Below, NewProgrammatic has prepared a shortlist of the most influential BNPL industry entities that offer eliciting advertising opportunities for worldwide brands.

Try the NewProgrammatic demo to discover how to boost conversions!

What are BNPL solutions?

Interest-free installments and flexible payment options are steadily becoming more important as changing users’ preferences have evolved in favor of Fintech solutions. Since BNPL providers have significantly increased their user bases, as well as the number of offered merchants, these platforms are currently more than valuable for advertisers.

BNPLs are user-friendly solutions that shifted from the status of market trends to serious competitors of conventional financing providers like traditional banks. As the name suggests, Buy Now Pay Later offers delayed payments for shopping online, giving users time to consider whether their purchase was the right decision, and prepare for the expense.

BNPL business models vary depending on the chosen platform, but the most prolific companies offer four-installment plans that are interest-free as long as users respect payment deadlines.

Who are BNPL users?

By offering interest-free installments, Buy Now Pay Later services appeal to audiences concerned about their spending and seek chances to utilize a privacy-oriented and cheaper format of consumer credit.

The popularity of these services is most visible among younger consumers from generations Y and Z. These users, who are currently setting trends in marketing, are known for their reluctance toward conventional banking solutions, loans, and credit cards. Studies show that 67% of Millennials do not have credit cards, and more people aged 18-34 are afraid of debt than of death or war.

Ascent’s study shows all marketers the extent of increasing adoption of Buy Now, Pay Later. Their 2021 research found that 55.8% of American consumers have used some form of BNPL services, and more than half of those who have not, believe they would try it within the following 12 months.

Buy Now Pay Later marketing opportunities

With this unoverlookable Buy Now Pay Later market growth, advertisers now have access to excessive, and well-converting traffic. Brands can find purchase-oriented users through precisely-tailored Search Autocomplete and Tiles Suggestions, directly answering their queries.

NewProgrammatic offers advertisers and brands a chance to access this constantly growing volume of traffic, and present the keyword-targeted audience with the intent-matched proposal. This applies to all advertisers, and not only the ones who offer BNPL payments. Key players like Klarna aren’t promoting BNPL merchants’ offers only, as the company dreams of becoming a search engine more than a marketplace.

What does it mean for brands?

Bidding for BNPL industry traffic is something that should be present on every Digital Marketer’s agenda in 2022. There are many perks for brands in terms of increasing brand safety, competitiveness in the market, making the brand more visible to customers, and reaching a purchase-oriented audience.

Make sure to read NewProgrammatic’s blog article on Brand-Safe Buy Now Pay Later Advertising in 2022, which presents an interesting perspective on the topic.

5 things to remember about Buy Now Pay Later traffic and conversions

Buy Now Pay Later offers have a rather characteristic audience that could be shortly described as purchase-driven. The further conclusion is that these users should be more than wanted by all advertisers, as their motivation for entering BNPL platforms is to either find some interesting offers or finalize the purchase.

Below, find some of the most interesting/important aspects of engaging with BNPL audiences. These should give all marketers a clearer view as to why it is so beneficial to have their brands displayed in vastly-growing search bars.

Growing user-base

Users are what drives the BNPL industry forward, and that is why it was not until the pandemic online shopping popularity, that Buy Now Pay Later platforms’ numbers really skyrocketed.

In the US only, and we would like to remind you that this market is still catching up to Europe, Australia, and New Zealand in terms of BNPL popularity, there were 45.1 million BNPL users in 2021. This is almost a quadruple what was seen before the Covid-19 pandemic, as in 2019 there were “only” 11.6 million users in the US.

More customers and users mean that advertisers can access a wider, more diversified, and yet still purchase-driven audience.

AOV

An Average Order Value (AOV) is an important indicator of campaign success, as the higher AOV there is, the more revenue for a brand from just one conversion. The fact that BNPL solutions are most popular in richer societies – Western Europe, The United States of America, Australia, and New Zealand – means that the shopping carts are more likely to be packed.

Klarna’s study shows that some brands could increase their AOV even as much as 33% just by implementing BNPL payment options, which is definitely something worth reaching for. With the same number of orders, the brand is simply able to generate more revenue. Increasing AOV means that with the same marketing efforts and spending, the brand generates higher ROI.

Volumes

The impressive transaction volumes are also something that should speak directly to advertisers’ hearts. This is a chain reaction, as the more users access the larger number of merchants, the more impressive the overall results will be.

The conservative projections show that by 2025 the global BNPL volume will rise to $680 billion. But some experts claim that by 2024 the US market only will provide $100 billion worth of transactions.

These rising financial BNPL performances mean that brands are able to increase their sales simply by offering their services and products to bigger and richer audiences.

Merchants number

Joining BNPL solutions by new merchants and advertisers is something happening every second. Sezzle (now acquired by Zip) shared information, that their platform offered as many as 47,000 merchants at the beginning of 2022. Klarna on the other hand boasts of how their 400 thousand worldwide merchant base is constantly growing.

An increasing number of merchants does not necessarily mean that it will be much harder for brands to reach new customers. With programmatic solutions like Search Autocomplete, everybody can access keyword-targeted, relevant audiences.

The biggest and most prolific worldwide luxury attire, sports, house decor, nutrition, and food brands have already decided to jump in on the BNPL wave. It’s a brand-safe and reliable source of traffic, and therefore even the companies that dominate usual SERPs understand the value brought in by a highly-converting BNPL audience.

Top-performing GEOs

As we already signalized in the AOV section, marketers should consider buying BNPL ad space, as it reaches the audience that comes from GEOs (countries and regions) considered by the industry as Tier 1. These are developed countries with high consumer needs and the highest possibilities for brand-safe and quality advertisers.

Scandinavia is home to BNPL solutions, as the pioneer, Klarna, originates from the Swedish capital, Stockholm. Nordic countries, alongside Germany and the United Kingdom, are not only one of the most developed in the world and Europe but also some of the most prolific BNPL-spenders.

Australia and New Zealand are home to some most cutting-edge BNPL solutions providers, too. This is not an accident that these, both richer and fast-developing societies, have become keen users of BNPL offers.

There is still plenty of area for BNPL traffic to grow in the United States of America, as the society there is slowly but steadily getting convinced of these solutions. Industry analysis shows that the market in the United States is expected to grow by more than 66.5% in 2022.

