part in important cultural conversations. Especially in today’s competitive landscape, brands have a lot to lose by slashing marketing budgets.
Another approach brands and agencies should embrace is to prioritize the changing needs of customers. Though every economic downturn is different, the Harvard Business Review’s analysis of how brands survived the 2008 recession still rings true today. They claimed that one of the most critical steps advertisers took was “to track how customers reassess priorities, reallocate funds, switch brands, and redefine value.” Put simply, when consumers change, advertisers should too.
When unexpected market factors arise, it is especially important to understand how these factors influence consumers and their behavior. In today’s economic landscape, this might look like embracing messaging that approaches inflation and high prices with empathy. It could also mean considering the impact of both cost and value for today’s consumer, and adapting messaging to better connect with target audiences.
By focusing on consumers and how they change in response to different situations, brands and agencies can embrace messaging that “feels right” to consumers in the moment. Rather than being reactive when a challenge arises, advertisers can pause, reflect, and think: what does this mean for our target consumers? Then, they can craft responsive messaging that is grounded in common sense.
A final tactic brands and agencies can use to maintain agility and flexibility amidst uncertainty is to analyze digital consumption trends and adapt advertising strategies based on their findings. Once brands have identified their ideal consumers, they should lean into available data to determine where those consumers are spending their time. This could mean ramping up CTV advertising to adapt to elevated viewership levels, or exploring a new social platform based on user trends. By analyzing and exploring the data, marketers can make strategic adjustments to meet consumers where they are.
For advertisers who find success in times of uncertainty, agility enables their resilience. They assess the ever-changing marketing landscape and reframe their thinking when challenges hit. They respond to consumer needs in a way that meets the moment, use data to make informed and strategic decisions, and utilize available tools and technologies that empower them to do their most impactful work.
As the marketing landscape continues to change, I’m committed to rolling with change and finding opportunities in the chaos.
My team and I dive into this—and more—in our webinar: Advertising Through Uncertainty: How Marketers Can Navigate Economic Downturn. Check it out to better understand the complexities of today’s advertising landscape, key shifts in consumer behavior due to economic instability, and best practices for marketers and advertisers in an unpredictable marketplace.
Being a food and beverage brand is a bit of a blessing and a curse.
The blessing? Everyone’s gotta eat and drink, so to a certain extent, demand will never diminish. Food and beverage retail sales will reach an estimated $1.23 trillion in 2022, and that figure is expected to grow to $1.37 trillion by 2026.
The curse? Well, it just might be a four-curse meal:
To keep your brand in the conversation, it’s more important than ever to stay up to date on all the latest food and beverage marketing trends.
Hungry for more? Here are four trends to watch as you shape the advertising strategy for your food and beverage brand(s).
According to the Institute of Food Technologists, inflation is driving Gen Z and millennial consumers back to the kitchen—six in 10 people age 25-34 are cooking more dinners at home than last year—and they want their meals easy and economical, healthy, at times plant-based, and sometimes saucy and spicy (perhaps experimenting with recipes to replicate the dining-out experience). Now, each of those could be a fully baked trend in and of itself (and we’ll slice into the “healthy” aspect more shortly), but the big takeaway here is that higher-priced food and restaurant staffing shortages have made cooking at home more attractive. Online research behaviors reflect this, too: searches for “air fryers” have remained above pre-pandemic levels, and interest in “meal kits” and related phrases continues to trend.
And as we gather more often in each other’s homes, charcuterie boards are taking center stage. From how-to searches to visual inspiration on Pinterest and Instagram, folks are showing more online interest in the self-serve party trays and the bites they host, to the point where global grocer Aldi has created a Charcuterie Board (yes, those were capital letters—we’re talking about a board of directors made up of seven gourmet food and wine enthusiasts) to track food and beverage grazing trends.
To appeal to the at-home chef, food marketers can benefit from showing how easy it is to cook with their ingredients (and maybe even offer some 30-minute quick-prep recipes), how cost-effective their options are, and how yummy the plated product appears on the dinner table.
The trend of cooking at home requires food from the grocery store, but many consumers are opting to buy their groceries from the comfort of their own homes: e-commerce will make up more than 10% of grocery sales in 2023, lifting Instacart’s reputation and Walmart’s digital revenue, and “click-and-collect” grocery sales are forecasted to rise steadily as a share of that e-commerce. And for those who want to skip cooking altogether, intermediary delivery services (think GrubHub or DoorDash) are poised to grow in the next half-decade, too.
