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.
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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.

As the Internet grew and user behavior online changed over time, it became clear that search ads can no longer be based on one’s luck and hunch. The decade-old strategies are not effective anymore, and experts have to put much more effort into search ads in order to elevate their success rate.

Also, more and more often, some disappointed marketers’ voices could be heard behind the scenes. Why? It appears that in an era of increased focus on precise targeting, the market’s preeminent search engine advertising solutions like Google Ads have major limitations.

In this article, NewProgrammatic names major search advertising restraints and shows how alternative ads solutions could help marketers handle search advertising in 2022.

Single-line search engine advertising campaigns and strategies

A common marketing technique and really valuable practice for everybody in the search ads market industry is to try diversifying strategies for search and display ads.

Google search engine results pages are of course an immensely valuable source of both organic and paid traffic, but are certainly not the only tool that can be used to reach new audiences. Experienced advertisers have noticed that a long time ago, and they do not limit their actions to just one form of reaching internet users in their search results.

It is best to differentiate paid search advertising campaigns

It has been proven a long time ago that online advertising bears the best fruit (with the best online sales conversion rate) when approached with caution. Programmatic solutions help advertisers and brands by allowing more control over targeting parameters and bringing in a much-appreciated first-party data processing. What is also essential, is the fact that with this kind of tool, a brand can display ads on more niche-oriented search engines with a better chance of challenging their competition.

The broad and versatile operation brings beneficial intel to any marketing team. It helps determine which platforms, what keywords, and what configurations bring the best conversion rates and the highest ROI. This of course requires some increased ad budget, but such knowledge coming from a trial and error method could only become advantageous.

Most popular search engines can be too competitive

As these are the tools that offer the widest reach and the biggest audience, most brands, and companies want their campaigns to do the best in their paid search advertising offers on Google, Yahoo, Apple, or Bing. This is a completely understandable approach, but it works best on two occasions.

When do paid search ads work best?

1. When a company has close-to-unlimited advertising resources and could bid really high for a search ad placement. Most advertisers are not global market leaders and have no possibility of investing millions into search ads campaigns. This creates a situation where it is almost impossible to compete for a paid ad placement against the biggest brands on the most common keywords.
2. When a brand is niche-oriented. Most marketers discourage their brands from using generic keywords so that they do not have to compete against monopolists. Targeting very specific keywords is of course a practice that is increasingly gaining importance in the online marketing world, but it could be done also outside Google Ads, Yahoo Search Marketing, or Apple Search Ads. By using custom programmatic search ads exchange platforms, a brand can get access to specialized vertical search engines, niche-oriented queries, and intent-based traffic.

This allows brands to avoid standard SERP competition, as well as gives them a way to reach a user who is already purchase-driven. This type of audience is certainly first-class, as ad-receivers are already convinced to buy.

Giving the precisely targeted user an answer as to where to make a purchase will only become an asset. In this case scenario, the online advertising process and conversion funnel cease to be an unwanted necessity for the consumer. It actually becomes a much-needed helping hand.

Bigger ad spend means better search advertising results

The wider reach that most popular search engines offer elevates the CPC. Therefore, if any brand or marketer wants to increase their paid position in the most popular SERPs, budget adjustments are going to be a necessity.

It is also very important for any marketing team to remember about organic traffic. Organic search engine results bring new customers as well, attracting them via unpaid search results. Although major focus tends to be focused on programmatic advertising, the proper application of traditional SEO rules will only increase the brand’s chances of obtaining new users.

Changing users’ preferences and expectations

Every user of Google, Apple, Yahoo, Bing, or any other popular search engine should be familiar with how search advertising works. Some years ago this was not the case but as Clutch.co’s study suggests – currently 80% of search engines users are able to recognize paid placements in their SERPs.

Every brand and each marketer should be cognizant of these online search advertising trends in users’ behaviors and preferences. As the audience is aware of how they are being advertised to online, the changes in how online marketing is approached by advertisers are a necessity.

Modern user appreciates the facilitation of processes

What marketing specialists can do to increase their audience’s engagement while satisfying their expectations, is to answer to UX trends that are gaining importance. A modern Internet user expects to receive personalized ads that are actually helpful.

