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Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so that you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 6/3/22 - 6/9/22 to stay ahead of the curve:
Pride feels different this year, given the many pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that have been passed or proposed since last June—and the tidal wave of memes skewering inauthentic corporate sponsorships. This running list from AdAge features “Pride campaigns with purpose.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently expressed concern around how the loss of consumer privacy will impact individual behavior and "change society in a major way.” Check out this clip from the TIME100 Summit to hear his full comments.
Here’s some light at the end of the Excel file: while reporting has long been a pain point for marketers, automated reporting and visual dashboards can be game changers—particularly when it comes to client communications.
As the podcast ad business booms, experts are toying with how to best weave ads into episodes. Here, 14 pros share their thoughts on the subject, breaking down how they approach ad loads and identifying what they think works best to keep podcasters, advertisers, and listeners happy.
While cannabis is no longer a "green" industry, its marketing efforts are falling behind: a new survey shows that 80% of marketing companies have problems getting their messages to the right people. It’s almost as if canna-marketers could use a long-form guide with all the info they’ll need to knock a cannabis campaign out of the park...
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Whatever your goal may be—training for a marathon, saving for a house, or developing a character in Red Dead Redemption (hey, goals come in all shapes and sizes!)—there’s probably a tool out there to help you visualize your progress.
If you’ve ever used a Fitbit, for example, you’re well-acquainted with their dashboard. Colorful, easy-to-understand metrics visualizations track how many steps, hours of sleep, and glasses of water you’ve accrued—not just on a day-to-day basis, but week-over-week, month-over-month, and so on. The Fitbit dashboard makes it easy for users to identify where they have seen success and what they may want to work on going forward. Plus, seeing those line graphs steadily increase over time is pretty darn motivating.
While consumers are used to integrated reporting dashboards like Fitbit’s in their daily lives, media professionals are typically not so lucky. But automated reporting and visual dashboards have many benefits for marketers—particularly when it comes to client communications.
Marketers have access to an ever-growing list of channels and formats with which to spread their clients’ core messages. However, with those increased options has come increased complexity: according to a recent report from Advertiser Perceptions, advertisers use an average of nine platforms per campaign—and six in an average day. This ever-growing media fragmentation saddles digital advertisers with the unenviable task of unifying many disparate data sets.
Those without access to automated reporting must download multiple files, sort out the data points they’re interested in, create graphs and charts, and put together presentations from scratch—for all the different clients they serve. Stitching together those data sets is time-consuming and unfulfilling for marketers, and it means more manual errors, inconsistencies, and redundancies for clients. With low confidence in their analytics, agencies can’t glean the insights they need to come up with winning strategies.
At the same time, robust and easy-to-understand campaign insights are increasingly “must haves” for brands. Economic upheavals including war, supply chain disruption, and inflation have put brand loyalty very much at stake; while the proliferation of mis- and dis-information online threatens brand safety. Those brands who can stay data-driven and nimble with their marketing as the digital advertising industry churns will be best-positioned to maintain consumer trust and loyalty.
Still, in one study, about 60% of US agency and brand professionals cited a lack of transparency as a strong threat to digital ad budgets. This lack of transparency impairs brands’ ability to build their strategies from solid data—and hinders client relationships before the first campaign kickoff meeting is even scheduled.
Is it high time for the media buying industry to leave manual reporting behind? Signs point to yes. But what can agencies replace it with? Simple: business intelligence and reporting automation, technologies that unify data sets across channels like search, social, and programmatic.
Consolidating campaign information into—and generating reports from—one central place not only boosts data confidence and empowers marketers to tell their most creative, well-informed brand stories, but also reduces the time they have to spend on manual and repetitive tasks. And in the context of the Great Resignation, reducing manual labor wherever possible is critical to avoiding high rates of costly employee turnover.
Automated report dashboards can be particularly impactful. As marketers know well, visuals are key to quickly and clearly telling a story. Turns out, this is as true for behind-the-scenes marketing operations as it is for a simple display ad.