Even Prime Day in July 2022 saw food and grocery purchases grow 12% year over year, the third highest category growth of the year for the annual online megasale.
Meal kits also fit into this category, and although the post-pandemic near-term saw users drop their subscriptions, the market outlook sees meal kits growing from a $6.9 billion industry in 2021 to more than $10 billion in 2024, with one forward-thinking service working with dietitians to develop meal plans aimed at helping patients with diabetes and chronic kidney disease manage their health.
Investing in your digital presence can help your brand(s) stand out—or, at least, keep up—in this increasingly competitive space. The flexibility and nimble nature of programmatic advertising can help you navigate today’s unpredictable market, and it can put your most valuable messages in front of your most valuable customers in their true moment of need. And as consumers spend more of their food and beverage budget via digital channels, combined with the fragmented and complex nature of the digital space, brands can also benefit from investing in digital advertising automation tools to streamline processes, keep up with the industry’s ad spend trajectory, and navigate today’s unpredictable market.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the COVID-19 pandemic got many of us to pay more attention to our health. This has a significant impact on food and beverage brands, as consumers are thinking about how to take better care of themselves via their diets.
There are myriad bite-sized trends inside the larger “health” trajectory, including:
All in all, the industry has plenty of lanes to swim in to meet consumers’ health demands!
Marketers in food and beverage can take this opportunity to toot their own horns (the buzzword here is “transparency”) in their advertising and product packaging. Maintaining presence, relevance, and helpfulness in a conscious consumer’s journey is key, and following up with advertising to close the sales loop can help put your healthiest options in their fridges and pantries.
The perception of “scarcity” is one of those trusty marketing tactics that generates sales because it plays into people’s fear of missing out—or, as we’ve come to know it, FOMO. From hybrid foods to celebrity-curated meals, limited-time offers (or LTOs) are re-energizing brands and causing curious consumers to spend before the chance slips through their fingers.
The combo of limited-time menu items and influencer marketing has been on display on fast-food menus for a while now: McDonald’s Travis Scott combo boosted declining US sales at the Golden Arches in 2020 and inspired more partnerships like Justin Bieber and Tim Hortons, Megan Thee Stallion and Popeye’s, and Charli D’Amelio and Dunkin’. These quick-service restaurants see their marketing amplified by social media word of mouth, and they benefit when customers download mobile apps that make ordering and paying faster and in-app communications possible.
Other examples of limited-time offers include merging flavors or even food items (how did it take this long to invent pretzel beer?!), experiential events, social media challenges (bet you can eat just #OneChip), and exclusive partnerships (C-store/pizza chain Casey’s partnered with Busch Light on a beer cheese pizza and Mountain Dew on an exclusive fruity flavor mix).
Even if these ambitious moves aren’t in your meal plan, food and bev brands have plenty of ways to generate excitement and/or curiosity—or even coordinate with product teams to create and introduce a limited-edition shock flavor—for a fun and buzzworthy way to showcase your brand and boost sales.
(And in a world where actual scarcity brought about by supply chain issues is very real and ongoing, maintaining advertising levels can help you stay top of mind, expand your reach, show off a bit, and maybe recruit from the talent pool created by the Great Resignation.)
In the bigger context of supply chain issues, product shortages, and inflation, reaching your target audience where they are is more critical than ever. And as food and beverage advertisers face the deprecation of third-party cookies, the challenge of doing so is about to increase dramatically.
Check out our guide, Beyond Third-Party Cookies: Your Guide to Overcoming the Identity Crisis, to get the latest on the next generation of identity solutions in digital advertising.
Is there anyone who finds inflation convenient? Perhaps some overly enthusiastic high school math teacher who seizes the opportunity to create a particularly perplexing prompt? We can imagine how it might unfold:
If Billy bought 320 watermelons for his end-of-summer bash last year for $1387, and 47 packs of hot dogs for $100, how much should he budget for this year, accounting for the July 2022 inflation rate of 8.5%? And what if he had thrown his party the month before, and instead faced an increase of 9.1%?
Yikes. Jokes aside, inflation truly is everywhere, and people are feeling the impacts. Some Americans are not only cutting back on discretionary spending, but also changing their shopping habits around essentials. From buying smaller quantities, to switching to cheaper alternatives, to hunting more rigorously for bargains, many are leaving behind brands they’ve been loyal to in the past as they search for better prices.
