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Given that the world has changed drastically in recent weeks, this episode on breakout ideas is even more relevant. Citizens across the globe are now faced with a new normal as they navigate changes to their personal and professional lives. The silver lining for many marketing and advertising professionals is the opportunity to reflect on new methods for connecting with others.
One of those methods is to generate game-changing ideas and share them in impactful ways with the advertising community. Publicis Groupe’s Tom Goodwin is a noted expert on this arena. Tom's prolific idea sharing has led him to be published over 600 times, lead keynote speeches across the globe, amass a social media following of over 700,000, and become the head of insights for one of the world's largest advertising agencies.
Listen in to hear Tom speak to how his passion for sharing ideas has opened up new paths of success and opportunity in his career.
Does your business need a marketing intelligence platform to centralize all those disparate data sources?
Data has always been important in digital marketing. Performance marketers have long been tracking their campaigns and using basic attribution models (first click, last click, etc.) to analyze performance and decipher what tactics and approaches work for them. In 2020, though, things are much more complicated. It’s no longer enough to start tracking performance data halfway through a campaign and make reactionary adjustments. Simplistic attribution models also don’t offer a full picture of what factors are driving key performance goals.
According to Adobe data and Marketing Charts, modern marketers are increasingly implementing a truly data-driven marketing approach through better data integration, tapping into real-time insights, utilizing predictive analytics, and more.
In this era of technological expansion, there is a vast array of tools that marketers can employ to realize these strategies. In this article, we discuss why Marketing Intelligence Platforms represent one of the most powerful options for businesses both large and small.
Today the customer journey is far from linear. There are numerous touchpoints at the awareness, acquisition, and conversion stages that can influence your audience and encourage them to buy. Online touchpoints could include email, search, display ads, social media, third-party sites, your website, and more. Offline touchpoints could include radio, TV, print, direct mail, word-of-mouth, phone, point-of-sale, etc.
10 years ago it was much easier to track a few audience engagements and understand how your marketing campaigns were performing. Today, it’s much more challenging as you may not have the appropriate software capabilities to track certain channels. Even if you do, there are still issues with having your data siloed on different platforms.
That’s where marketing intelligence platforms come in. These tools are designed to integrate data from all relevant tracking technologies you use, whether it be your CRM, advertising platforms, or point-of-sale tool. You can upload any relevant business data you need, such as inventory data, offline call data, and more. The ability to view and analyze all business data from a single platform makes it possible to get a complete picture of your customer journey and consider all relevant factors in making performance-enhancing decisions.
In the past, marketers could learn a lot about their campaign performance using various basic first click, last click, linear, or U-shaped attribution models. Now there are simply too many relevant touchpoints to rely on elementary definitions.
Marketing Intelligence Platforms are equipped with artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered decision engines that can empower marketers to build data-driven attribution models. This strategy utilizes your relevant business and performance data to understand how different audience interactions contribute to the conversion path across the customer journey. With Marketing Intelligence Platforms serving as a unified data source, they can tap into deep funnel data to help you make decisions that improve lead capture and conversion rates.
Centralized data analysis further makes it possible to focus on the key performance indicators that matter most for your business. Clicks and conversions can only tell you so much about your performance. Revenue, profit, cost per acquisition, customer lifetime value, and churn are complex but valuable metrics that performance marketers can utilize to inform optimization changes. When you include data from external data sources (think Weather.com, Nasdaq, DOW) you can also measure market share and what external factors impact performance.
Automatically optimizing based on predicted insights is the key capability that sets Marketing Intelligence Platforms apart from other marketing automation tools. There are plenty of technologies that offer high-end analytics dashboards, yet advanced analytics doesn’t help marketers see through the noise and truly surface the most valuable insights. By taking advantage of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Marketing Intelligence Platforms can not only assess your business data but pinpoint the insights most relevant to your business goals.
The more business data you have, the more necessary this feature really is. Regardless of how many data scientists you have on your marketing team, they don't have the capacity to constantly analyze the ongoing stream of relevant data that flows through. Look at bid optimization, for example. There’s bid landscape data, competition, budget, inventory, and many other important factors to consider on a daily basis. A powerful Marketing Intelligence Platform can process all this data for you and derive lucrative insights to inform optimization tactics. It can then activate these insights by making thousands of bid adjustments daily to make sure your campaigns are always at optimum efficiency.