Visualization helps even the most experienced professionals make better sense of data. In one experiment performed by a cognitive psychologist and a behavioral scientist, two groups of economists were asked to determine the odds of different outcomes based on a regression analysis. The economists who were provided data in text form got most of their answers wrong. The economists who were given a scatterplot, on the other hand, performed markedly better. In the same way, visual dashboards empower marketers and clients alike to find patterns in data they trust.
Even more, automated report dashboards are often “always-on;” in that users who are given access can see the dashboards any time. So if a certain client representative wants to check in on how their campaign is performing at 2AM on a Saturday, they can. Do we recommend it? Well, no...but that’s beside the point! This "always-on" quality provides much-needed transparency and reassurance for the client, and can strengthen agency-client trust as a result.
The expectation for transparency, precision, and trust has only grown under the many economic pressures brands face today. And as marketing complexity increases, consumer behavior evolves, and the media landscape changes, we can count on the importance of meeting—or better yet, exceeding—those expectations to remain steadfast. Agencies with access to the right tools and partnerships will be well-equipped in that department.
The Data Canvas dashboards available in Basis drive holistic, seamless, and easy-to-understand campaign insights, giving clients a real competitive advantage in the marketplace. Curious? Connect with us to learn more!
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. Check out last month’s post to learn about the art and science of cross-device targeting!
The emergence of demand side platforms (DSPs) in 2007 triggered a renewed focus on buying audiences, rather than websites. Suddenly, brands could follow consumers across websites. Now, we're even able to track users across all their connected devices.
Having access to audience data is a targeting goldmine. However, when that data isn’t used strategically, it can lead to waste, high CPMs, and poor campaign performance. Below, we’ve put together a little cheat sheet for how to approach KPIs and targeting based on campaign objectives.
If the objective is to increase awareness and engagement, you want to expose a brand or product to as many people as possible. This is the first step to driving consumers through an action or purchase cycle. The focus should be on reaching as many people as possible while starting to build up first-party audiences—a method of understanding your customers that’s increasingly important as the industry moves away from third-party cookies.
When planning for how to measure the success of an awareness or engagement campaign, viable KPIs include the following (hint: these KPIs also illustrate the type of creative mediums brands should be developing):
With an emphasis on reach and scale, programmatic buyers should focus on targeting tactics that are as broad as possible. Common targeting tactics include prospecting, demographic targeting, and native.
Unlike the early days of marketing, where consumers acted in a linear fashion, the path to purchase today can be quite circular—with customers moving from awareness, to lead, back to consideration, and then back to awareness. What we know for sure is that prospects who visit a brand’s website are more likely to convert than those who don’t, so marketers must be hyper-focused on driving quality site traffic as efficiently as possible.
When determining if a traffic or consideration campaign is effective, buyers use a cost-based KPI such as:
With the introduction of cost-based KPIs, it’s important to ensure a campaign has the right balance between refined targeting (such as contextual targeting (a great cookieless option that’s having a moment), hyperlocal, behavioral targeting, private marketplace deals (PMPs) or custom site lists (CSL)), and email targeting and cost. Keep in mind that options like PMPs, CSLs, and email tend to have higher CPMs.
If a brand has utilized the above objectives effectively, a conversion campaign’s focus is to drive an online or offline action from an audience that’s not only aware of the brand, but has already engaged.
As you can imagine, the KPIs for a conversion or action objective are focused on efficiency. But unlike traffic and consideration, the conversion objective is focused on driving a specific outcome. Recommended KPIs include:
By the time a brand gets to the conversion and action phase, all audience testing/building is complete— allowing brands to really focus in on their targets. These tactics include retargeting (whether it be display/video/location/search or click) and first- party audiences (CRM lists, lookalike modeling, etc.).
Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s important to acknowledge that there will always be targeting tactics that can be used across objectives. For example, one could argue that retargeting benefits all KPIs—or that prospecting can be used as an audience-builder for awareness objectives but can also be used to drive down overall eCPMs for a conversion-based campaign.