Brand marketers are likely wondering: How do I approach inflation in my campaigns? Ignore it? Make jokes?? Approach with the utmost seriousness??? Maybe being back in high school doing those word problems wouldn’t be so terrible…
Though delving into the possibilities of time travel is tempting, we’ll instead focus today’s post on something a bit more actionable: how brands are addressing inflation in sensitive and effective ways. There’s certainly no silver bullet when it comes to advertising during times like these. However, we’ve dug up five ads that address the “I” word in a way that stands out, and we think there’s something to be learned from them. Let’s dive in.
Everlane launched their anti-inflation sale in early August. It was a timely campaign, seeing as it closely followed reports that inflation had hit its 40-year high of 9.1%.
“Priced Like It’s 2019”—what a genius line! We were immediately transported to those glorious, pre-COVID, pre-invasion of Ukraine, pre-this-round-of-economic-uncertainty days, and clicked through the sale prices with nostalgic musings on simpler times.
Everlane’s intentionality is what made this campaign shine: they spoke to the moment by running the campaign when news around inflation was exploding, and they relayed a message that set off memories of a time when shopping was far more pleasant, thus disrupting the near-immediate negative feelings many have when they think about spending money in today’s economy.
Our key takeaway: This campaign shows just how impactful it can be when brands adjust their messaging to meet the complexity of the current moment. By pairing thoughtful, timely messaging with other strategies—such as retargeting key audiences across channels—brands can ensure that consumers are getting the right message, in the right way, at the right time.
Eggs that cost a bajillion dollars. Gas that costs $5,333.90 per gallon. Used cars starting near a million dollars. These are just a few of the outlandish images seen at the start of Del Taco’s video ad highlighting their “20 Under $2” menu.
And though the ad first ran when inflation was only 7% (ah, what a time), the takeaways for marketers are as relevant today as they were then.
This ad is a great example of a brand using humor effectively in a complex situation. It’s successful because of the level of exaggeration: the claims in the video are so extreme that they create a welcome sense of distance and separation from reality.
What Del Taco doesn’t do? Make jokes in a way that minimizes the struggles that consumers are facing. When you consider the fact that 84% of Americans plan to cut back on spending due to current economic conditions, it’s clear that inflation is seriously impacting peoples’ lives—and that’s nothing to take lightly. Del Taco walks the line by laughing with us, not at us. And, the ad goes an extra step to position Del Taco as supportive and understanding by following their jokes with the phrase “We get it, and we got you.”
Our key takeaway: Humor is best served with a side of empathy, especially when joking about things that have serious implications for peoples’ lives. At a time where brand loyalty is faltering, brands need to be especially mindful that their ads don’t alienate customers or leave them with feelings of distrust. This video ad reflects a deep understanding of the current consumer and seeks connection with them in a way that’s relevant. Del Taco isn’t afraid to use humor to get their point across, but they do it in a way that shows they “get” their customers.
Over the last few months, inflation has had an outsized impact on goods, as compared to services. Case in point: according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the prices of durable goods have risen by 14 percent over the past year, compared to the 5.4 percent increase in cost of services. Coupled with the fact that data shows consumers are spending less on things and more on experiences, companies that provide services—such as travel brands—are well positioned to engage with customers.
In their recent campaign, Expedia used these factors to their advantage. Their ad “Stuff: Made to Travel” is all about how most people don’t look back thinking about the stuff they bought, but rather the experiences they had. They don’t explicitly talk about inflation in their video ad; instead, they imply its impact by concluding with a clip of a family running on a beach alongside the words “Save more on the things that matter.”
Our key takeaway: Paying attention to current trends is always critical in advertising, but even more so during times of economic instability and uncertainty. By understanding the factors impacting and driving consumers, and thinking creatively about the opportunities they present, brands will be well-positioned to convey their value within a specific moment.
Okay, we know services and travel brands might have it a bit easier right now, but hear us out! This ad from Outdoorsy offers takeaways for brands of all industries.
Unlike Expedia’s ad that addressed inflation in a highly nuanced way, Outdoorsy’s names it up-front. Not only that—they take it a step further and offer potential consumers an escape. In this video, they show stunning images of people exploring nature, each with accompanying words that say something along the lines of “no inflation here.” As an RV-booking company, they then highlight their unique offering and how it’s relevant to the present moment: skip the expensive, flashy travel, and book an RV instead.