The Asia-Pacific region should be considered a potent field for BNPL development, too, and definitely, a place offering an incredibly big consumer base. But there is more time needed for these markets to fully realize the potential held by BNPL market opportunities. The BNPL spending in Vietnam reached $40 million in 2020.

BNPL service providers overview

As the BNPL industry is constantly growing, all marketers should be aware of the buying benefits listed above. The biggest platforms that are available for users and advertisers are definitely the most competitive, but also the most rewarding places.

With often occurring changes and acquisitions, it will be best to keep track of all the BNPL industry news. Agreements and mergers open major new possibilities for advertisers that should unquestionably be capitalized on.

Klarna Bank AB

Let’s start with one of the world’s leaders in the BNPL segment – Klarna. The Stockholm-based fintech giants started operating in 2005 and over almost two decades impressively expanded their global reach.

According to an official financial report published by the company, in 2021 Klarna dominated the market and managed to connect its consumers with more than 400 thousand retailers from all around the globe. Their merchandise volumes jumped to $80 billion from $53 billion in 2020 and $35 billion in 2019. That means that YoY the company noted around 151% volume growth, which only showcases how much trust they get from users, and how much need there is for the BNPL services.

Besides offering up to 4 interest-free installments, Klarna becomes a growingly important search engine used for finding the best-fit products. Their reports reveal that the solution managed to attract 147 million users from all around the world, and major brands like Nike, H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB, or ASOS are only some examples of brands that are present there.

PayPal in 4

As one of the biggest alternatives to traditional banking in terms of online payments, PayPal decided to offer a BNPL service to their 426 million customers. PayPal in 4 offers split payments to everyone who wants to use PayPal at checkout: 25% of the total price will be deducted from users’ accounts right away, and another 3 equal installments are due every 2 weeks.

The fact that payments could be controlled via the widely-owned PayPal app, and that the service is secured the same way that every PayPal transaction is, lures in millions of customers. By introducing the BNPL offer, PayPal immediately reached for a big Buy Now Pay Later market share, granting all of its users’ access to the service.

Thanks to that, over 400 million users have been granted access to BNPL payments available on all the websites that offer standard PayPal transactions. This should not be surprising that the service stormed the market, and according to C+R Research, PayPal is the most used BNPL provider (used by 57% of retailers) in the world.

We saw a 400% year-on-year rise in our volumes going through ‘buy now, pay later’ this past Black Friday [2021]. It’s booming right now. We had more than 1 million first-time users for the first time ever in the month of November.

Dan Schulman, the CEO of PayPal

Zip (previously QuadPay)

Australian BNPL giants Zip have completed the acquisition of US-based QuadPay service in Q3 2020, and a year later started merging the two brands together. While Zip is mostly focused on Australian traffic, QuadPay was one of the most prominent brands in the United States, and the merger enabled both companies to vastly expand their worldwide reach.

Zip is currently operating in 12 markets, and its 2021 annual report shows a 147% increase in revenue ($397.5 million), 176% transaction volume increase ($5.8 billion), and 248% customer number increase (7.3 million). A major part of this growth was possible by acquiring new partners including Sezzle, Spotii, Twisto, TendoPay, and Payflex.

QuadPay allows users to have their payments broken into four interest-free installments that could be paid off during a 6 weeks-long period. Zip, previously QuadPay, is used by some world-renowned brands to promote their products and services, and among those are the likes of Gamestop, Target, Airbnb, Booking, and Nike.

Afterpay

The Australian company offers a BNPL solution that has been branded as the most suitable for students thanks to its smart credit limits. The payments are split into four parts, and the user is required to pay the first 25% of the price immediately. The following three payments are due every two weeks.

The company managed to start cooperation with Google Pay in 2020 when it started providing the giant’s users with the possibility to use Buy Now, Pay Later model while shopping with Google Pay. This opens up whole new traffic possibilities for brands that want to be advertising on the BNPL platforms.

In June 2021, the Afterpay platform had now 16 million users and was cooperating with more than 85 thousand brands in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, and the UK. Among those, users can find some renowned and well-established brands like Pandora, Crocs, Urban Outfitters, Adidas, Dr. Martens, and many more.

Affirm

Affirm’s services allow users to shop in their favorite places, both online and in-store with the possibility of paying back in 4 installment-free parts. The company’s Q4 report shows the quick growth that allows brands to have access to a wider range of Affirm’s impressions:

• Affirm claimed that their active merchants’ number grew to 29,000, which is a 412% increase. This happened also thanks to the company’s integration with vastly-growing Shopify.
• The active customer base grew by 97% and exceeded 7 million.
• There was an 8% growth in the number of transactions per average active user.

Affirm is a San Francisco-based company, and up until 2021, it operated on the market in the US only. In Q4 2021 it expanded to Australia, and even before that it announced an Amazon partnership for BNPL payments of $50 and more.

Laybuy

Laybuy Group Holdings Limited has a BNPL platform that is gaining immense popularity in New Zealand and Australia, both being growingly important Buy Now Pay Later markets. Kiwi-originated service was also introduced to the United Kingdom, with Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) there reaching a 38% YoY increase. For New Zealand and Australia, Laybuy has registered a 25% YoY GMV increase for January and February 2022.

As for the active user base, Laybuy is closing to a big milestone of 1 million. There are also over 13,400 merchants available for these audiences, and on a quarterly basis, both of these numbers rise. A projected 43-48% revenue increase in the 2022 forecast period explains perfectly why Laybuy has ambitions of entering more markets and challenging bigger competitors.

Compared to most major BNPL platforms, Laybuy offers a quite favorable installment payments model, where expenses are split into six weekly parts. Laybuy automatically charges the credit card submitted by the user.

Apple Pay Later

Although Apple has not released any final version of its BNPL product, it has been almost official that this kind of service will sooner or later become available for Apple Pay users. Especially since Apple Pay services are used on an everyday basis by over 500 million users, this could potentially be a game-changer for the Buy Now Pay Later industry.

The market impatiently awaits more news on that matter, as entering media buying opportunities with Apple BNPL services should be a viable option for all advertisers. But for now, we’re only suggesting preparing for the right moment.

How to start advertising on the BNPL provider platform?