The questions marketers must ask are: why am I using this tactic? What is its purpose in supporting my objective? Will the scale or cost of this tactic impact performance? When KPIs or targeting mixes are held to this level of scrutiny, marketers are well on their way to driving success for clients.
Looking for more programmatic training? You’ve come to the right place: Check out Basis Technologies’ free Programmatic Advertising Course!
Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so that you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 5/26/22 - 6/2/22 to stay ahead of the curve:
Brands can’t afford inauthenticity in 2022, period. But what exactly does authenticity mean for social media influencers and the brands they work with? In the wake of Ogilvy announcing it will no longer work with influencers who edit their appearances in ads, social experts to weigh in.
Meanwhile, the world of social media is in a bit of a crisis. Inflation, war, rising interest rates, supply chain crises, new regulations, and the theater of Elon Musk have sent stocks plummeting and caused giants like Snap to miss revenue expectations. But what does it all mean for advertisers?
The industry continues to churn as it searches for new solutions to third-party cookies. Meanwhile, a meta-analysis from Analytic Partners suggests individual targeting doesn’t actually work all that well for big brand marketers. (Bonus: Here's how Amazon is quietly exploring the ad ID space.)
We get it—streaming TV is all the rage right now. But while streamers like Disney+, Netflix, and Hulu spent their upfronts showing off programming aimed at Gen Z and millennials, Warner Bros. Discovery chose a different tack: leaning in to its 50+ audience base—who aren’t just older, but also more affluent.
Amidst inflation angst and supply chain woes, it’s an unpredictable time for retail marketers. A recent study by Salesforce is helping to shed light on the top reasons consumers are switching brands. Of note: about two-thirds switched in search of better deals, and more than half sought better product quality.
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Social media—a medium that’s shaped politics, reunited friends from across the globe, and transformed the digital advertising landscape—is in a moment of crisis.
No, not because of the misinformation and hate speech thriving on its pages. And not because of the new regulations popping up in Europe that will limit some of the hyper-granular targeting that has made social media such an appealing medium for advertisers. (Well, maybe not only because of that…)
In fact, it’s a deadly cocktail of factors that’s sent stocks plummeting and is causing social companies to miss revenue expectations. Among them: inflation, war, rising interest rates, supply chain crises, fluctuating consumer confidence, increasing privacy concerns, stunted growth on established platforms, a billionaire who can’t stop criticizing the company he’s trying to buy, and a pandemic that just won’t seem to end. It’s a list so long that it can’t all fit into a single Tweet (though maybe Elon has some ideas there as well...)
Let’s take a quick look at the latest from the wild world of social media and consider what it all means for digital advertisers:
The current panic began with Snap (the company behind Snapchat) announcing they would fall short of earnings and profit goals for Q2, leading to a huge stock selloff that drove the company’s value down by 30%.
The cause of both the revenue miss and the fears around the future—both for Snap and the social media market in general—is ongoing economic uncertainty. While tech behemoths like Microsoft, Apple and Google have the luxury of cash stockpiles that allow them to continue to spend on everything from talent to tech, many social platforms that rely heavily on digital advertising may not be so fortunate. That includes Snap as well as the world’s largest social media company: Meta.
Privacy-related measures—specifically, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency—have hit Meta especially hard, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying the feature will likely cost the social media giant $10 billion in earnings this year. However, that may only be a part of the story when it comes to the company’s struggles. In truth, Meta’s losses seem to be other platforms’ gains, with one platform in particular appearing to benefit: TikTok (more on that later...)
The outlook for Meta is far from rosy, with eMarketer reporting that the Facebook and Instagram owner’s YoY growth could potentially be in the low single digits or, worse yet, negative. Add in stagnant user growth, increased regulation, and scrutiny over the company’s metaverse ambitions—which cost Meta over $10 billion in 2021 while generating little-to-no revenue, and which Zuckerberg says will lose “significant” amounts of money over the next five years—and it’s clear that 2022 could be a tipping point for Meta.