Brands across all industries can employ a similar advertising approach by considering questions like:
Our key takeaway: Highlight your brand’s key differentiators in the current landscape. For Outdoorsy, this meant not only talking about travel, but also about their offerings as an RV-booking company, which allows customers to forego pricey hotels and flights during a time when they are especially expensive. By leaning into what makes their brand unique, they crafted messaging that not only meets the moment but also elevates their brand within the moment.
As we mentioned earlier, goods have been hit harder by inflation than services, and grocery stores are a prime example. To gather anecdotal data on where people have hit their “inflation breaking points,” one Vox reporter asked her Twitter following—and found that the most common response was “at the grocery store.” What can brands do when the places they sell their goods inherently elicit stress?
One winning example is Fresh Thyme Market’s video ad, “Immerse Yourself.” The video explores the connection between the goods we buy and where they come from, with imagery designed to generate bliss and contentment. It opens with images of a fisherman at sea, fresh peaches being brought in from an orchard, and a woman walking through a sun-kissed field of lavender; then shifts to images of people shopping at Fresh Thyme Market for these specific products.
By juxtaposing goods’ pastoral origins with their moments of purchase, the ad reminds consumers of the enjoyment and contentment that can be found in food. Like Outdoorsy’s ad, it leans into the experiences offered by their products, emphasizing the specific value of the fresh and local food sold at Fresh Thyme.
The ad concludes with a quick mention of affordability: “real healthy food, at real affordable prices.” This further drives home the point that, amidst inflation, Fresh Thyme offers customers something valuable.
Our key takeaway: Consumers need to know what value your product or brand provides, especially within today’s economic context. Even if you don’t want to explicitly discuss or name inflation in your marketing, it’s important to convey your brand’s differentiators in a compelling way.
There is no “one way” to advertise during times of economic uncertainty. But knowing your consumer, understanding the moment, and approaching challenges with a balance of humor and empathy can go a long way.
To really understand where customers are coming from, it’s important to stay up-to-date on all the complex factors shaping today’s marketing landscape. But researching and finding what’s most relevant can be time-consuming (And you’re busy! We get it!)
Here’s where we can help. We put together a monthly newsletter, Basis Scout, where we round up all the hottest intel in ad tech and digital marketing. For digital advertising professionals trying to keep a pulse on what’s happening, it’s a no brainer.
Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 9/9/22 - 9/15/22 to stay ahead of the curve:
To say something, or not to say something? That is the question. Or, at least, it has been for social media managers following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. What can brands learn from the mass marketing mourning of the past few days? Here, The Drum does a deep dive.
Metaverse, meet online advertising: gaming and entertainment platform Roblox announced it will be introducing “immersive” 3D ads into its virtual worlds beginning in 2023. With users spending less time on the platform and revenue slowing year-over-year—combined with the overwhelming majority of Roblox users being under the age of 18—will budget-sensitive advertisers be willing to roll the virtual dice? Or will the experimental allure of this new inventory prove too intriguing to pass up?
Over the past 15 years, programmatic advertising has exploded across the digital media ecosystem, now accounting for 90.2% of all US digital display ad spend. Where to from here? Check out this piece on the trends fueling programmatic’s continued evolution.
Confused about the economy? You aren’t alone. For advertisers trying to understand consumer sentiment amidst conflicting indicators, this graphic maps how conditions are faring for jobs, income, consumers, and production. (And for those looking for a deeper dive on advertising through uncertainty, join us for our webinar later this month.)
It’s no secret that e-commerce and retail media have made their mark on media buying and selling in recent years. And advertising experts now suggest that considering the two as one giant industry—commerce media—could be beneficial for stakeholders across the entire marketing ecosystem.
Privacy regulations are tightening, third-party cookies are (eventually?) going away, aaaaaand it appears the advertising industry is largely underprepared. At least, that’s what new research from the IAB’s State of Data 2022 (Part II) reveals. Here, Adweek breaks down the biggest takeaways from the report, as well as what marketers can do to close the “gulf in preparedness.”
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Programmatic advertising has a brief yet dynamic history. What began 15 years ago with a narrow focus on display banner ads has quickly expanded across the entire digital media ecosystem.
This year, it is estimated that programmatic will account for a massive 90.2% of all spending on US digital display inventory—a broad bucket that includes digital display (obviously!), digital video, connected TV (CTV), digital audio (as a subset of rich media), and, within that, podcast advertising. It is already consuming a hefty share of the market, and all signs suggest programmatic will maintain its incremental growth through 2024 as advertisers and publishers look to shed the burden of insertion orders and tap into the myriad benefits that automated purchasing offers.