With the rise of omnichannel, marketing budgets are increasingly stretched thin. Even enterprise-level businesses need to be careful about how much budget they allocate to different marketing channels. Wasting even a small portion of your budget leads to inefficient campaigns and difficulty keeping up with competitor tactics.
Marketing Intelligence Platforms can help businesses make sure their entire budget is spent wisely. Again, it all goes back to unified data management. Data from various marketing channels, customers, products, and departments across your business are all analyzed together so you can understand exactly how different factors are impacting your bottom line. You can also get a deeper understanding of how spending impacts specific goals such as revenue or retention.
The ability of some Marketing Intelligence Platforms to automate insights and make quick changes to optimize your campaigns also has a huge impact on efficiency. The competitive landscape is changing constantly. A machine that can analyze performance based on the latest trends and then make changes to keep your campaigns optimized can significantly reduce wasted ad spend.
Marketing Intelligence Platforms centralize data from the various departments throughout your business, including marketing, sales, operations, IT, etc. As a result, they can provide insights relevant to teams at different levels of your business.
It’s common for teams to operate as siloed units with little collaboration between them. Marketing Intelligence Platforms can set up the marketing team as a leader in analyzing relevant data for different departments and generating ideas for new optimizations. Insights derived from unified data analysis can help improve sales execution and efficiency of other business processes. Comprehensive data analysis also encourages cross-team discussions that can lead to all sorts of new, innovative ideas to improve customer experience, drive more sales, improve retention, and drive growth.
Once you understand how Marketing Intelligence Platforms work, it’s clear there’s a lot of benefits to utilizing one for marketing. Still, it’s easy to come up with reasons to hold off investing in new software and integrating it into your strategy. There’s always a way to justify waiting until your business expands or a new quarter starts. You might even think it’s a good idea to invest in a few years down the line.
However, one thing is clear: the unstoppable rise of Marketing Intelligence Platforms has already begun. There is simply too much relevant data you can use to optimize your marketing strategy and other processes. Businesses that use a Marketing Intelligence Platform are already benefiting from better analytics, optimizations, forecasting, cross-team collaboration, customer service, and more. Sooner or later, investing in this technology will be essential to keep up with competitor performance. For many businesses, it already is.
The COVID-19 pandemic has quickly impacted our lives. From canceled events to shelter-in-place orders, the world looks very different than it did just a few weeks ago. People throughout the world have been asked to work from home, avoid gatherings of over 10 individuals, and eliminate travel in order to flatten the curve of infection. These lifestyle changes are impacting how, when, and where people consume media.
It’s evident that much of the free time that people are now spending at home is occupied by consuming media of all types. Here’s what the new normal looks like from a media perspective:
During the first weeks of shelter-in-place decrees in numerous cities and towns, bandwidth for video streaming services increased by 12%. New subscriber volume for Netflix is also up, with over 250k welcome emails in one March weekend. Netflix is also increasing “winback” efforts to re-engage lapsed subscribers.
Connected TV streams are expected to soar past the 2019 average of 4 hours and 28 minutes per day.
Select publishers are allowing free online access to COVID-19 news and information, regardless of existing paywalls or article limits. Additionally, content creators are getting creative in distributing offerings normally available for a cost. For example, fitness companies are offering free workouts, meditation apps are releasing COVID-19 stress relief content, and musicians are streaming acoustic concerts.
Social distancing has limited in-person interactions. During this time, the need for human connection has been partially replaced by increased use of social media outlets. There has been a 22% increase in Instagram impressions and a 27% increase in TikTok engagement. Time spent on social media is expected to increase, while the types of activities are expected to remain the same (keeping up with family and friends, viewing news and entertainment, etc.).
When it comes to breaking news, consumers prefer TV over other vehicles due to longstanding trust in the medium, as well as the speed of updated information. During this pandemic, we also expect the digital extensions of these TV broadcasts to see a significant boost.
Many live sporting events throughout the world, from NCAA March Madness to the Masters, have been canceled or postponed. The time spent watching sports has since shifted to other video content and video games. Among sports superfans, 61.5% also subscribe to at least one streaming service. Additionally, online gaming has skyrocketed by 75%.
With COVID-19 reaching pandemic proportions, trusted news sources have become essential to day-to-day life. Self-distancing and shelter-in-place orders have increased time spent with trusted digital news outlets. According to WebsiteIQ.com, CNN’s traffic increased by over 30% between December and February. Overall, week-over-week usage patterns show total web traffic has risen by 22%.