In order to fully embrace the Buy Now Pay Later media buying opportunities, marketers will need a programmatic tool that helps them set up campaigns and access the highly motivated audience. NewProgrammatic solutions include smooth and user-friendly suggestions delivered via keyword-based Search Autocomplete functionality and Programmatic Tiles.

With these automated solutions, an advertiser is able to target a specific audience and reach it at the exact moment they require a recommendation as to where to finalize their purchases. All this without any privacy-violating third party data processing. The BNPL advertising with NewProgrammatic is based on intent-targeting, as it proves to be far more efficient than typical demographic targeting.

See how to increase sales, AOV, and brand visibility.
Request a NewProgrammatic demo!

The post Buy Now Pay Later marketing in 2022. Brands and market overview appeared first on NewProgrammatic Blog.

A few years ago it would be considered by many a wishful thinking, but today it’s just as simple as ever.

The first BNPL platforms emerged in 2005, but only in the last few years have they become quite important for the e-commerce industry. Naturally, where’s demand, the supply follows, hence top brands decided to quickly follow the new buying model and, of course, capitalize on it.

And those looking to capitalize on programmatic media buying can now benefit from the BNPL hype as well.

In this article, we’re taking a closer look at how brand-safe programmatic advertising solutions can help your business get more exposure with BNPL platforms… even if you’re not there.

BNPL 101. What are the Buy Now, Pay Later platforms?

In order to fully embrace the potential that is being offered by BNPL platforms, every marketer needs to understand the mechanisms behind it. These platforms are solutions that allow customers to make purchases without the need to pay for them right away at checkout. In fact, BNPL gives users the possibility to have their orders shipped right after the transaction and pay the money back to the platform in full or in accordance with installment plans.

Although the Buy Now Pay Later model of payment could resemble a standard bank loan format, it is not associated with it, nor a credit card balance. What needs to be widely understood, is that the best BNPL solutions are mostly free of interest, and offer the highest extent of Fintech-driven safety for all parties. No steps include a major financial institution or a bank. And in most cases, interests, too. In 2022, fintech solutions are much more welcome and will only keep on changing the retail industry as we know it today.

How can a brand benefit from BNPL advertising?

An insightful marketer should understand how to use the characteristics of the BNPL audience in order to elevate sales, and earnings, accordingly. The industry has already learned how to tame programmatic advertising possibilities, and use those to win specifically targeted ad impressions. With BNPL it has become possible to precisely find an already purchase-driven audience that does not require convincing to spend money. What it needs is a suggestion on where to do so, and shoppers will gladly accept accurate recommendations.

For example, NewProgrammatic allows advertisers to access the BNPL media buying model, offering advertising solutions that make this process intuitive and efficiently presenting users with subtle, but really helpful keyword-based ads even before their query is fully typed in.

Buy Now Pay Later advertising is not for BNPL transactions only

Although Buy Now Pay Later offers are core to the BNPL platforms’ operations, they are not a necessity for a brand offered there. This should be remembered by advertisers and brands – a company does not need to have a Buy Now, Pay Later system implemented in order to be displayed on the effective BNPL traffic sources.

Like in the example we gave above, while creating a programmatic campaign, brands are able to use the precise BNPL targeting and reach the highly-converting users without exactly offering Buy Now Pay Later transactions. This way they are able to fully capitalize on audience preferences, have access to a purchase-driven user base and advertise in a brand-safe and respected environment.

Intent-based targeting boosts conversions

Marketers from all niches are highly aware of the fact that their brands’ performance will improve once their marketing efforts are correctly targeted. And although the traditional, demographic-based marketing approach has been a go-to strategy for a long time, it has been proven to be less effective than finding the right, highly-converting audience based on their intent.

Identifying user behaviors online and offering the ads to the people who actually seek proposals in that matter has become a crucial part of modern ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) building. And with BNPL platforms it has become possible to get access to detailed profiles of people who are already looking for solutions offered by the marketer’s brand.

With that knowledge and proper programmatic campaign creation solutions, a brand is able to prioritize those purchase-driven BNPL platform users, elevating conversions, sales, and profits. In fact, a well intent targeted campaign may require a smaller budget to perform better than broader, RON-type advertising.

A higher Average Order Value

Klarna’s insights suggest that implementing BNPL could impressively increase the AOV (Average Order Value), too. For some brands, the increase of AOV could be as much as 33%. This is due to the fact that with Buy Now Pay Later’s prolonged payment period, a consumer is able to afford more products. It also elevates the sense of financial stability.

Reaching the customer at the perfect moment

Timing is a key feature of programmatic advertising, and the BNPL model allows brands to reach their target audience exactly at the moment they expect it to happen. This applies especially to the NewProgrammatic advertising solutions, as they directly answer users’ queries before they finish typing them.

As a result, marketers are able to find the best converting audience by simply reaching out to the people who are most likely to become customers as they are already purchase-oriented.

Brand visibility and becoming competitive

In order to be able to make sales, a brand needs to find a way to jostle with competitors for user engagement and attention. Increased brand visibility and tapping into your competitors’ niches are on every marketer’s agenda. And that can be easily achieved through advertising on BNPL platforms.

Brand familiarity has always been an important aspect of building a position both in local and international markets. If potential customers are aware of the brand’s existence and offer, it will be much more convenient for advertisers to present the results.

Various marketing and user-behavior studies utilizing eye-tracking technology found that internet users will more eagerly click on familiar brand names while conducting their searches. The extent to which such findings apply is quite impressive, as according to Secret Life of Search research, 82% of internet users choose familiar brands as their first-click option.

This leaves marketers of smaller, and less recognized brands with a hard nut to crack. On one hand, typical SERPs on common keywords become unavailable for them, as most often they cannot compete financially with the giants. On the other hand, building brand awareness becomes harder if users tend to focus on familiar names.

The solution could be, again, BNPL advertising, allowing brands to become visible by skipping the SERPs altogether.

It increases brand awareness and brings purchase-driven customers to the landing page. See, how NewProgrammatic could help your brand increase its reach.

User expectations for a BNPL provider

The popularity of BNPL solutions is not a coincidence, it’s a direct response to what the audience expects. This applies mostly to younger generations of consumers that are highly literate with technology and hence seek smooth user experience, tend to be very brand-oriented, and do not enjoy the thought of loans. Today’s users also value their privacy and appreciate a well-timed effort-saving suggestion. With that being said, companies that follow these trends will be able to effectively attract customers.