Therefore, by using custom programmatic solutions, advertisers are able to achieve a few goals at the same time. With browser-inserted tiles or search queries autocomplete, their audience becomes grateful for not having to go through multiple search results proposals.

Google search ads are, of course, immensely important, as they operate within the most popular search engine on Earth. The California-based company was responsible for more than 85% of desktop search traffic in 2021, and its advertising revenue reached $209.49 billion last year. When compared to 2020, it’s a 149% revenue growth. But all this does not mean traditional search advertising options should be the advertisers’ focal point.

In fact, increasingly more users try to skip the traditional SERPs, and would much rather be given a precise proposal while still typing their search query. What gives satisfaction to this type of user, is the fact that they are presented with an answer right away, without having to put much thought into the process. This is a result of the fact that currently humanity is being overloaded with information, and seeks facilitation wherever it is possible. A traditional top-of-the-page paid proposal actually becomes outdated in this case scenario.

Too broad of an audience

One of the most common mistakes of rookie advertisers is trying to reach every user out on the Internet without considering the actual targeting. This approach is destructible for the campaign, and it is a relict of the past times when marketing did not have the tools needed for precise audience picking. Nowadays, the industry understands that narrowing down the audience, alongside contextual targeting, is the most important factor of a successful campaign.

With custom search campaigns on NewProgrammatic, it is possible to increase the conversion rate and the ROI.

Intent-based targeting allows brands to display ads more effectively

To keep the highest standard of online paid search advertising, the brands need to remember how to safely, yet efficiently, find the best-fit users for the purposes of their campaign. Only thorough research and analysis of market data will effectively allow advertisers to narrow down their targeting.

The context of this targeting is also a very significant element of any marketer’s agenda. Experience shows that modern users are more likely to convert when they are satisfied with the circumstances in which they receive an ad. In terms of traditional programmatic display ads, this means that a product or a brand needs to be advertised in a contextually similar domain. With a search advertising campaign, the main point of focus should be making sure that it provides the exact answer to what the user expects to receive.

Too many choices for the users

This is another aspect of why most popular paid search campaigns fail to meticulously extract the best-converting audience. The broadness of these search engines’ reach (like Bing Ads or Google Ads) becomes the reason they are unable to specify their audience in other ways than with proper keyword combinations or geographical and demographic filters.

This once again brings the topic of immense competition in the traditional Google Ads market. What an advertiser can not do there, as precisely as with programmatic custom solutions, is to safely and effectively analyze users’ behaviors and preferences based on the first-party data they provide.

Programmatic solutions can access vertical search engines

Modern users tend to pay increased attention to the comfort of their searches. The last few years have shown the whole industry, that vertical search engines will play an incredibly important role in the future. Current user preferences include highly-specific and accurate industry-oriented searches that allow them to save time and limit unwanted results.

By reducing the search results pages to only those offers that really match users’ preferences, the audience manages to facilitate the buying process. Whenever a user decides on a purchase, they can use a particular search engine to receive the best fitting results. This gives advertisers and brands a perfect opportunity to utilize those for advertising purposes.

As the audience is more willing to share their behaviors and data with a safe operator, it is very easy to find purchase-oriented users and accordingly answer to their needs. As they already know their expectations, as soon as they are presented with the right proposal, they will not waste their time.

By carefully selecting only the best fit for users, a brand can impressively increase its conversion rate and ROI, while being fully compliant with users’ expectations.

Household names are in favor

With Google Ads (formerly known as Google Adwords), as well as with other leading search ads networks, it has been proven that a user is more likely to click on a paid suggestion if they recognize the brand. While this is heavily beneficial for creating a brand’s presence in the audience’s subconsciousness and thus gaining a better market position, it creates an uncomfortable situation for smaller advertisers.

Depending on a platform and ad format, the audience is 26% (Google Ads) or even 33% (Amazon and YouTube) more likely to get involved with an advertised brand that they are familiar with. These are the conclusions that could be found in Clutch.co’s research about the online marketing industry.

How can a brand get ahead of the competition in search advertising?

With this in mind, brand owners should be aware of the fact that unless they are big, household names in their industry, they could struggle with outperforming the competition. But there is a way of avoiding this uneven duel – omitting users’ SERPs and directing the audience to a landing page right away.

