If I were to ask a room full of people to think of the last time they went a day without seeing a digital ad, I’m sure that 99% of the people would find it hard to remember. Such is the impact of digital advertising on our lives. With more use of technology in our everyday lives, ad targeting is everywhere, from the vending machine in your office’s lobby to the notifications on your social media feed. Interestingly, the digital advertising industry has suffered a substantial impact from worldwide economic headwinds.
Economic headwinds across the globe have meant one thing for marketers — lesser budgets to deliver better results. While the focus remains on maximising and justifying every dollar of your ad spends, it is easy to fall into the trap of avoiding marketing spend. Looking at the competition today, this decision can prove detrimental when considering its impact on brand experience and risk, landing your brand in a soup. In such times, it becomes imperative for the custodians of brands to analyse “where their spends are going” instead of thinking about “how much my ad spends.” Marketers can drive cost efficiencies by optimising media quality and delivering effective campaigns even during financial headwinds.
Despite rising energy costs, increasing, inflation rates, and a cost of living crisis looming large, digital media agencies are forecasting growth. The potential for digital transformation in SEA is immense with enromous room for growth. Interestingly, while digital ad spending in Southeast Asia continues to incease, it will only account for 35.2% of ad spending in 2023.
Within Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Thailand lead the region in total ad spending. The two countries will also lead it in digital ad spending growth.
Looking at these statistics, despite the on-going pandemic and looming recession, it becomes vital for marketers to focus on creating quality ad impressions as well as increasing the efficiency of their digital campaigns. Amid every crisis lies excellent opportunity, and this brutal budget season offers South-East Asian marketers just that.
Here are some ways that marketers can use media quality to drive cost efficiencies during financial headwinds:
- Focus on ad viewability: By optimising ad viewability, marketers can ensure that the right audience sees their ads. This can help improve their campaigns’ effectiveness and reduce wasted ad spend. Ad viewability can also be used as a key performance indicator (KPI) to measure campaign success.
- Ensure brand safety & suitability: Brand safety & suitability are key factors in media quality. Marketers can reduce the risk of negative brand associations and reputational damage by ensuring that their ads are delivered in a safe, appropriate context by aligning with content that’s an ideal fit for your brand’s values or campaign goals. This can help improve their campaigns’ effectiveness and reduce costs associated with brand damage.
- Detecting and preventing ad fraud: Ad fraud is a major problem in the digital advertising industry and can result in wasted ad spending and inaccurate reporting. Marketers can avoid wastage by detecting and preventing ad fraud to ensure their campaigns deliver measurable results.
- Use contextual targeting effectively: By optimising their audience targeting strategy based on the environment the ad is served in, marketers can ensure their campaigns reach the right audience. This can help increase user engagement and improve the effectiveness of their campaigns.
- Use data and insights to optimise campaigns: By using data and insights to optimise their campaigns, marketers can ensure that their campaigns are delivering measurable results. This can help reduce costs associated with ineffective advertising, such as ad creative, media buying, and agency fees.
Often, successful businesses can quickly adapt their strategies to ensure a better future, and a brand is more than just good marketing. When it comes to connecting with your customers, content supersedes all. With more content being created daily, ensuring your brand is placed in the right environment alongside relevant content becomes critical. Marketers must create new strategies that safeguard their brand and resonate with the right audience to drive sales. Especially during crisis times, connecting and engaging with consumers can pay great dividends for a brand, translating to success in the long run.
While building your brand reputation can take multiple years and millions of dollars, ignoring today’s industry practices can leave your brand with a serious dent. With the help of digital media quality solutions, marketers can ensure that their digital campaigns are safe, viewable, in-geo and suitably placed to make maximum impact and create outcomes.
(Article is authored by Megan Reichelt, Country Manager, SEA at Integral Ad Science. ‘Think Through’ features perspectives of authors or entities that are not curated or edited by MediaNews4u.com. Content may be sponsored by the contributing organisations.)
