Thanks to the continued rise of internet usage and popularity of digital platforms, the investment in digital advertising continues to grow. According to Statista, digital advertising revenue will surpass $700 billion USD by 2025.
6 Trends That Media Buyers Should Consider in 2023
Media buyers should always keep a pulse on emerging trends in the programmatic space. Let’s dive into 6 programmatic trends that should be on every digital advertiser’s radar throughout 2023.
1. Leverage a mix of devices and channels.
According to data from Deloitte, average US households in 2022 now have a total of 22 connected devices. It’s clear that consumers today are using a variety of devices and engaging with various channels. This makes it more important than ever to provide them a unified experience.
In 2023, the best way to tap into this trend is by leveraging a multi-channel advertising strategy that enables you to reach consumers throughout the entire funnel. You’re able to tell a cohesive brand story across channels like native, display, video, connected TV (CTV), audio, and in-game advertising.
Using a mix of complementary channels increases the percentage of the total target audience that you can reach, resulting in a higher return on investment (ROI). It also helps you craft a brand story throughout the entire customer journey.
To get started with multi-channel advertising in 2023, partner with a programmatic platform that supports multi-channel campaigns, offers consolidated reporting on one platform, and allows you to repurpose your content across different advertising channels.
2. Use DOOH to reach people outside of the home.
Digital out-of-home (DOOH) are ads that are run outside of the home in public environments. Examples of DOOH ads include road-side dynamic displays that you might see at gas stations or rest stops, mall-directory screens, and ads that you see on screens throughout an airport.
DOOH has become a fast growing channel, with Statista reporting that global expenditures are projected to amount to $45 billion USD by the end of 2024. Marketers are taking note of this growth, as shown by a report from VIOOH, which found that 19% of executives believe that advertising investment in programmatic DOOH will more than double over the next 18 months.
In 2023, integrating programmatic DOOH into your advertising mix will allow you to make more efficient and strategic out-of-home media buys. The channel is highly versatile because it can be used to cast a broad net that will reach a large audience. This tactic is ideal for brand awareness.
But, DOOH can also be narrowed down to reach more niche audiences. You can use geotargeting to hone in on a specific audience, which is useful further down in the funnel.
3. Harness the power of audio ads.
In 2022, 67% of Americans listened to digital audio, a 5% increase year-over-year. They listened to an additional 3 minutes per day of digital audio in 2022, reaching 1 hour and 40 minutes of daily listening.
This growing adoption of digital audio is leading to more investment in programmatic audio. According to Statista, worldwide programmatic audio ad spend is expected to reach a projected market volume of $11.85 billion USD by 2027. Clearly, it’s time to tune into audio.
Programmatic audio uses a similar process to display advertising, which automates the selling and insertion of ads into audio content. Ads reach your audience through various devices, including desktop, mobile, and tablet. You’re able to buy targeted ads from all the major audio publishers using one system.
Audio ads perform well on their own, but you can boost their effectiveness by adding an audio companion banner. These banners are clickable, visual ads that run at the same time as an audio ad on the listeners mobile device or desktop computer.
In 2023, leverage programmatic audio to capture listeners in undistracted moments with emotionally engaging, screen-free content. Including companion banners with your audio ads will help reinforce the impact of your message and drive more engagement.
4. Implement cookieless targeting tactics.
There’s a popular misconception that cookies are about to crumble into the data abyss. Although more limitations are being placed on environments where cookies are used, the reality is, cookies will continue to be relevant for marketers. For example, in certain regions, in order to collect and track 1st-party data, users must give their explicit consent.
The good news is, you don’t need to worry about the environments where cookies can’t be placed or tracked, thanks to cookieless solutions. Contextual advertising is one of those solutions. It has resurfaced as a performance-driving targeting method for reaching the right audience, at the right time, and in the right context.
In Q3 of 2022, we released an exclusive report which surveyed agency and brand advertising decision makers about cookieless advertising. The report found that marketers know that it’s time to embrace cookieless advertising, but they have yet to act.
Don’t delay your adoption of cookieless solutions. Now is the perfect moment for education. Advertisers are looking to work with programmatic partners who support the performance of cookieless campaigns.
With 4 out of 5 advertisers planning to use contextual targeting in conjunction with behavioural targeting, you can begin testing these targeting methods together.
Get a head start in identifying what keywords and tactics are most beneficial for your campaigns, and use these strategies in tandem with audience targeting for a digital strategy that performs as the programmatic landscape evolves.
5. Reach gamers with in-game advertising.
It’s time for advertisers to get into the game, because “gamers” today are almost synonymous with everyday consumers. In 2021, there were an estimated 201.7 million gamers in the US, and annual growth of gaming audiences is set to remain stable until 2025.
This adoption of gaming points to the growing opportunity to reach engaged audiences through in-game advertising. In-game ads appear in mobile, computer, and video games. With blended in-game, ads are seamlessly integrated, so they don’t interrupt gameplay.
The scale of the gaming industry isn’t the only reason that marketers should embrace in-game ads in 2023. The nature of gaming makes it a particularly effective channel.
In 2021, gamers spent about 8 hours and 27 minutes each week playing games. While playing, gamers are highly focused on gameplay, and the format is so engaging that usually they are not multitasking while playing.
It’s a common stereotype that gaming is a niche activity. The reality? With gaming consoles and mobile phones so widely adopted, gaming is extremely popular, and widespread across all demographics and ages. The in-game audience includes people of all ages, demographics, and interests.
With in-game advertising gaining prominence, 2023 is the perfect time for you to introduce this channel into your media mix.
6. Create widely accessible and inclusive digital content.
Don’t overlook accessibility when it comes to any part of your digital strategy. The importance of accessible and inclusive spaces extends beyond physical settings and social relationships. Both are key in the digital space.
Accessible digital content gives you an opportunity to reach all audience members in an equitable way. There’s a bonus benefit too. Accessible advertising helps account for the variety of environments in which your audience could be viewing your content, as well as temporary disabilities like a lost pair of glasses or a broken limb.
When creating accessible ads, make sure there is colour contrast between the colour of text and the colour of your background, the size and font of your text is readable, and captions or subtitles are added to your video and connected TV ads.
Inclusive and accessible ads start with your buyer personas. When you craft buyer personas, make sure all people of all abilities are represented in the persona. And, account for all types of environments that users might be in when they encounter your ads. By doing this, you can help contribute to creating more accessible space in 2023, both online and offline.
It’s Time to Embrace These 2023 Digital Advertising Trends
One of the best parts of programmatic advertising is that it provides you the ability to create a cohesive experience across multiple channels, including emerging ones like programmatic audio and in-game advertising.
With consumers adopting new channels all the time, it’s important that marketers follow suit in 2023. Introduce and experiment with those new channels and don’t forget to leverage new strategies.