Newspapers are significantly more likely to be purchased by people 65 years of age and older, who are strictly observing self-distancing guidelines and staying home. Additionally, the reduction in the number of commuters and travelers who pick up print publications has decreased circulation rate.
As the world adjusts to new habits, people’s media consumption has shifted too. We will continue to share our knowledge and resources during this time to keep advertisers and marketers up-to-date.
Are you looking to navigate through these industry changes? Connect with Centro to get started.
My name is Haley Winckler, and I am the 2020 Content Marketing Wintern (winter intern) at Centro. During my time here, I’ve worked on a variety of projects across social media and the website you’re currently on, from both the Chicago HQ office and my home in Roscoe Village, Chicago. The last two weeks of this internship also happened to fall in line with stricter social distancing measures implemented in an attempt to slow the spread of the new Coronavirus (or COVID-19). While this specific situation is certainly anomalous, for many, the concept of working remotely or working from home (WFH) is not.
Those usually not considered in the remote workforce, are interns! I have had several internships prior to this one, and in only extreme or very special situations could an intern be allowed to work from home. Even before this socially distant period, Centro’s flexibility and culture surprised me in that they were very willing to work with their interns should they need to work from home or remotely for any reason. Now, with a few weeks of working from home at Centro under my belt, I’ve had a chance to reflect on my experience.
Ultimately, I’ve concluded that there are definitely perks and challenges to this scenario. Below, find my perspective on working from home, as an intern.
Perk #1: You’re at Home!
This might sound obvious, but the best part of working from home is exactly that – you’re at home! During the workday, all the comforts of home are right at your fingertips. These might include but are not limited to: your coziest pair of socks; your pet, your favorite foods or snacks (although let’s be honest, nothing beats Chipotle…), and the glorious amenity of your own bathroom. It begs the question, “Why haven’t I worked from home before?”
Challenge #1: Your Team is also at Home
I’m a naturally social person, so I thrive when I can chat with my pod or fellow interns in the kitchen during the workday. I enjoy hearing how your day is going, or how you’re surviving the noisy construction across the street from your apartment, or about that new restaurant you tried last weekend. It can feel lonely when you’re working away from your team—and it’s sometimes easy to convince yourself that you’re out of the loop. Luckily, things like virtual happy hours and phone calls help break down those barriers and have made reconnecting easier than ever – it just may take a little extra communication and effort (and it’s worth it, I promise).
Perk #2: Commuting is Easy-Peasy
My new commute from upstairs to downstairs is far more pleasant and much quicker than my old one into the office—which consisted of a bus and a train, there and back. I’d imagine that those folks who sit through traffic every day are not missing that element of their work week at all. The extra 60 to 75 minutes in my day allow me to make myself a healthy breakfast and get a good stretch in, all before I open my email. I’ve felt more focused and grounded in the mornings as a result of this, and I hope to continue weaving it into my weekday routine (remote or not) moving forward!
Challenge #2: Distractions are Everywhe—Ooh What’s That?
Depending on your environment, it may be hard to focus or be as productive as you might’ve once been from your office. Roommates, significant others, the neighbor’s barking dogs, phone notifications, chores—they’re all right there in front of you when working from home. Self-discipline is the name of the game, and it's not always easy! I’ve found that a clear and organized to-do list, along with regular check-ins with my manager, have helped me stay on track. Oh, and breaks. It’s always good to stand up and step away from your computer every now and then to “reset” your brain. I also try to keep my phone in another room or under something on my desk—for me, “out of sight, out of mind” truly works wonders.
Perk #3: Nothing Lasts Forever
In our current situation, it’s important to remember that “this too shall pass.” I’ve been trying to focus on the silver linings—we’re lucky to be able to work from home, and hopefully our efforts will keep more people healthy and decrease the amount of time we need to spend physically apart. If you’re an intern like me who’s also working from home, know that this is a great sign from your employer—they value and trust you enough as an employee to be reliable and hardworking during this time. Don’t take that trust for granted; show up for yourself and your team every day as you usually would in the office, and kick some butt!
Lemons to Lemonade
Ultimately, attitude plays a big role in any WFH experience. Framing challenges as the rain required for a rainbow to show is a much more fun way to approach this time in our lives. If you’re an intern or young professional like me, this experience working from home is incredibly valuable. Your performance during this time can be a point to bring up in future interviews to exhibit that you’re a flexible, adaptable, productive employee in the face of stressful situations!