This is exactly what custom programmatic search advertising campaigns offer. By winning a bid on a highly specific keyword selection in a vertical search engine, a brand can be proposed to a user before they finish typing the query. Should they be interested in what they were offered, they will use the suggestion without searching through the search engine result page.

It allows a brand to become a well-tailored proposal for a specific user without the necessity to compete for their attention.

A good idea may not be enough

A study showcases the two factors that have the biggest influence on whether an audience member gets involved with an ad or not. The first one has already been mentioned, and it is the familiarity of a brand’s name. The latter is whether the proposed paid result answers the query or not. But the whole process is still a lot more incidental than marketers would want it to be.

With this kind of knowledge, any brand or marketer should take into consideration everything they can do, to increase search ads’ effectiveness. If an audience member is actively searching for a product or service, the advertisement should become the offer they can not leave unanswered. That is why a user-friendly optimization of campaigns is another good practice for a successful campaign.

Some advertisers struggle with competing for ad space

Although the most commonly used search engines offer the widest reach, not every advertiser will benefit from them to the fullest extent. Programmatic advertising has already proven that a random, but broad users scope is far less effective than a well-thought and narrowed-down targeted audience.

To make sure that campaigns stay as effective as possible, marketers need to understand how to overcome trouble with the limitations they encounter. Thankfully, alternative programmatic solutions, although not mainstream, could help outperform their competition.

NewProgrammatic offers a range of functionalities that can boost every brand’s online performance. These include edge-cutting Tiles Suggestions and Search Autocomplete options.

A focus on keywords

The best advertisers on the market use all their experience to find out which keywords will fit best the product or service. There is always a potential of boosting the campaign’s reach and conversion rate, but there is an expert needed to untangle the results.

As with major search advertising solutions, it is demanding to challenge the competition, custom programmatic search ads work just perfectly. Targeting certain keywords alongside thoughtful contextual targeting and an intent-based approach toward users not only helps marketers boost their ads but also adds up to a positive brand image. A modern customer will appreciate pertaining to the highest standards. At the same time, it will benefit brand safety, which is a greatly emphasized topic in 2022.

This is why, although the idea behind the advertised product or service may seem brilliant, effective marketing demands much more than this.

Conclusions

It turns out that what could be the answer to those advertisers’ problems, is the custom programmatic advertising solutions. As search engine marketing will not lose its relevancy in the years to come, it is a great practice for everyone in the industry to use non-mainstream programmatic tools.

Relying on the most popular search engines could become a trap for advertisers who do not want to exceed their ad formats portfolios. Marketers need to follow the latest trends and expand digital marketing possibilities towards less popular, but possibly more efficient programmatic tools.

Book a NewProgrammatic demo and find a way out of the most common search advertising problems.

The post 7 search advertising problems that can be solved with custom programmatic solutions appeared first on NewProgrammatic Blog.

But every year, inventions and improvements in ad-tech technology, as well as new advertising possibilities, emerge – and 2022 will be no different.

The below list of programmatic trends in 2022 will make a great cheat sheet for every marketer and brand looking to scale their business. 

Key trends for programmatic advertising in 2022

In this article, we have listed a set of the most important programmatic trends for 2022. Following those should be undoubtedly a significant point of any brand’s and advertiser’s agenda for this year.

It highlights the pivotal directions that the programmatic advertising industry will follow in the months to come, and as the year progresses, the programmatic advertising world will have a chance to track trends’ relevancy and adjust strategies.

UX-centric approach

One of the key programmatic advertising trends for 2022 for all the brands and advertisers is putting an increased effort into the UX. User demands are changing over time, so it is crucial to be regularly updated about the latest trends and behaviors.

Currently, brands need to take really good care of the user experience while being presented with their campaigns. As the audience tends to base their judgment on their comfort, the wisest marketing tactics would be to deliver the highest standard of service.

A two-way trust between a brand and its audience is beneficial for the well-being of any programmatic campaign in 2022. Modern internet users are highly conscious of their privacy but are not unwilling to share their data. The trust is being built by allowing them to choose who should be processing it and for what purposes.