The path to programmatic ubiquity was essentially laid by the real-time revolution and the pace of technological advancement that made digital the new frontline of the consumer experience. Marketers today must meet customers in the right place and at the right time, and programmatic helps satisfy this imperative—its automated processes and in-flight flexibility make the old ways of buying and placing ads (think RFPs, manual bid negotiations, and predetermined campaign windows) look somewhat primitive by comparison.
Here, we shine a light on the trends behind programmatic’s continued evolution, covering its widening scope across multiple formats, the growing popularity of private marketplaces (PMPs), the identity solution saga, and a whole lot more.
2022 marks the first year that video will account for more than half of all programmatic ad spending. It’s a transition driven primarily by growing investment in one key area: CTV—the next great frontier for brands. The influence of CTV is so profound, in fact, that without it, video’s share of programmatic spend would amount to only 39.7%.
The current excitement around CTV is fairly self-explanatory: advertisers are simply following cord-cutting (or cord never) consumers who are spending more time flicking between Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Peacock TV, and other streaming services to watch movies, shows, and even live sports. By 2024, programmatic CTV video ad spend is projected to sustain its solid double-digit growth and likely play an even bigger role in the broader TV advertising market.
Of course, the lion’s share of programmatic video ad spending still takes place on mobile—66.6% in 2022—but it’s worth mentioning that ad spending on non-video formats on mobile will still account for more than half of mobile programmatic display ad spending through 2024 (54.8%). However, given the rising tide of social video advertising, propelled by the TikTok juggernaut, it’s likely that video will continue gaining share of mobile programmatic display.
Over the years, the vast majority of programmatic business has funneled through direct buying methods. Today, they account for three-quarters of all programmatic transactions—a dominance attributable to the influence of social media, where the bulk of display ads are purchased directly at a fixed price via a particular platform and then served programmatically. That share looks set to stay as it is through 2024, but what’s especially interesting here is the story within the other 25%—the RTB side of the coin.
Indeed, a notable shift is occurring here as advertisers continue to pull more and more media dollars away from the open exchange and plug them into PMPs. The reasons behind this trend? Greater control and increased transparency. In open auction transactions, anyone can buy or sell ad inventory without either side knowing who’s on the other end. In the customized, invite-only environments of PMPs, however, advertisers and publishers can work together directly, helping advertisers insulate themselves from brand safety risks and the growing threat of ad fraud while reaching targeted audiences with better precision.
The significant growth of CTV also contributes to this shift in buying behavior, since the vast majority of programmatic ad spending in CTV transacts through programmatic direct and PMP deals.
There’s no denying that CTV is this year’s MVP of programmatic digital display, but there are a few other channels seeing increased programmatic penetration—namely, linear TV, digital out-of-home (DOOH), and podcasts. Increased programmatic investments in these areas indicate that advertisers are expanding their horizons, evolving their omnichannel strategies, and embracing new ways to deliver brand messaging with higher levels of targeting and efficiency.
Here are a few key stats:
Programmatic advertising was effectively built on the connective tissue of third-party identifiers, so it’s no surprise the ongoing privacy and identity saga is the most important force reshaping programmatic today.
Back in July 2022, Google once again announced it is delaying third-party cookie deprecation in its Chrome browser—this time until the second half of 2024. This has been widely positioned as the de facto deadline for the industry to have reliable alternative targeting and measurement solutions in place. But here’s the thing: we’re already in the “cookieless future.” Non-Google browsers like Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox, and others stopped supporting third-party cookies years ago, so it’s not really a “future” problem—it’s a “now” problem.
Recent research published by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) paints a stark picture of the industry’s inactivity in this area, spanning across brands, agencies, publishers, and adtech companies:
These numbers show that organizations throughout the advertising industry must inevitably take more action to address the new measurement reality.
As of right now, there are a handful of privacy-friendly targeting solutions on the market. You’ve got universal IDs that are based on a persistent data signal such as an email address. There are cohort-based solutions, which aggregate user data and place individuals into targetable groups (for example, Google Topics). Then you’ve got seller-defined audiences that leverage publisher first-party data. And finally, there are contextual targeting tactics that work by serving ads based on similarity between the characteristics of the ad and the content adjacent to it.
Each of these comes with benefits and limitations, and advertisers would do well to start exploring any and all solutions that are available to them and determine what combination may make the most sense from a goal and data strategy perspective (that is, if they’re not doing so already!)