This enabled industry to forge a model that is beneficial for everybody. On one side, programmatic advertising on BNPL markets attracts the consumers who enjoy delayed payment opportunities, and will gladly take a suggestion as to what brands to focus on. On the other side, there are advertisers who now have access to a highly purchase-convinced brand-safe audience, which can elevate their campaign’s efficiency.

There is a structural shift going on in payments more broadly because of the changing behavior of the next generation. As the Millennials and Gen Z spend more, that will drive that spend to these more modern offerings.

Jason Orthman, Hyperion Asset Management (for Australian Financial Review).

Where are BNPL solutions most popular?

It’s safe to say that BNPL adoption is at its early stage in the USA and Europe, as Buy Now Pay Later transactions have not yet become the driving force in worldwide e-commerce. It only accounted for 1.6% of total e-commerce sales in the United States of America in 2020, but the projections suggest that it could reach 4.5% by 2024.

European markets are not homogenous in that matter, as Sweden, the UK, and Germany emerge as leaders in the BNPL e-commerce payments. This should not be surprising for the industry, as Sweden is actually home to BNPL. Klarna, the pioneer in Buy Now Pay Later services, has been founded in Stockholm. The region of Europe, just like the USA, opened up to the BNPL solutions, and reports from Q4 2021 only confirm that. According to the BNPL Survey, in Europe, the industry will expectedly grow by 54.7% in 2022.

In the breakdown of domestic e-commerce payments, right behind Scandinavian countries and Germany, are Australia and New Zealand. Once again, those are highly innovative regions in terms of Fintech and greatly developed countries in general. New Zealand and Australia together made up 20% of the global e-commerce market share in 2020.

Precise suggestions

There is a fine line between what could be perceived as intrusive advertising, and an anticipated query suggestion. Modern users expect accuracy and good timing, and providing exactly that is a way of gaining their trust.

To attract more consumers and conversions, the industry needs to focus on advertising in brand-safe conditions, where it is part of an established environment that a platform presents suggestions to its users. As those recommendations are part of a deal between a purchase-oriented audience and the BNPL solution provider, they are highly expected.

This is an effective synergy that leaves all the parties in the marketing equation satisfied. Thus, by neglecting BNPL traffic and conversions, marketers and brands repudiate trendy and highly rewarding solutions for market reach.

The reluctance toward debts

Having witnessed a financial crisis once every few years, Millennials and Gen Z representatives have developed a fear of financial instability connected with the unpredicted financial market behaviors. Younger audiences do not see loans as a solution to their needs. That is why financial liabilities with third-party companies, and not banks, are a much-appreciated opportunity for them.

According to American Psychological Association’s study, people between the ages of 18 and 34 are more scared of debt (34%) than of death (20%) and war (17%). Having been raised in relatively safe times, new customers perceive the financial trouble they witnessed watching their parents struggle with as a more perilous circumstance.

That is why more than half of Millennials (67%) do not have a credit card at all. These users need independence, but it does not change the fact that they still enjoy flexible payment options. The difference between them and their parents and grandparents is that Millennials and Gen Z require more transparency and security.

The modern way to do it is to use buy-now-pay-later. It’s consumer-friendly. It’s not unfair. It doesn’t have any fees. It’s really transparent. It’s often mobile and digitally available for online shopping.

David Sandström, Klarna’s Chief Marketing Officer (for Verdict.co).

Covid-struck e-commerce market

There is no doubt that Covid-19 has heavily changed the way consumers, brands, and marketers need to operate on the market. With people losing jobs, and brands seeking major savings, both sides of a previously well-cemented system needed to adjust to the new reality.

The first thing that most consumers did when the pandemic broke out, was to suspend all extra spending. In times of uncertainty, BNPL platforms provided exactly that – a possibility to save money while not being forced to postpone shopping.

The statistics show that perfectly. Adobe conducted e-commerce-focused research that highlighted how Buy Now Pay Later platforms grew 215% YoY in the first two months of 2021. Moreover, BNPL service providers have noticed that customers are placing orders 18% larger on average.

This directly benefits the brands, as by offering their products and services on BNPL platforms they are able to elevate sales, capitalizing on user behaviors. But advertisers should bear in mind that 65% of BNPL transactions include payments of less than $500. 

Credit Karma’s 2021 research shows that as much as one-third of BNPL purchases (32% of those) are for $100 and less. Younger audiences, Millennials, and Gen Z, mostly use BNPL for more frequent, but less valuable acquisitions. Big-ticket item purchases worth $3,000 or more are more common among Gen X and Boomers(+). Respectively, 11% and 17% of these users have used BNPL solutions for purchases of $3,000 or more. 

First-party data security

Another result of having younger generations create market trends is a major focus that has to be put on user privacy. Third-party data trading is not welcome anymore, as audiences are highly alert to what happens with their information. This transmits to how modern programmatic advertising needs to be conducted, and this is where NewProgrammatic and BNPL platforms come in handy.

This combination offers safe, yet precise penetration of the highest-tier audience without any need for third-party data processing. Users consciously agree to Buy Now Pay Later platforms for processing their data so that ads are precise and well-tailored.

The BNPL platforms do not inform advertisers about user profiles, and therefore protect the audience’s data. NewProgrammatic ads are keyword-based. This means that in a split second when the user is typing their query, a precise ad is being matched to them.

For more information about Cookieless advertising for a cookieless world, we recommend reading NewProgrammatic article on the topic.

What major BNPL brands should advertisers pay attention to?

The BNPL segment of e-commerce has been constantly growing due to user preferences, market changes, and an increased interest in safer, cookieless solutions. That is how the industry has been able to attract new business partners and widen its user base, offering even more traffic to the advertisers.

Due to the fact that volumes and conversions are crucial in process of advertising, all brands should get well accustomed to the most popular BNPL solutions. Mainstream companies offer, in fact, the widest possibilities, and really valuable traffic.

The below set of most popular brands in the BNPL industry is a great starting point for all advertisers who seek to explore these possibilities.

• Klarna
• Zip (previously QuadPay)
• Afterpay
• Affirm
• Laybuy
• PayPal

Conclusions

With the pace of development in the BNPL niche and the new possibilities that this segment offers to the advertisers, there is no reason why any marketing specialist should ignore BNPL traffic. And the future seems to be looking really bright for these fintech services, as more customers, especially from younger audiences, trust leading BNPL solutions.