Another trend that really helps brands achieve a desired level of UX is sustaining proper ad relevancy and intention-based targeting. By showing already purchase-driven users content they expect, brands can easily challenge competition while still delivering a pertinent ad to the audience.

Cookieless-based approach

Rising concerns over online privacy and third-party data circulation enforced major changes to the way information about users is perceived by brands and marketers. To win the audience’s trust, a company must be following the expectations regarding the usage of data within marketing efforts.

As a shift toward safe first-party data could have been worrying about some advertisers, in 2022 the trend will only intensify. Some brands worry that changes will disable all possible ways of audience targeting, but this concern is unfounded. With programmatic ad buying solutions relying on first-party data, advertisers are able to target their audience precisely based on their intent.

This is definitely something the whole industry should be really careful about. We recommend visiting our blogpost on the future of programmatic advertising in a cookieless world to find out more about the topic.

Leveraging first-party data

Following the patterns of third-party data processing is a trend that brands and marketers should follow in order to fulfill environmental expectations. Should a respected brand follow outdated, third-party cookies-based schemes and solutions, it could potentially lose credibility among the audience.

The marketing industry should firstly be highly aware of their target users’ preferences, and secondly, make the greatest use of first-party-based solutions. This way users’ online privacy inclinations are satisfied as the data is processed in a highly competent, safe, and professional manner.

NewProgrammatic ad exchange platform offers exactly that – proper data processing, and safe and user-compliant methods of receiving it.

Brand safety and brand visibility

Programmatic advertising enabled the whole marketing industry to really guard brands’ good reputations. The decision of trusting the programmatic buying solutions created a safe space for advertisers where they are able to filter out all the unwanted traffic and attract only a specific type of audience.

Using programmatic keyword targeting allows brands to focus on specific search queries and keywords. This filters out all the potential unwanted programmatic displays on unwanted domains.

This type of management has become a crucial part of creating a brand’s online presence and is definitely a beneficial marketing practice.

Many advertisers tend to forget how important the image of a brand (as media buyers) is when it comes to online advertising. Having a respected environment of ad display is, by all means, helpful, and raises the possibility of conversion with an engaged user is much higher.

The same solutions are being constantly used as a form of reaching the potential customer before the competition, as well as a way to build the brand’s presence and recognizability. Brand awareness among potential customers is the foundation of creating a strong position in the market. Programmatic ad tech is a solution that enables that at an unparalleled-before rate and precision.

New Generations of the programmatic advertising audience

The two newest generations of consumers and media users are revolutionary for the advertising industry, as both of them have been raised with broad access to technologies. Now that Gen Z and Millennials are making purchase decisions and are responsible for market trends, their behaviors and preferences should be taken into serious consideration by all the marketing industry – the programmatic field in particular.

New technology as a platform to deliver ads

With younger consumers being more technologically advanced and competent with different kinds of devices, it would be unwise for advertisers to neglect the rising importance of innovation.

The numbers represent it clearly. Statista presented us with research findings that claimed that in 2020 there were 83.7 million AR (Augmented Reality) and a combined 50,2 million VR (Virtual Reality) users in the U.S. only. This has become even more important, as both AR and VR tools are starting to be the cornerstone of metaverse advertising that is being intensely developed as per Q1 of 2022.

The predictions are that by 2023 the U.S. AR user count will increase to 110.1 million while the VR device user count will exceed 66 million. This exponential rise in popularity of those tech solutions will in fact be something to explore in the future, especially with metaverse possibly reaching new highs in the years to come.

Connected TV (CTV) ad opportunities

Programmatic CTV is also a trend that has been visible for a long time, and it refers to increasing accessibility to internet-connected TV devices. In 2022 Connected TV is more popular than ever, and streaming services have finally started to monetize their immense traffic by advertising.

Brands are once again given another chance to reach a new type of customer by accessing the content provider users’ first-party data. For advertisers, it means that they could narrow their targeting even more and contextually try to interest a specified type of viewer.

Search advertising possibilities

Voice search functionality was at first (when introduced at the beginning of the second decade of the XXI century) only innovation, and the market would not perceive it as a groundbreaking change.