In essence: don’t wait!
The programmatic advertising landscape is an incredibly complex beast. It involves a smorgasbord of moving parts, and it is in a perpetual state of evolution. Here, we didn’t even touch upon the mounting regulatory pressures facing Big Tech around the world, how programmatic can be effective in the world of B2B, how marketers can assess whether they’re ready to bring programmatic in-house, how programmatic may fit into the metaverse, and the value between direct and third-party measurement.
The good news, though, is that all those topics are covered in our webinar, Programmatic Advertising: The Automation that’s Dominating Digital, featuring eMarketer analyst Evelyn Mitchell. Check it out on-demand to get an overview of where programmatic advertising is today and where it’s heading tomorrow.
Fraud is having a moment. From Fyre Festival to Theranos to "Inventing Anna," it often feels like we are in a golden age of deception.
Sadly, digital advertising has not been spared in this fraud feeding frenzy, with countless articles covering the much-loathed scourge that is ad fraud. But while ad fraud is no doubt a very real concern for advertisers, the industry has come a long way since the "Wild West" days that marked the early stages of programmatic, with new tools and best practices to help identify and prevent its impact.
To get all the latest, we reached out to Ian Trider, Basis Technologies' VP of RTB Platform Operations, for a breakdown of all things ad fraud and some tips for how advertisers can detect, minimize, and avoid it.
Ad fraud is the practice of serving digital ads that a) have no chance of being viewed by a human user, or b) are misrepresented.
Bots are software programs that perform functions automatically. There are legitimate and illegitimate bots.
Googlebot is an example of a legitimate bot. It is Google's “crawler" or “spider"—the software that automatically visits websites to build Google's search engine. Legitimate bots identify themselves, and discounting that traffic is a standard requirement in industry guidelines for impression and click counting.
Illegitimate bots attempt to simulate human web surfing for the purpose of generating paid ad impressions.
It is important to understand, though, that there are types of traffic fraud that are technically served to humans, but the traffic is still unacceptable. Examples include: impressions generated when web sites are loaded as pop-unders on porn and piracy sites, or domain spoofing, where impressions claim to be on a respectable, known site, but are actually served somewhere else. This “human traffic fraud" is a significant problem too, especially in video. Bots are a part of the problem, but not the entire problem.
"Bad" needs further definition. Inventory that is bad because it doesn't achieve the performance goal of a campaign is not fraud. Inventory that is bad because it has undesirable characteristics (fake news, adult content, etc.) is not fraud.
Ad stacking (placing multiple ads on top of each other) is fraud, because the hidden ads are impossible to view. An important distinction to note here: Unlikely to be viewed and impossible to view are not the same thing. A placement may have very poor viewability, such as a 728x90 banner at the very bottom of a news site, but it is possible to view it—most users just won't scroll that far. A stacked ad cannot be viewed under any circumstances.
Yes, but not the one that might be expected. Fraudsters want fake impressions to look desirable, and making them appear viewable is one such way. There is actually a positive correlation between gross viewability and fraud: Highly viewable inventory is more likely to be fraudulent.
This is why viewability data should always be reported net of fraud—but even so, fraud detection is an inherently imperfect science. While it should not be assumed that high viewability is a sign of fraud, extremely high viewability on unfamiliar sites that seem unlikely to have the traffic they have is certainly a sign to be cautious of.
It depends. Websites are sometimes set up containing fake or low-quality content, and ads are placed on the sites with the intention of sending bot traffic there. The creators of those sites undoubtedly know exactly what they're doing.
In other circumstances, especially when significant volumes of bot traffic appear on what appears to be a legitimate site, the publisher may have engaged in traffic buying (increasing the traffic to their website by paying other companies to bring visitors to the site). This is a fairly common practice, and there are ways to do it that are quite likely to result in real, human users (i.e. content ads via Facebook). However, these sources are relatively expensive. When the goal is to make more from advertising than it costs to bring the user to the site, publishers find themselves pursuing cheaper and more questionable sources of traffic. Breaking even requires visits that cost more than a few pennies each—and at this price, there is a substantial danger of bot traffic. Often, this traffic flows through multiple traffic brokers, and these brokers won't necessarily ask many questions, resulting in selling of traffic with unknown origins.
Innocent publishers can also be victims of a drive-by—bots are designed to look human. Only visiting one site is not very human looking, so bots may visit popular publishers to appear more realistic in their behavior. This can cause bot traffic to occur on sites that are not engaging in traffic buying at all.