More than certainly, brands in 2022 should not be forgetting about entering the BNPL advertising for all the opportunities:

• Advertising on a cookieless basis without any third-party data nonconsensual processing
• Becoming fully compliant with modern user preferences for online shopping
• Offering well-timed and contextually relevant advertising
• Reaching purchase-oriented audience
• Effective competition against other brands
• Increasing brand awareness and conversions at once
• Embracing the brand-safe advertising

Does your brand want to elevate the sales and increase its visibility?
Check out the NewProgrammatic demo!

The post Brand-Safe Buy Now Pay Later Advertising in 2022 appeared first on NewProgrammatic Blog.

Each digital marketing method has its perks, and if you combine that with a clear outline of your marketing strategy, you have a two-step recipe for growth. However, opting for popular solutions puts your brand up against a very saturated market. And it might seem like just about anything in terms of advertising has been done already. But some solutions, albeit popular, remain underutilized. And that’s exactly what can help you grow your brand.  

The bravest attempts at pioneering in advertising, such as Uber’s clever drone campaign, have left the world speechless. But paving the way with extravagant campaigns is unaffordable or inefficient for most brands. Uber’s campaign, although it was newsworthy and went viral, was also considered too much.

On the other side of the spectrum are the time-tested solutions. They’ve been here for nearly two decades, and what they have in common is that people either grew to accept them or hate them. The percentage of US users using an adblocker grew by 72% since 2014. Also, a recent study from HubSpot revealed that the omnipresent pop-up ads are actually the most hated ad format. Pre or mid-roll video ads were a close second with 100% of consumers skipping such ads whenever possible. Invasiveness and excessive frequency were also cited as one of the things most likely to turn the sentiment against the brand to negative.  

Another study quoted modal, intra-content, and autoplay ads as the most hated. Deceptive links made the top of the list as well. The common pattern is – if the ad is begging for attention, it’s not likely to get it. It’s just going to build brand resentment. 

Similarly, looking for unknown and unique ways of promoting your brand can easily backfire. Experimental ad placements on gaming consoles, smart fridges, smart TVs, and even space satellites are a hot topic, but they’re not exactly painted in the best light. In fact, these formats have not yet reached the status of popularity and there are already solutions for blocking them.

But we’re not here to tell you what ads to avoid, we’re here to bring your attention to the underutilized ad formats with potential. They often have proven track records of bringing solid results but they’re not overused (yet!). 

Let’s take a look at the 7 underutilized ways of driving traffic to your website.

1. Contextual advertising

Contextual advertising is currently the top contender to take the place of overall best ad format. Since third-party cookies are becoming more and more scarce, cookieless ad formats are the future of privacy-first advertising. Contextual targeting is promising not only a similar level of performance but also a targeting method that is not as intrusive and meets the highest standards of brand safety. Consumer attitudes towards contextual personalization are most favorable in comparison with other types of personalization, such as behavioral, retargeting, demographic, etc.

Driving traffic to your brand via contextual advertising ensures that ads will be displayed in a relevant context. Such ad formats include (but are not limited to) in-app advertising and search traffic, especially from alternative search engines. 

That’s why in-app ads, being a prime example of contextual ads, are considered brand-safe, because the environment of the app is highly controlled. Apps are also preferred over mobile sites due to better user experience, speed, and extra features. 58% of millennials prefer shopping through apps because of the streamlined process and pre-saved data. Apps are simply more engaging. And moving your online advertising into a controlled in-app shopping experience with keyword targeting is a good way to drive more conversions. An example of an in-app ad provider is AdColony but you can find other DSPs offering in-app mobile amongst other ad formats.

Another example of brand-safe advertising are contextual search ads. This method of direct-to-customer advertising can be provided by Google Search, Brave In-Browser Ads, but also NewProgrammatic solutions. At NewProgrammatic, we offer two ad formats based on user intent – whenever users start typing something into a search bar, they’re immediately provided with thematic suggestions. Such precise targeting is made possible by close relationships with trusted publishers like mobile keyword apps, search engines, or similar. 

2. Social ads 

Social ads might be a surprise on a list of underutilized ad formats, however, the social space is currently so vast, there are still apps and sites that haven’t been fully exploited. Of course, Google Ads and Facebook ads will not be discussed here. The ‘duopoly’ already dominates the ad tech industry with a combined share of close to 80% of the £14bn digital advertising market. 

Social media marketing, however, is not limited to the giants. Many other platforms offer advertising placements and unique platform-native ad formats. Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are full of video ads, rolls, brand-made filters, interactive spots, and other creative solutions.  

Let’s take a look at some of the underappreciated social media platforms with solid advertising options:

Pinterest Ads

Pinterest is a platform where users can save pictures and videos on their dashboards. It’s the most common platform for grouping ideas and inspiration. Pinterest’s audience is made up of 70% of women, and 85% of usage occurs on mobile devices. Pinterest Ads look like pins, so they blend in seamlessly with the rest of the content. 

The available options include: static ads, video ads, install ads, carousel ads, shopping ads, and collection ads. With Pinterest, you can target keywords and interests, demographics, audience lists, and specific ad placements.  

Quora Ads

Quora is a forum-like platform offering the community to ask and answer each other’s questions. The platform has a 43/57 female to male audience ratio, and mobile is the audience segment that generates the most clicks on Quora Ads. What’s more interesting is that 65% of Quora users have a college degree and 54% of adult users report a yearly income of $100k or more.

Quora Ads are based on contextual targeting or behavioral targeting. The ads are placed amongst user-generated responses to questions and can be seen as topically related content. Quora ads are intent-based and similar to Google Ads with the advantage of being a less saturated platform.

TikTok Ads

TikTok is a video-sharing platform that focuses on social networking through sharing short videos. The platform has only been established in 2016 but the user base has already reached nearly 700 million monthly active users. Also, 60% of TikTok’s worldwide audience are between 25 to 44 years old, with US statistics alone learning towards the younger demographic with 69% of users being between 13 and 24 years old.

TikTok ads come in the form of videos that blend in with the rest of the content. The ads can be placed on various pages (e.g. in-feed or details) and the supported targeting includes audience, demographics, interests and behaviors, as well as detailed device segmentation. 