But with the improvements in artificial intelligence, major upgrades of virtual assistants, and the introduction of smart devices (such as speakers), people have started to use voice search more intensively. Voicebot.ai report shows that over a third of adults have used this kind of search, and the numbers will be rising.

This tool is not only a great solution for visually and physically impaired users but also something that programmatic advertising professionals should look carefully into. Voice queries are usually longer than what a user would search by typing (even up to 5 or 6 words long), and most often have a form of a question rather than a keyword cluster.

The video ads sector is keeping its trajectory

Video formats are something that advertising brands embraced a few years ago when text-based formats had to give the floor to newer solutions. This is strongly based on user preferences, and the rising popularity of TikTok is only another proof of the concept.

Ephemeral video clips are clearly something that the audience seeks in 2022, and it’s a perfect opportunity for advertisers. The digital ad spend for video formats has also been rising, and as Statista predicts, in 2022, it will reach $43 billion. It is almost double of video programmatic ad spend from 2019, which was $24.5 billion.

Mobile importance

A good idea for any advertiser would be to really focus on mobile advertising opportunities. This relates both to implementing more mobile-friendly solutions and introducing programmatic advertising to new portable devices.

Wearable tech is yet another way of reaching ad receivers, as smartwatches, smart bands, and other smart devices become more accessible and are equipped with better screens now.

The marketing industry has already become almost entirely mobile-optimized in a response to user preferences and year-by-year mobile growth. This is definitely something that brands and advertisers should stick to and definitely good practice for any marketing team member.

Buy now – pay later platforms

When analyzing buy now-pay later platforms, marketers should have two perspectives in mind. The first one is user-centric, and the other focuses on how brands could benefit from engaging with such traffic sources.

For a brand, it is always beneficial to narrow the campaigns down to those users, who are already convinced to make a purchase. By approaching positive consumers, the marketer increases the conversion chance of a programmatic ad campaign, while basically doing the user a real favor.

The well-targeted campaign will be a perfect response to the search query, with the possibility of customer bouncing significantly decreasing. The buy now – pay later model enables more brand safety, as the trail of the user is more likely to lead to a conversion.

The studies show that younger adults have currently very little trust for any form of loan or credit. Simply delaying the payment without going into any debt is a perfect answer for their needs.

One of the most prolific buy now-pay later is of course Klarna, which recorded $80 billion gross merchandise volume in 2021. Offering both highly efficient Search Autocomplete and Tiles traffic, it showcases how efficient NewProgrammatic features can become in a capable advertiser’s hands.

What is also a very important peculiarity of this type of online shopping, is the fact that it most usually revolves around transactions of a higher cost. Buy now – pay later platforms are obviously most widely used during more expensive purchases. This is why it’s a very convenient tool for those brands that want to attract higher-spending users.

Vertical search engines

In order to receive exact and already-filtered search results, users have begun to pay increased attention to specialized search engines. Vertical search programmatic advertising allows the brands to really omit the traditional, horizontal search engine (like Google) struggle to position the ads.

Instead of that, marketers can reach users based on their intentions within vertical search engines. Those are really easy to find out, as in this case, the audience more eagerly shares their data. Most often, they visit the search engine in order to make a purchase. Reaching an already-convinced audience is one of the most effective strategies in the industry, and is highly recommended for all advertisers.

In-house programmatic advertising

Another trend that brands are currently intensively following, is the progressive shift towards in-house programmatic advertising.

In the past, due to the technological complexity of programmatic solutions, this particular area of marketing was slightly falling behind other fields of advertising in terms of the ongoing in-house shift. As most of the marketing (i.e., traditional advertising) was gradually absorbed by companies, marketing professionals focusing on programmatic ad solutions were still mostly outsourced. But as a broad understanding of the topic rose, more and more experts have been hired to operate in-house for the companies.

The in-house form of conducting campaigns imposes the necessity of having only the highest-skilled professionals on board. In this configuration, utilizing a trusted programmatic advertising platform could outperform any other form of outsourced programmatic ads operations.

This particular type of employment allows marketers to better fathom and plan a brand’s programmatic ads strategy, decreasing the operation’s expenditure and making space for more extensive programmatic ad spending. It is also a brilliant way of holding more control over successive steps of the campaign planning and bringing transparency to programmatic campaigns – without any external middlemen.