People buy things. Machines do not (at least, not yet...) The point of advertising is to get people to buy things, so serving ads to machines instead of people is a waste of money. Ad fraud also tarnishes confidence in the industry overall, affecting even very clean sources—buyers' skepticism about traffic quality will be reflected in the CPMs they're willing to pay.
Estimates vary substantially. There is a baseline of suspicious traffic that will occur everywhere. Again, fraud detection is imperfect, and it isn't always possible to have smoking gun evidence of fraud. That said, this baseline level should be well under 5% of impressions. DoubleVerify reported that global fraud rates are down significantly to just 1.4% of overall impressions, but volume remains steady. Significantly elevated levels of fraud can be found in pockets—certain sites, certain sellers, etc. Sometimes common sense will indicate where fraud might be a concern, but in other cases it's not obvious.
Here are a few fraud prevention strategies:
In addition to the avoidance tactics above, here are a few strategies:
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Interested in other Basis Technologies resources that will help you understand and combat ad fraud? Reach out today.
Each month, Basis Technologies’ Programmatic 101 series tackles a different facet of programmatic advertising—from best practices for buyers, to competitors in the space, to trends you should know.
Programmatic is dominating digital. According to eMarketer, it will account for over 90% of display ad spending this year—and the tide is rising for other digital channels as well, including both linear and connected TV.
But as programmatic has brought automation, transparency, and accessibility to the advertising landscape, that same landscape has grown increasingly competitive. To cut through the noise, it's imperative that programmatic media buyers don’t “set and forget” their campaigns.
To that end, let’s walk through four of the most common mistakes media planners and buyers make when it comes to programmatic advertising—and how to avoid them.
One of the many advantages of a programmatic campaign is the amount of targeting, creative, and inventory that’s available. This variety allows advertisers to test hypotheses around their target audiences, creative formats, and messaging. Unfortunately, when effective controls aren’t set up in the building phase of a campaign, these tests can quickly become underfunded or inconclusive.
Instead of winging it, advertisers can succeed by:
When building a programmatic tactic, it can be tempting to layer on a variety of targeting options to ensure that each dollar is spent as efficiently as possible. What advertisers might not realize, however, is that low scale, the use of multiple data providers, and Boolean logic (a fancy way of referencing the selection of "and” or “or” between segments) are the top three ways to drive up CPM and negatively impact performance.
Instead, advertisers should always look to use the same data providers, and default Boolean logic to "or” whenever possible. They should also keep an eye on formats that can be difficult to scale within smaller geotargets (zip code, city, small DMAs), such as audio.
While programmatic advertising can address all aspects of the funnel, it’s important to understand where each tactic can work best. For example, contextual targeting is great way to drive consideration or purchase, while prospecting should be utilized to cast a wide net for awareness. On the other hand, the audio format isn’t well suited to a cost-per-acquisition KPI, and first-party audiences shouldn’t be held to an efficient CPM.
Instead of assigning multiple KPIs to the same tactic, advertisers should differentiate accordingly. For example, create one line item that’s focused on awareness-driving tactics and formats, and a separate line item that’s focused on driving conversions and executing against first-party data.
Advertisers spend a significant amount of time evaluating what KPIs and benchmarks should be used, but often don’t spend enough time outlining what types of optimizations will be made and when.
Instead of skipping your optimization plan, we recommend adhering to minimal optimizations (pacing, bids, and line items) daily and focusing on creative and tactic optimizations on a weekly to bi-weekly cadence. This presents an opportunity to align the campaign’s “test and learn” plan with its optimization schedule to ensure there is enough time to apply learnings to drive performance.
Programmatic has revolutionized the advertising space, but the sole incorporation of programmatic technology isn't a silver bullet for winning campaigns. By avoiding these four “no-no’s,” advertisers will be well on their way to programmatic success.
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Want to learn more about programmatic best practices? Check out AdTech Academy, a learning hub designed to demystify all things adtech!
Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 9/2/22 - 9/8/22 to stay ahead of the curve:
It’s NY fashion week in the US, which presents the perfect opportunity to get wise on what’s in vogue. Make sense of what's in and what’s out in adtech with this handy guide from Digiday—just make sure you’re not wearing white while perusing, because Labor Day has come and gone...
Marketing Dive lays out the juiciest nuggets from Kantar’s latest Media Reactions report, which ranks channel perceptions among consumers and marketers. This year, Amazon claimed the number one spot, knocking TikTok to number two, followed by Spotify. Also of interest: For the third year in a row, consumers reported favoring “real world” marketing over metaverse messaging.