3. Real-time bidding (RTB) Advertising

Real-time bidding is actually a mechanism that enables programmatic mass advertising via ad exchange platforms combining both demand-side (DSP) and supply-side platforms (SSPs). Ads can be bought by impression or click in real-time so there is no need for a direct relationship between the advertiser and the publisher. In fact, platforms based on real-time bidding are often self-served and have an array of targeting options to place bids on. 

Some examples of RTB-based programmatic ad formats are push notifications or domain redirects.

Push notifications can drive traffic to your brand by appearing directly on user devices. Push ads are most popular on Android mobile devices thanks to their native appearance; however, you can also display push notifications on desktop devices and iOS mobile devices thanks to the in-page push variant. Push ads are extremely cheap in comparison to other brand-suitable marketing formats and they can instantly reach the highest volumes of traffic. 

Push ads audience consists of users who subscribe to receive notifications from websites they are interested in. Ad exchanges group them into audiences that are most likely to display interest in a certain topic (e.g. travel, education, or e-commerce); but you can also choose to target all of the available volumes in a particular location to reach the widest audience.

Opt-in rates for push notifications amount to roughly 81% on Android devices and 51% on iOS devices. Open rates differ across the industries but the overall medium open rate for iOS is 3.4% and 4.6% for Android. Plain and generic push notifications are also not the preferred medium of promotion and there’s a much higher likelihood of success with optimized campaigns.

Emojis (20%), rich formats (25%), tailored send times (40%), advanced targeting (threefold), and personalization (fourfold) can all improve reaction rates. 

Domain redirects, on the other hand, allow you to bid on misspelled URLs – after entering such a URL in the search bar, a user would be redirected to your chosen destination. This type of traffic is also known as parked domain traffic or zero-click traffic. It is another cheap method of driving traffic to your website based on search intent.

For example, if someone looking for a particular domain, let’s say, a store with cocktail dresses misspells the URL of the site, you can bid on that exact misspelling and lead them straight to your brand (presumably also selling cocktail dresses). The targeting options are based on keyword targeting — brand to brand or generic. You can also segment your audience based on other parameters such as a device used or location depending on what the ad exchange platform has to offer.

4. Augmented reality ads

Augmented reality has been a growing trend in the advertising industry. It might also be one of the most creative and engaging ways of advertising. 

But what’s the use of augmented reality in advertising? It’s simple –  it provides an additional layer to a physical experience. Some notable examples of applying AR to digital marketing are: visualizing the view from stadium seats before purchasing, virtually trying on cosmetics, clothes or accessories, and decorating your home through an IKEA app. 

But that’s not all. Augmented reality has made some unforgettable advertising campaigns in the public space as well. Bus stops seem to be the objects most easily adjustable for an augmented reality experience. That’s why campaigns like Pepsi’s Sci-Fi experience went viral worldwide and brought an increase in Pepsi Max sales 35% year on year (YoY) for the month the campaign was live.

Augmented reality ads, however, cannot be purchased from a programmatic advertising solution. They are provided by creative agencies such as Grand Visual and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years to plan and execute. 

5. Help a reporter out – HARO

Volunteering your expert knowledge to reporters can be a great way to put your company out there with very little effort. HARO is a special system for journalists to submit requests for expert insights about a certain subject. On the other end of that system, there are professionals and brand representatives who possess expert knowledge on certain subjects. 

While signing up for HARO, you can specify exactly what is your area of expertise. Then, you will receive multiple requests a day and it will be up to you to pick them, get in touch, and discuss what you can offer. Getting featured in a story can not only increase your website traffic but also provide SEO benefits in the form of a quality backlink. There are some things to remember as HARO can be rather competitive:

• Be quick – the requests are sent out in the form of mass-mailing and there can be hundreds of brand representatives with relevant experience ready to pitch their brand.
• Be persistent – for the same reason as above, it might take some time for you to be chosen as the expert that receives recognition.
• Be honest – only pitch if your expertise is exactly what’s needed. HARO is a system for reporters to find experts and you offering inapplicable knowledge is only going to waste everyone’s time.

In short, HARO can be a great free method of gaining and maintaining PR. If your pitch is good enough and you get contacted by a reporter from a known site, you get the kind of exposure you would otherwise have to pay hundreds of dollars for.

6. Content marketing

If you’re wondering why content marketing is on the list of underutilized ways of driving traffic to your brand, it’s because there is a lot more to it than first meets the eye. Content marketing is all about attracting customers to your brand with content. You can have an informative blog and share insightful social posts but you can also go one step further and employ some of the underused tactics. Let us show you two note-worthy options. 

Newsjacking

Newsjacking is the practice of capitalizing on popular news stories to drive traffic to your own site. While the name of that practice might suggest shady activities, when done right, newsjacking can be beneficial from the PR standpoint and can generate organic traffic for weeks to come. 

While the simplest of newsjacking would be to spin an angle on a popular news story to make it relevant to your industry, or sharing your commentary as an expert, there are more creative ways to go about it. 

Have you heard about McDonald’s losing their Big Mac trademark in Europe? When Burger King Sweden heard about it, they decided to exploit that to their advantage by poking a little fun and naming their sandwiches ‘Big Mac-ish but flame-grilled of course’ or ‘Like a Big Mac but actually big’. 

Nonetheless, stealing another’s brand’s spotlight is not a necessary SEO technique. Content marketing entails not only search engine optimization but also gaining referral traffic from sources such as social media channels, an email marketing campaign, guest posting, or video marketing. While it might seem like you’d need a massive marketing department to handle all of that, there is a much better solution.

Recycling and repurposing content

Recycling and repurposing content can generate more traffic with only some additional effort. It also makes scaling your audience easier by reaching people on different platforms and in different ways. If not all channels align with your audience’s preferences, repurposing content is bound to reach the nooks and crannies and bring you more customers. 

How can you repurpose and recycle content?

Assuming that you have the base – the first piece of content e.g. an article – you can now turn into a different kind of content:

• Illustrative video content,
• A podcast or a series of podcasts expanding on the subject,
• Various guest posts adding a host-specific angle,
• An infographic to be posted on social media,
• Gated content with the purpose of lead generation and/or exclusive content inside,
• A live webinar,
• Create a roundup or a learning hub,
• A course sharing your brand’s expertise on the subject,
• Organize a live event in collaboration with other experts.