Interested in learning more about what it's like to work at Centro? Check out our Culture page here.
Hello to those who find themselves now working from home! I’m Ben Smith, Salesforce Architect at Centro. I’m writing to offer some tips and tricks for setting up your physical working space while working from home. Take it from me—I’ve been working remotely from home for over 10 years. Even more, I’ve figured out how to WFH successfully with five homeschooled kids at home.
Rest assured, I promise this adventure will be as much ‘business as usual’ as it will be an accelerated rush of focused productivity for you. All those ‘to dos’ piled up on your desk, those colorful squares of post-it notes stuck to your monitor…. Forget about them! You don’t need them. In fact, it’s a good thing you forgot to bring those home, isn’t it? Because now you have basically ‘Marie Kondo-ed’ your workspace!
Defining the physical space where you can truly focus and work is very important. So important, that I would say it is the single most important thing to get right when you are working remotely.
Having the same well-defined physical space to work in every day allows you to establish proper boundaries between your everyday home life and your professional work life. My top three personal requirements for a home office are as follows:
Below you will see some additional tips from Centrons that exclusively work from home to help you define your new WFH space. They're all great suggestions and I hope they help you find your optimal workspace!
“Make sure to have your space set up before you start the day. I always make it my "work only" space so that I can separate work from home. It helps me compartmentalize work. Sometimes I even light a candle to lighten the mood.”
–Amanda Wallman (McDonald)“Formalize your space. Arrange your desk space as you would in the office. Don't just push your cereal bowl out of the way for your laptop. Your workspace should be designated as specifically that: workspace.”
–Andy Alvardo“If possible, try to work in a room with a door that you can close for privacy. Practice good posture while sitting (just like you hopefully would do in an office) and don't sit in front of the TV or work while laying on your bed.”
–Christine Lundell“What was most valuable to me was carving out a space in my apartment that I would only use for work. I know this isn't possible for everybody, but if it is, I would highly recommend doing so.”
–Gabe Doran“Create a space that makes you happy, but get out of it often. Walk around and use your porch or deck if you have one.”
–Stephanie Jurney
As a parting thought, don’t forget to go to your workspace like you would go to work, thereby mentally putting yourself in the mindset of work. Try and keep your routine the same as you would at the office. I think you'll find that your productivity will increase dramatically!
You have your laptop, you have your phone, and you have your team—let’s do this!
Interested in joining our team? Check out our careers page.
We told you all about ad spenders continuing to adopt programmatic advertising capabilities in-house. You know that digital media teams have to figure out how to make programmatic and direct buying co-exist peacefully. What’s left? Well, it’s only March, so there’s probably plenty left on your digital plate for the rest of the year. And we want to help you get set up for programmatic success in 2018.
Beyond the tools and the features and the teams, what can digital media professionals do to get the most value from their programmatic partners? How can they manage the change within their organization? How can they drive the most performance out of their media, their teams, and their business?
You didn’t think we’d leave you hanging, did you?
When we worked with research firm Ad Perceptions on this survey, we made sure to ask a simple question of 150+ digital media professionals: What would help you be more successful in your role?
The results probably won’t surprise you:
Ultimately, marketers and agencies want campaign performance and results they can work with – the right results to satisfy their bosses and impress their clients.
What will surprise you: Everything that marketers and agencies deemed a “key to programmatic success” remain some of their biggest pain points – things like better insights, consistent measurement standards across all buying channels, and an overwhelming selection of vendors vying for their attention.
It’s a catch-22. And the real challenge we’re facing as an industry lies in figuring out how all the tools stack up against the problems we’re facing.
According to our research, the tools themselves aren’t always the problem. Of the groups we surveyed, agencies were the most likely to be satisfied – with 64% saying their existing toolset works well. Whereas almost half of the marketer respondents expressed that their toolsets are cumbersome and not effective.
Ultimately, users of this digital tech and software may not be fully considering how theses tools relate to their satisfaction. The tools are a means to an end – but are they delivering? Are they generating the right results? Are they being used to their full potential?
In a digital world inundated with the promise of tools and tech and solutions that can do more, how can you quickly recognize the value of yet another programmatic ad partner? And once you find that perfect partnership, what resources can you tap into to ensure you’re unlocking everything that’s possible with digital media?
At Centro, we like to focus on three main things:
Learn more about Programmatic Advertising with Centro.