Then, of course, there’s Twitter. Much of site’s future depends on the result of Elon Musk’s bid to buy the company. At present, Twitter relies principally on advertising revenue, but Musk’s plans reportedly include an increase in focus on revenue from subscriptions and data. However, he’s also stated a desire to make the platform a home for maximalist free speech with less content moderation—something that could make Twitter a far less hospitable destination for digital advertisers who are interested in prioritizing brand safety. For that reason—not to mention the risks that could arise if the deal falls through (due to, say, too many bots on the platform, or Musk’s fortune shrinking after a fall in Tesla’s stock price)—Twitter may too be in for a bumpy ride in the months ahead.
Looking for a silver lining? Look no further than TikTok, the micro-video sensation that’s seeing explosive growth. The app is already the third-largest social network in the world, and it’s expected to see $11.64 billion in global ad revenue in 2022—more than Twitter and Snapchat combined. With US adults spending an average of 46 minutes per day on the platform, TikTok appears to have ascended to YouTube levels of engagement and, coupled with some new branded content opportunities for marketers and creators and soaring popularity with Gen Z, may make it a safe landing space for digital advertisers.
While advertising spend typically goes down in the face of economic tumult, social media is a critical part of any digital ad campaign. With advertisers looking to optimize their spend, now might be a perfect time to focus on (and invest in) video. US digital video ad spend is projected to rise by over 25% this year to more than $76 billion and will surpass $100 billion by 2024. Creating effective digital video ads can help your brand stand out in social feeds and make the most of your ad budget.
Whatever your strategy, it’s going to be critical that brands stay agile in the months ahead. The world is changing quickly, with economic, political, and social shifts fostering a continuously evolving advertising landscape—particularly in the ephemeral world of social media. Marketers that can pivot with the needs of the environment (and the needs of their customers) will be the ones that are best set up for success.
Embracing solutions like workflow automation, which can save media buyers valuable time that they can subsequently re-allocate to strategy, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can help generate better campaign outcomes by using predictive modeling to find and optimize audiences and placements for KPIs, will help advertisers keep up with the changing times and trends.
Curious? Our guide, Meeting the Moment with Advertising Automation, details how intelligent automation systems can empower marketers to move quickly and feel more confident in their digital advertising strategy.
This is the eighth in an 11-part series of blog posts that focus on Basis Technologies’ corporate guiding principles, and how those values show up in the workplace and in the lives of our people.
While many are calling this period the Great Resignation, there’s another emerging term that may describe it better: the Great Reshuffle. People are reevaluating the kind of work they want to do each day and shifting their careers to match those needs. Case in point: an analysis from Pew Research found that 53% of employed US adults who quit their jobs in 2021 changed their fields or occupations at some point that year.
One of Basis Technologies’ core values is “Do the Right Thing.” While this value often applies to how we treat others, it also pertains to how we treat ourselves, and live our lives with integrity. With the Great Reshuffle in mind, I’ve been getting curious about what it means for people in our industry to make career decisions that result in more happiness and job satisfaction.
Luckily, I have many coworkers with alternative career paths to inspire me.
To share that inspiration with the rest of the world, I interviewed four coworkers with non-typical career paths who work in our sales department. I encourage you to read about their journeys below—it might just spark the inspiration you need to make your next career move a daring one!
First, meet Claire Keating, VP of Client Development. Claire started her career as a strategy associate, buying media for big brands like Miller, Walgreens, and Best Buy. She eventually transitioned into a sales role at her agency, where she witnessed one of the first DSP solutions. Eight and a half years ago, she was eager to try new opportunities, and applied to a position at Basis Technologies.
Claire Keating: The transition from agency life to ad tech/sales life was not nearly as challenging as I expected. I certainly had a lot to learn given that my background was rooted more in media strategy than tech, but the fast-paced environment and incredibly collaborative nature of all Basis’ employees allowed me to learn more in six months about ad tech and the digital landscape than I had learned in my nearly six years agency-side.