Some Internet users prefer to read, others to listen, to watch, or to interact. And while your own site and social media might be one of the biggest players among the channels used in marketing in 2021, your SEO efforts should expand further beyond, preferably over most of the available channels.

Just remember that sharing old content with superficial updates is not content repurposing. While you can build off of something, old materials should not be reused just for the sake of attracting new customers without bringing any additional value.  

7. Loyalty programs

Continuously attracting new customers to the brand still doesn’t fully account for its success. Generating more sales through search engine optimization, guest blogging, finding new sources of website traffic or paid advertising is not enough to guarantee prosperity. That’s because returning customers spend 67% more than new customers. What’s more, the cost of acquisition of a new customer is 5 to 10 times higher than selling to an existing customer. 

Loyalty programs are on the rise and the reason is that they are effective. Despite the relatively saturated market (with more than 90% of companies having some sort of loyalty program), and the lesser importance of loyalty programs among younger generations, focusing on a program that maximizes value can bring a competitive advantage.

Loyalty programs can take many forms. However, the most common ones in the e-commerce world focus on gathering points either for the number of purchased items or for the money spent. What customers can receive in return is cashback, discounts, additional promotions, coupons, early access, free shipping, free products, or coupons for affiliated brands.

Additionally, providing an individualized loyalty program experience takes customer satisfaction to the next level. According to Bond’s Loyalty report, an increase in personalization of a program increases member satisfaction by over 6 times. That means that if the first-party data gathered on the user base is used in an efficient and relevant way, it can increase not only the feeling of brand affiliation but also customer retention and spend.

Overall, loyalty programs are a solid option for driving traffic to your brand but they do come with certain drawbacks as well.

Conclusions

Growing your business means expanding the reach of your advertising efforts. That can mean adding more advertising campaigns, cultivating mutually beneficial partnerships, targeting wider keywords, investing in search engine optimization, or buying into any of the ad tech industry’s trends.

However, just as much as going with tried and tested results might not work for your business, being innovative and thinking outside the box can bring varied results. Ultimately, it’s about what works best for your business, and the advertising market is filled with solutions that still have some untapped potential. 

We talked about contextual targeting as the best brand-safe way to increase traffic to your website. We also mentioned social media ads as many brands don’t look past social media influencers and the ad tech duopoly – thus missing out on underused platforms that have the capability to generate significant traffic. Next, we brought your attention to real-time bidding (RTB), which despite being a very popular method, is often omitted from brands’ advertising strategies. 

The list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning less conventional methods of gaining recognition such as helping out reporters or going big with augmented reality ads. Despite SEO ranking being on the mind of every website manager, strategies such as newsjacking or repurposing content can boost your brand’s organic traffic without taking a long time to complete. Lastly, loyalty programs are everywhere because they work. So, make yours count and keep the churn rate down.

Don’t know where to start? Start from the beginning!

Try contextual advertising with NewProgrammatic

The post 7 underutilized ways to drive traffic to your brand appeared first on NewProgrammatic Blog.

Mixing fake news with genuine digital advertising is not what any brand wants. That’s why it’s important to educate yourself on brand safety issues, and this article is written with that purpose in mind. 

What is brand safety?

Brand safety is taking measures to ensure that a brand’s digital marketing campaigns won’t appear next to any content that is deemed inappropriate, illegal, dangerous, or radically controversial. For example, content promoting illegal drugs, containing hate speech, or exhorting violence towards a particular social group would be deemed non-brand-safe. Moreover, websites containing potentially controversial keywords (e.g. black, gay, covid-19) could also be considered as potentially brand unsafe.

Brand safety is a long-existing issue that came to prominence in 2017 and was further highlighted in 2020.

The most infamous brand-safety incidents occurred in 2017. Google overlooked the monetization of offensive content on YouTube and through the Google Display Network. Later the same year, it was discovered that more violent and sexualized content was being monetized on YouTube. The two weren’t the only incidents occurring in 2017. Due to many other oversights that happened at the same time, the advertisers immediately stopped or limited their spending on non-search-related ad formats. Brands such as Guardian, AT&T, Verizon, Starbucks, Walmart, and more pulled their ad campaigns from YouTube.    

Although the events brought on many new changes and improvements in how YouTube content is moderated, some troubles resurfaced again in 2019, resulting in more boycotting from many brands. The advertisers weren’t the only ones affected. The purge has led to the demonetization of YouTube channels (some unfairly so) because of the content of the videos.  

Moreover, the topic of brand safety doesn’t usually stand alone. There are, in fact, two connected terms that should be known to marketers, media buyers, and anyone taking brand safety measures seriously. 

Brand suitability relates to the promotion of content on websites that are in agreement with the advertiser’s values while not necessarily being controversial or harmful. Brand suitability regards mostly the tone, the audience, and the kind of message the company propagates. 

Brand compliance relates to following guidelines and laws existing in a given area, e.g. local restrictions on gambling ads, site restriction on political content, or age restrictions disallowing advertisements of adult content or alcohol. Disobeying such laws results mainly in fines.

Why is brand safety important?

While it might be assumed that advertising is separate and independent from the content of the page where it appears, that is not entirely the case. Consumers create associations and while that can work in your favor when forming partnerships with other well-established brands, it’s been proven to have a negative effect via association with inappropriate content.

Consumers associate brands with the content they appear near as an implied endorsement of that content. A negative implied endorsement can have long-term impacts on brand equity for years to come.  

A good reputation of the brand is crucial to the success and prosperity of the business. Consumers are generally more likely to interact with a brand if the ads appear beside legitimate content. There is also a common belief held by the consumers that it’s the brand’s responsibility to position itself among the highest quality of content. Otherwise, the majority of polled consumers said they would stop using a brand if it appeared next to fake news or offensive content, according to a study by DoubleVerify. 

Furthermore, positive or negative associations have a direct impact on the performance of your digital marketing campaigns. In a case study undertaken by the IPG ad agency, ads placed on credible news sites saw a 9% reduction in CPM and a staggering 143% higher click-through rate than a control campaign. This effectively proved that using brand safety vendors creates an impression of quality and reliability among consumers leading to more genuine interest.

Lastly, first impressions matter. While a long-established brand might not suffer big losses in ad revenue from a single incident (and might even come back to the publisher, just like some companies boycotting YouTube came back later on), a smaller brand needs reliable sources to build credibility.

What are the brand safety measures?