Performance marketing is a strand of marketing that focuses on driving specific actions, such as clicks, form fills, or sales. Rather than simply spreading a brand message everywhere and hoping it resonates, performance marketers develop specific strategies to drive key goals based on insights. Anyone serious about marketing online today is investing in performance marketing strategies.
Most businesses, though, never consider working with a performance marketing agency to improve results. It’s a common misconception that you should only enlist third-party help if you don’t know how to market yourself. In reality, a performance marketing agency can help you deliver better business outcomes in a great many ways, regardless of whether you have your own internal marketing team.
Let’s start by discussing some of the many benefits of building a relationship with a performance marketing agency today:
Most performance marketing agencies have their own MarTech stack they use to provide services to their clients. These can include advanced PPC bid management software, social media management tools, analytics solutions, and more. When you work with a performance marketing agency, you can benefit from all these technologies without actually purchasing them yourself. Lots of top agencies use software that individual businesses may not be able to afford and use on their own.
Most internal marketing teams have experience in many different marketing areas. Few businesses have enough budget to recruit and hire experts in every area, though, and so team members often multitask and work on various initiatives at once. Working with an agency is one solution to this problem as they can fill in the gaps in expertise where your internal team falls short. As an example, if you’re lacking a specialist in PPC bid optimization, you can work with an agency that has the tools and personnel to run this for you.
Just because you have your own marketing team doesn’t mean you can’t work with a performance marketing agency. In reality, an agency is designed to support your in-house team, empowering them with savvy suggestions and recommendations. An agency can offer a fresh perspective based on their knowledge in your market and others. Their expertise outside your business allows for the creation of novel ideas and strategies that can help you win your battles for revenue.
Different areas of marketing can absorb significant amounts of time, especially if your team doesn’t have expert knowledge and tools for certain channels. It can require a lot of manpower and investment to optimize correctly. Allowing a performance marketing agency to take care of these tasks frees up your internal teams immensely. They’re able to reallocate their efforts to other marketing tasks, increasing productivity in the process.
As a business grows, so too does its marketing strategy. Most leaders are faced with a decision - either expand their current marketing team or invest in a third-party contractor. Adding new employees requires lots of investment. There are office space and tools and also recruiting costs and turnover to worry about. With all that in mind, investing in a performance marketing agency is likely much more affordable than expanding your own organization.
Today there are many marketing agencies out there saying they can help you drive better business outcomes. However, few are equipped with the skills, expertise, and technology to maximize the effectiveness of your output. Here are a few things to look for when evaluating potential performance marketing agencies to work with:
It’s possible your business is looking to fill a gap by working with a marketing agency. If that’s the case, then it’s important to choose an agency that has specific skills and expertise in the areas you need. Any agency can offer services in social media marketing, display advertising, SEM, content marketing, etc, yet some will have key specializations that set them apart from the rest.
To get an idea of what areas an agency excels in, take a look at their service page and case studies. If most of their success stories are in a specific area of marketing, that’s likely where their specialties lie.
Even if you are working with an agency to optimize a specific marketing channel, it’s important to choose a partner that also has multichannel capabilities. In the future you may want to outsource more of your marketing activities. You don’t want to have to change agencies in order to get the services you need.
It’s also important to remember that your marketing strategy isn’t siloed by channel. Your strategy should include a number of channels that work together to drive key performance goals like traffic, leads, and sales. Agencies should be prepared to take on multichannel marketing responsibilities. At the very least, they should understand how the current channel they’re working on fits into the broader strategy.
Getting access to powerful technologies is one of the biggest benefits of working with a performance marketing agency so, in any evaluation process, it’s essential to consider their MarTech stack as well. Do they work with all the tools you need to optimize your marketing message, deliver it, and track results? Are they capable and willing to work with your favorite tools?
Invest in a performance marketing agency that’s prepared to help you get the most value out of the marketing automation tools they work with.
You don’t want to work with an agency that has a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing for their clients. They should be able to develop a personalized strategy based on your industry and specific business goals you illustrate to them.
A worthwhile agency will audit all aspects of your marketing strategy and make personalized recommendations for improvement. They may also suggest new channels and marketing strategies to invest in that can help your brand get more visibility, nurture leads, drive sales, and grow your ROI. Once you provide feedback on their strategy, they should also be prepared to adapt.
A performance marketing agency should feel like an extension of your internal team. It’s important to have complete confidence that they’re acting in the best interests of your business. For example, if your agency wants you to partner with another business for marketing, or use a certain advertising network, they should do so with your goals only in mind.