Don’t get me wrong: the organizational structure and breadth of experience on the agency side gave me a great foundation for my advertising career. However, it was extremely refreshing and exciting to move to a company like Basis, where I was thrown into the mix right away, empowered to make decisions on behalf of our clients, and encouraged to collaborate with upper management, regardless of what area of the company they were in. I had never experienced that type of culture before.
Next, I spoke with Sohel Bootwala, a Sales Engineer here at Basis Technologies. Before starting at Basis Technologies, Sohel started his career as a project manager in IT. Working in tech inspired him to learn to code, and he took a six-month hiatus from work to teach himself and take an intensive coding bootcamp. After two years as a front-end developer, Sohel learned that his true passion was helping people to solve complex issues—and that sales was the way he wanted to pursue that.
Sohel Bootwala: When I started at Basis, I knew I wanted to meet as many people as I could from different teams and get a good understanding of their roles, responsibilities, and struggles. I jumped on any opportunity to come into the office, talk with coworkers, and learn about their work. After talking to Mike Destree on the Basis Solutions Implementation team, it was clear that the Sales Engineer role was the perfect blend of technical know-how and customer facing interactions for me.
Our next interviewee is Sarah Newell, an Account Lead on Basis’ Candidates & Causes team. Sarah started at Basis Technologies as a Media Associate, where she joined programmatic buying trainings and became enthralled with Basis' tech. After first spending some time on the Basis Solutions Implementation (BSI) team, Sarah transitioned into sales.
Sarah Newell: Even as an associate, I grabbed every possible opportunity that came my way. In the media associate role, I persuaded my manager to let me join the programmatic buying trainings so I could start building that skill. I saw the full power of Basis, and became determined to work closer to the tech. When BSI opened an associate role, I took a lateral move to that team. Once again, I persuaded my boss at the time to let me start demoing the tool for prospects sooner than we originally planned. That’s when my interest in sales really started to increase. I loved working with the different sellers and seeing how Basis was positioned in the marketplace. After a few years on supporting sales with BSI, I felt I was ready to own those conversations myself.
Finally, I chatted with Heather Spinner, a Senior Client Lead here at Basis. She graduated college with a degree in biology—but had no desire to go to medical school or spend life her life in a lab. With rent and student loans hanging over her head, her career in sales was born out of necessity, and she started out by selling print yellow pages over the phone. Through that experience, she realized her ability to influence income through personal performance, which clinched her decision to pursue a career in sales.
Heather Spinner: The people, the product, and the culture. I initially ignored the outreach from Basis because I had told myself if I was going to switch companies it would be for something in a completely new field. However, after doing a bit more research I realized that this opportunity was worth exploring due to the following:
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There you have it: Charting your own unique career path comes down to trying new things, meeting new people, and going with your gut.
If these Basis teammates have piqued your interest in sales, why not check out our open roles?
Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so that you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 5/19/22 - 5/26/22 to stay ahead of the curve:
Several new digital advertising regulations have popped up around the globe in the past few months. Here’s what marketers should know about the EU’s Digital Services Act and a newly introduced US Senate bill that threatens to end the Big Four era of Big Tech.
Speaking of regulations, advertisers may soon have to confront a new challenge in the realm of data privacy: “digital sovereignty.” But with the global digital economy built on a foundation of free-flowing data, could this concept break the digital supply chain and inhibit a seamless customer experience?
Moana with a side of…marketing? Disney+ recently revealed that their impending ad-supported tier will allow brands to participate in some of the platform’s most coveted content: Disney movies. More details to come, as the connected TV giant’s new ad plan is slated to launch in the fourth quarter of this year.
The share of upfront dollars that agencies will give to streaming-only connected TV sellers versus TV networks this year is a topic of much speculation, but execs remain coy. One thing’s certain: this year’s upfront market looks very different than last year’s.