Although it’s nearly impossible to measure brand safety by numbers, a set of criteria can be used to assess how safe a certain ad placement really is. 

Ad format/platform

Each ad format, platform, or ad placement carries a certain risk. In order to upkeep a brand’s reputation, it’s crucial to be aware of the risks and know how to avoid them. When it comes to ad display mediums, some are safer than others. For example, mobile in-app advertising is one of the most brand-safe solutions. That’s because the environment (the content of the app) is in most cases completely controlled. With additional targeting or blacklisting options enabled, the risk of safety violations is trivial.

When choosing an ad platform, make sure to check what kind of publishing partners your DSP works with. To give you an example, here at NewProgrammatic, we only pick partners that deliver both in the categories of user privacy as well as brand safety. Our ad formats come from trusted apps, browsers, and search engines such as Opera, Xiaomi, and Samsung. 

On the other end of the spectrum, we have, for example, native ad DSPs. Native ads appear on various sites with new content published daily. It’s impossible to control what kind of content appears around every ad placement, making them a non-brand-safe ad format.

Context

Unsafe content appearing alongside ads is what causes brand safety violations. This is usually reported by users and consumers at which point bad press for the company might be unavoidable. Context, unfortunately, is very difficult to control. Most of the time brands rely on the brand safety technology implemented by the publishers or advertising agencies. 

Environments within apps are the easiest to control. Websites and social media platforms can vary in provided safety measures, depending on the implemented solutions and the nature of each platform. In the case of advertising on news websites, key credibility factors include whether news platforms avoid deceptive headlines, correct or clarify errors, and differentiate between news and opinion.

Brand suitability

While brand suitability is a distinct concept it also plays a crucial role in brand safety. Depending on the brand’s target audience, the advertising campaign can vary in tone and values. While a health supplement brand wouldn’t want to appear next to an article on the uselessness of health supplements, an ad for a sports clothing brand with a target audience of teens and young adults wouldn’t blend in too well on a website on activities for seniors.  

In this case, publisher transparency on data and audience breakdown is critical in creating a brand-safe and suitable environment.   

Brand safety vs. ad reach

The issue of brand safety vs. campaign reach is another thing to consider. While using some ad formats and advertising methods (influencer advertising, banners on news sites, social media), filtering out the inventory can significantly limit the available audience. Advertisers who turn to elaborate blacklists (of keywords, channels, or publishers) are at risk of blocking a lot of the wanted content as well.

The BS technology is also labeling large swaths of mainstream sites’ pages as “unsafe” resulting in ad revenue being suppressed — e.g. “21% of economist.com articles, 30.3% of nytimes.com, 43% of wsj.com, and 52.8% of articles on vice.com are being labeled as “brand unsafe”. 

As sometimes separating the brand name from the other meaning of the word (Jaguar the car vs. jaguar the cat) is very difficult, there is a need for more advanced technology. Using context to determine the overall topic of the page, as opposed to URL only, is a good first step. 

​​“Brand safety has had some unfortunate, unintended consequences for publishers as it’s given them less inventory [that] they’re able to monetize…”

However, there are new contextual solutions on the way that are supposed to make it easier for the industry to remain brand-safe and brand-suitable without losing a significant portion of the inventory.

What can you do to ensure brand safety?

Brand safety in digital advertising is something not to be taken lightly. It affects the brand’s reputation and consequently the ad revenue and sales. There are, however, common strategies for gaining more control over where the brand ads appear. Let’s find out what their advantages and disadvantages are.

Whitelisting and blacklisting

This is something we’ve already mentioned. This is also one of the most popular brand safety practices. Blacklisting and whitelisting is the easiest way to keep marketing efforts on a narrow path of suitability and safety. By providing a whitelist, companies can choose who to compete with and what other brands they want to be associated with. However, this will limit the incoming traffic significantly.

On the other hand, by providing a blacklist they can avoid undesirable associations. However, similarly to whitelisting, it can cause ad reach to be significantly limited. Because of excessive keyword blocking and because of ambiguous keywords, ads can end up hidden from the wrong audiences, and sites can be wrongfully labeled as unsafe.

As mentioned by IAB, the need for more advanced contextual matching tools is propelled by the unavoidable mistakes in keyword matching. 

Private deals 

Because of the incidents with Google and YouTube in 2017, programmatic PMP deals have become much more popular. The immediate consequence was that 74.5% of digital display ads were run via private marketplaces in the US. 

PMP programmatic advertising is somewhat in between an open exchange and buying direct. It allows advertisers to set pre-bid targeting (as well as keyword blocking and whitelisting) and choose the inventory selectively. Private deals coupled with brand-safe ad formats are one of the best ways to ensure a high level of visibility while retaining safety. 

Buying direct

Buying direct from a publisher is a good option, as long as the publisher is open and transparent about their brand safety credentials. The publisher site should be fool-proofed against bot traffic, invalid traffic, shady practices, and the ‘dirty dozen’. The last point would require a multi-factor verification system for every article published on the site. Making sure the publisher has an automated semantic content analysis or a manual safety checkbox for every new article are additional steps that can (and should) be taken to ensure you are getting your money’s worth in safe ad placements. 

Use brand-safe ad formats 

Lastly, the best possible way for advertisers to protect the brand reputation is to use contextual or intent-based advertising. This way your ad will only appear in the context of keywords you want to target, be it brand keywords or generic keywords.

Moreover, since the ad tech industry is moving towards cookieless, privacy-oriented ad formats, contextual advertising has been highlighted as one of the best ways to get your message across while remaining compliant with many existing and upcoming laws. 

Conclusions

Although the topic has been brought to light as a consequence of Google’s and YouTube’s transgressions, it’s been on the minds of advertisers since the popularization of digital advertising. 

Most brands protect themselves by using whitelists and blacklists, however, such technologies are still deeply flawed and carry the consequences of limited ad reach and faulty exclusion of safe sites. Another good option is tightening the relationship between advertisers and publishers. However, as long as retargeting is used, there is no way to ensure an ad wouldn’t follow a consumer from a legitimate site to a darker corner of the web.

The perfect brand safety detection technology doesn’t exist yet. But brand-safe ad formats are already here.

Pick NewProgrammatic and play by the brand-safety rules.

The post The importance of brand safety in digital advertising – brand-safe solutions. appeared first on NewProgrammatic Blog.