Before choosing an agency, ask them to disclose any relationships they have with other advertising platforms, businesses, or software providers. This transparency can help you ensure they’re truly aligned with your brand at all times.
When evaluating a potential partnership, it’s important to ask about their capacity. Are they prepared to handle all the tasks your business needs? It’s very likely they’re working with lots of other businesses on marketing strategies. You need to be sure they have enough personnel and resources that can focus on your specific needs.
If an agency plans to assign an individual person to work with you, ask how many other clients they’re working with at the same time. That way you can ensure they’re not overloaded with other client projects.
A performance marketing agency that’s worth the investment should be able to explain some of their novel ideas to you before you decide to work with them. They should take the time to evaluate your marketing needs then make specific suggestions for how they can help you move forward. For instance, they could suggest investing more heavily in a certain advertising strategy or targeting certain keywords with your content. They should also have supporting data that illustrates why this is a good direction for your business.
In the modern era, any business that’s serious about broadening their reach and driving sales online is investing in performance marketing tactics. Yet few have the capacity, skills, expertise, and tools to maximize the effectiveness of their campaigns. Working with a performance marketing agency is the perfect solution to supplement your internal strategy and really start working towards key goals. Just make sure you build a partnership with the right agency for your unique needs.
With new and changing advertising technologies at every turn, being an enterprise CMO has never been an easy task. But before you can solve the problem, you must understand the factors influencing the rough seas of performance marketing.
Let’s look at the top three issues faced by CMOs and performance marketers in 2020:
Facebook and Google are data giants. Facebook holds audience and behavioral data on more than 2.375 billion monthly active users, allowing advertisers to use this information to make targeting decisions on their advertising platform.
Google takes a similar approach, controlling bidding and bid landscape data for competitive analysis, and offering valuable query level search data. There are also significant amounts of audience behavioral data across Google-owned properties that it uses to create new targeting options such as “in-market” and “affinity” audiences.
This setup is incredibly lucrative for advertisers, but it does also create some inherent limitations. Facebook and Google own this data and control it completely. Advertisers have no way to use it for their own analytic purposes outside of the platforms. This so-called "walled garden" data management is largely why Facebook and Google make up 90% of the advertising industry’s annual growth.
The result? CMOs are faced with a serious dilemma: they can’t stop using platforms like Google and Facebook for advertising, but they need to find ways to improve their own data collection and management beyond what these walled gardens provide.
Regulatory acts such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have significant implications for the advertising industry, limiting how advertisers can collect consumer data, what kind of data they can collect, and how long it’s legal to store it. Advertisers end up working with a smaller customer database, making it more difficult to deliver relevant, interesting marketing messages.
Digital privacy is very important, but new regulations are making it increasingly difficult for performance marketers to deliver the user experience consumers deserve when presented with ads. It also makes it significantly more challenging to deliver a marketing message that drives clicks and conversions.
Walled gardens and data protection laws are affecting the advertising industry as a whole. Meanwhile, other big players are significantly disrupting specific industries, with implications that could be far more wide-reaching.
As an example, let’s look at Apple Card. It’s easy enough for Apple to get a significant number of brand loyalists to sign up for the credit card so they can start benefiting from its perks and integrations.
While Apple is trying to dominate payments, Google is working to control the customer relationship with a variety of industries, such as travel, with Google Assistant. Many marketers in the travel industry are left with little choice but to maximize their marketing budget for Google to get visibility.
At the same time, Amazon is reshaping eCommerce marketing having stopped buying products from many of its wholesalers, and encouraging eCommerce businesses to sell directly on Amazon Marketplace. Amazon’s ad sales are increasing by 37% year-over-year, valuing its advertising business at over $10 billion in 2019.
There are lots of factors impacting how CMOs can approach their marketing strategy today. Gartner’s 2019 CMO spend survey revealed that marketing budgets have dropped to their lowest levels since 2014. This can be in response to economic variables, confidence, and many of the emerging issues discussed above.
To work around the challenges that big players like Google, Amazon, and Facebook present, in addition to surviving the impact of data protection laws, CMOs need to be hugely strategic in their budget investment. For example:
There’s no denying that these strategies require significant changes for most businesses to succeed. CMOs need to employ new technologies and campaign strategies in unison to fully benefit. This can mean reevaluating your MarTech stack, investing more in your marketing team, or enlisting the help of external agencies to manage these decisions.