3 Display Advertising Trends for 2015 You Can’t Ignore
No one likes searching down the back of the couch for a few spare cents to make ends meet.
A better way to pay your bills, and have a little left over for a night on the tiles, is by understanding display advertising. It’s predicted that display advertising will grow by 21% next year, so I’m going to tip you off about 3 trends which will help monetize your website in 2015.
1. Is the Cookie Beginning to Crumble?
No, I’m not talking about those delicious treats we eat far too many of.
I’m referring to that tiny piece of data that websites leave in our browsers to keep track of our online activity. This data allows ad networks to understand what users are interested in and which ads to serve up.
However, with the prevalence of online fraud lurking round every digital corner, people are battening down the hatches and disabling cookies. You wouldn’t let a shop assistant poke their nose into your wallet, so why would you stand for it online?
In time, though, will cookies even be there to be disabled?
Cookies are at risk of extinction as their natural habitat is dwindling by the day. Mobile devices account for more and more of our online activity, but very few support cookies. This means it’s near impossible to fully analyze users’ online behavior. What we’re left with is frustrated website owners scratching their heads and trying to determine how the hell they get people to click on their ads.
Riding into town, though, like a knight in shining armor is Google’s Advertising ID. Currently limited to Android apps, but working across multiple devices, this piece of technology builds up a user profile and presents consumers with ads that induce an itchy trigger finger.
Facebook, not wanting to be left even a micrometer behind, have acquired Facebook Atlas; this looks set to revolutionize display advertising by building a 3-D profile of users based on their social activity. Again, this will work across multiple devices such as tablet, phablet, smartphone, and pager. Well, maybe not pager, but you can see how wide its range will be.
With these two internet giants involved it’s inevitable that powerful tracking technology will become big business very soon. Therefore, you need to put down those cookies – yes, even the triple chocolate chip ones – and start investing a little time in understanding how you can integrate ID tracking into your site.
If you can pull this off, and I think you can, you’ll give your users a more enriched experience and, best of all, they’ll come back and click some more!
2. How Is Programmatic Advertising Going to Make You Money and Save Time?
In this busy, bustling world we could all do with saving a little bit of time to make sure we can get the important things done in life.
Any form of automation, therefore, that saves us time AND gives customers ads they can’t resist is a godsend. Thankfully, programmatic direct and real time bidding (RTB) are here to make you money and save time for playing Minecraft.
Ever wondered where all those creepily accurate ads are coming from? You know the ones, the ones that somehow manage to advertise your local sports store even though you’re on a website based in Peru about cheese. What’s even creepier is that you were searching for a store selling sneakers earlier.
The truth is less sinister and is all down to RTB; it collects data almost instantaneously about users’ demographics and sends it to an ad exchange. Advertisers then bid for the chance of displaying their tailored ad to little Johnny No Sneakers.
Programmatic direct is slightly different to RTB in that they don’t feature a digital auctioneer waving his e-hammer about. Instead, websites can negotiate directly with advertisers for ad inventory. This allows you to hold on to the power and choice of what’s being displayed on your site – if it’s a crummy inventory, you don’t buy it, simple.
By investing in a highly tailored inventory you increase the chance of hitting the sweet spot in your customer’s brain known as the click-and-buy lobe.
In the US alone, the total spend on programmatic display ads is predicted to top $10 billion and this sector is currently maturing like a fine wine, so 2015 will see even further growth. RTB and programmatic can both work hand in hand, so you’ll need to experiment on which ratio works best for you, but it’s an amazing way to maximize your time and the monetization of your site.
3. Mobile Advertising Is Going to Become Seriously Big Business
We’re always on our mobile devices these days, in fact you’re probably on a coach hurtling down a freeway while reading this, such is the freedom we now have. 2015 is predicted to see programmatic advertising spending for mobile outstrip desktop with figures of $8.4 billion against $6.5 billion respectively.
Every six months THE BEST PHONE EVER arrives with THE BEST SCREEN EVER which leaves your local IMAX looking embarrassed. I predict that, as a result, video adverts will step up a level in 2015 with better cinematography and more engaging stories. Users won’t be able to resist clicking on them to find out more.
Your website may not be able to provide the popcorn (yet), but it will smash the box office. What, though, does this quick overturn of devices mean for mobile web aesthetics?
It’s always been a bugbear of mine that certain ads don’t look quite right on certain devices. It looks unprofessional, so why would anyone click it? Google realize this and have had their boffins working on a solution. Ads which can resize to any device and have a plan B in the absence of Flash will be the ones receiving high click rates in 2015, so make sure your site invests in these.
You’ve now got ads that fit and run smoothly, but do they match your site’s content?
Your website may be incredibly pretty, but if the ads being delivered don’t match it’s beauty, then your bank balance is going to suffer. More natural looking ads, which keep in theme with your site, can be delivered by native advertising and they’re highly customizable; this enriches your users’ experience with more genuine and trustworthy ads.
Native advertising has already been a hit in apps and I feel this is going to take the web by storm in 2015.
The Future
Cookies are being put out to pasture, so it’s time for you to get involved with new technologies which provide amazing customer data. The quick and effective ad campaigns being provided by programmatic advertising means that you can really give your customer what they want.
Mobile advertising is getting bigger and bigger, so understanding the best way to use this format is important in monetization. Embrace these display advertising trends for 2015 and make these unique touchstones part of your campaigns.