Speaking of Spotify, the digital audio category in general is booming so hard you might want to buy some earplugs. Here’s a look at the channel's rise in consumption and spend, as well as what makes the format so unique.
Now more than ever before, consumers expect brands to take a stance on social issues. The imperative to know when and how to respond has been a major theme at conferences like SXSW this year, but for many brands, best practices remain murky. Here, DEI consultant Lily Zheng clears the waters.
Love a good brawl? Then you won’t want to miss Netflix’s latest swing at Disney+: The OG OTT giant has reportedly bumped up the launch of their ad-supported tier to November to get ahead of Disney+’s planned launch in December. PS: If you’re looking for a roundup of all the latest news surrounding Netflix’s launch, Marketing Brew has got you covered.
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Recently, Basis Technologies held its first in-person New Hire Orientation since March 2020. We’ll be providing new hires with the option of attending their orientations either virtually or in-person from now on. To celebrate the occasion (and to get an inside look at Basis NHO!) we asked one our newest Beeps—Eric Nelson—to share his experience.
(Oh yeah, and if you’re interested in joining the team, be sure to check out our Careers page!)
Upon my start at Basis Technologies, I was invited to our New Hire Orientation, where 13 of the company’s newest hires descended on our Chicago headquarters to participate in a three-day journey through the purpose, people, and power of our organization.
The agenda was exciting, and the structure was clear: We’d learn the “why” behind the company on Day 1, explore the “how” on Day 2, and dig deep into the “what” on Day 3 (very Simon Sinek.) The event’s organizers—members of our amazing Talent and Development team—introduced and reinforced major points through videos, demos, guest speakers, and fun team activities. The structure provided an immersive, engaging onboarding experience that all baker’s dozen of us agreed was the best in which we’d ever taken part.
This illustrated, to me, Basis’ attention to detail, its care for its users, and its mission to do the most comprehensive work possible to achieve prime satisfaction. I left Chicago smarter and clearer about our roles and goals at Basis Technologies, armed with information and driven by inspiration.
Here are my four biggest takeaways from New Hire Orientation:
From the top of the company to the newest hire, we believe we do our best work when we are our best selves. Our culture is impressively people-first, and it shows in our benefits and perks, but also in the way we speak to each other—with reverence and respect, enthusiasm and empathy.
Sure, our schedules are enviably flexible. Yes, our sabbaticals and parental leave let us prioritize ourselves and our families. And wow, do we have access to multiple mental health services, including the chance to just take a day off when you need to clear your head. But this goes beyond checkmarks on a modern recruiter’s “to-do list.” Leadership offers these benefits because they want to—not because they feel like they have to. To paraphrase one famed television drama: When our minds are clear and our hearts are full, we can’t lose.
Digital advertising cannot have—and can never have—a “set it and forget it” mindset. We’re always looking to improve our products, our processes, and our people. That might mean ideating and prioritizing new features based on client feedback, removing redundant steps to get those features in our clients’ hands faster, or ongoing professional development for our sales, service, product, and marketing teams. Some call it “kaizen,” some call it “continuous improvement,” but for us, it just comes with the territory.
In the end, we want our users to be happy. Actually, we want them to be more than happy. We want the people—the agencies, brands, media buyers, ad ops, accounting, VPs, C-suite execs—who experience our product and services to be Raving Fans of Basis. We want every interaction to be positive if not uplifting, productive if not prolific. We want marketers to realize success in their ad campaigns, to learn from our educational content, and to feel like their brands and their budgets are safe in our hands. Satisfying our customers—creating Raving Fans—is truly embedded in the fabric of our organization.
We got a sneak peek at some of the capabilities our product team is working on for next year, and they’re impressive. I wish I could go into more specifics here (sadly, I have been sworn to secrecy) but we have some real game changers in the pipeline—features that will turn our already powerful omnichannel platform into a superpower. And it’s all happening in response to our clients’ needs, with the goal of making them more productive, efficient, and beyond satisfied.
To put it as Simon Sinek might: With everything we do, we believe in the success of people. We invest in our infrastructure, we provide value to our clients, we take great care of our people, and we always have an eye on the horizon. It just so happens we’re in the adtech game.
And I, for one, am ready to play.
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Want to learn more about Basis Technologies’ guiding principles, workplace culture, and benefits? Check out Life at Basis Technologies.