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What’s new in the realms of paid search and social media? Basis’ Senior Vice President of Paid Search and Social compiles all the latest news, trends, and resources each month for easy access.
As remote workers continue to shift between personal and professional activity while on the clock, a new report shows that the rise of the “workday consumer” is creating even more touchpoints during the average buying journey.
This year’s first report from Skai (formerly Kenshoo) discusses how year-over-year spending in retail media, paid search, and social have accelerated in Q1 2022.
A new report from TikTok reinforces that consumer multitasking on other devices while watching TV creates a big opportunity for marketers to combine channels into a more fluid strategy.
Did you know that the top 100 gaming-related hashtags on TikTok receive more than 40 billion video views per month? Or that 65% of US TikTok users have made an in-app purchase in the last three to six months? This post provides TikTok's latest recommendations for tapping into their gaming community.
While many advertisers are still in the “test and see” phase of investing in Reddit, new insights highlight how the platform’s highly engaged communities of users could provide untapped—and unduplicated—potential for marketers.
Although today's iteration of TikTok's audience insights platform doesn't provide anything super granular, it’s worth bookmarking, as the tool is likely to continue to develop over time.
LinkedIn's new resource features a range of region-specific insights for the US, UK, Germany, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Each report offers local audience reach statistics and highlights the fastest-growing verticals, best performing ad formats, and more.
At their annual I/O Summit, Google shared some key announcements relating to Google Maps, Google Shopping, and Google Search. Read this summary for a run-down of what was shared.
Introduced at their recent NewFronts presentation, TikTok Pulse is described as “a new contextual advertising solution that lets advertisers place their brand next to the top content in the For You Feed.”
TikTok's new interactive add-ons provide a range of engagement features that prompt users to take action on your ad, by inviting them into the experience. Standard elements are designed to drive lower-funnel goal engagement, whereas their premium elements support upper funnel goals like brand awareness and community building.
Meta's new tools were built to help improve how small businesses connect with customers and identify leads. And, with 71% of people saying they want to communicate with businesses the same way they do with friends/family, the focus here is on Facebook and Instagram ads that open to a WhatsApp chat.
While Meta reports that the new feed format is designed to bring make video front and center in Instagram, the similarities to TikTok’s in-feed full-screen experience are undeniable. Here, TechCrunch shares an image mock-up to help users get ahead of what the new look and feel is likely to be.
At their annual partner summit a few weeks ago, Snapchat announced a bevy of new features and tools that connect online, offline, AR, and commerce experiences together.
Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so that you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 5/12/22 - 5/19/22 to stay ahead of the curve:
As hype around advertising in the metaverse builds, many brands seem to have forgotten all about gaming—a channel that’s intimately connected to the metaverse, but largely untapped (plus, it actually, you know...exists?) This deep dive covers all the bases on how to tap into gaming's vast and diverse audience.
In the past month, luxury brands Gucci and Equinox have been the latest to begin accepting cryptocurrency payment options. Roughly 40% of consumers aged 18 to 35 say they plan to use cryptocurrency as payment in the next year—showing that despite the market’s recent (and significant) losses, crypto can be a powerful way for certain brands to connect with their audiences.
Speaking of crypto, did you know that 56% of Gen Z adults aged 18+ with retirement savings say that they’re including cryptocurrency as part of their retirement portfolio? Learn where Zoomer tech and media use stand today, and how it’s predicted to evolve in coming years.
According to a new study, digital out of home advertising currently attracts only 4.1% of the $179 billion spent on all media. And get this: OOH, TV, and video ads all generate a similar amount of action from consumers who see an ad, even though TV and video ads combine to see 17 times the amount of advertising dollars as OOH.
Connected TV may be a complex medium for digital advertisers, but that isn’t slowing down its rise. The most recent earnings season placed Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and Hulu as the top four streaming giants, with Netflix being the only one to report a slight downturn in subscribers in Q2.
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