According to IAB’s 2020 research, as much as 74% of EU-based programmatic advertising was conducted in-house, while in the U.S. it reached 69%. The researchers expect both of those values to rise in the following years.

Intent-based ads

Based on 1st party processed by trusted publishers, quality programmatic advertising platforms allow marketers to bid for digital ad space that best reaches those members of the audience, who show the most probable intention of purchase.

While in the past this approach was heavily reliant on third-party cookies, nowadays thanks to programmatic advertising technology, marketers and brands are able to operate on first-party data.

Once again, it is an optimal practice for companies, especially since, although cookies and third-party data are still present online, they soon will be discarded. It’s also a matter of brand safety of the respected entities to follow new, privacy-focused trends. Otherwise, users could not be so eager to engage with a campaign they are being shown.

Contextual targeting

With programmatic advertising platforms, it becomes possible to display ads in accordance with the context of the website. Brands shall use this functionality for precise audience targeting – for example, sportswear brands will benefit most from programmatic display on sports-related websites, and not just any other domain. Approaching an interest-correlative audience thoroughly increases the chance of conversion, as relevant content will simply attract more users’ attention.

Keyword targeting

It has also become a good practice for advertisers to narrow down their campaigns by using keyword targeting. This is yet another form of contextual advertising which allows marketers to focus on bidding for a certain audience. This allows brands to reach a highly qualified and marginal type of relevant users, and also filter out all the unwanted traffic.

Although this method of targeting has been already recognized by worldwide brands for a long time, the new, cookieless online environment highlights the best qualities of this feature – brand safety and precision.

Conclusions

Every marketer and each brand that wants to stay relevant needs to pay close attention to trending user-behavior patterns, preferred technologies, and ad formats. This is to ensure the maximum efficiency of their campaigns.

Up-to-date knowledge of all the latest programmatic advertising trends is the only way for brands to fully reach the potential of their marketing campaigns. Escalating intent-based and contextual targeting is one way to do that.

Most of the programmatic trends for 2022 will be continuations of what the industry started noticing in the previous years. Still, neglecting those could turn out to be a critical mistake, as doing so could potentially decelerate brand development.

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But if you think that you know exactly what search ads are, and that everything has been already said about search advertising in 2022, then you might wanna take a second to read through this article. 

The programmatic advertising landscape is constantly changing, and so is search advertising.

That’s why below you’ll find a comprehensive overview of the search advertising industry in 2022, as well as industry insights on how to make an informed decision choosing brand-safe and user-friendly ad solutions for your business.

What are Search Ads? 

Search ads are part of programmatic ad inventory, displayed specifically on search engine results pages. Although the most common type of search ads is the search text ads, other types of search-based ad formats are also available. 

This is because search advertising, also known as SEM (Search Engine Marketing), PPC (Pay-Per-Click), or CPC (Cost-Per-Click) includes various ad formats, such as search text ads, product listing ads, search tiles, or search autocomplete ads. Basically, all kinds of sponsored ads that are shown before organic search results. 

Search Engine Text Ads (eg. Google Search Ads, Bing Search Ads, etc.)

Search engine text ads are probably the earliest form of search advertising. They’re displayed right on the first page of the search engine results, just above the organic results. To help users understand that what they see on top of the page is actually sponsored ads, search text ads have this additional information included right next to them. For example, Google search ads are simply marked with a small “AD” tag.

Product Listing Ads (eg. Google Shopping Ads, Facebook Shopping Ads, etc.)

Product listing ads are the second most popular type of search ads. The main difference between product listing ads and regular search engine text ads is that they provide users with key product information on the go. This allows to shorten users’ path to conversion and help them make the purchase decision quicker. This is also why product listing ads are often referred to as shopping ads or dynamic product ads (with Google, Facebook, or Instagram shopping ads being the top players). 

Search Tiles Ads (eg. NewProgrammatic, Amazon, Chrome, Mozilla, etc.)

Search tiles, sponsored tiles, shortcut tiles, or query tiles are yet another form of search advertising. Search tiles are in fact static ad placements native to the website/app they’re featured in. This type of search ads differs from text or product listing ads not only in terms of a native and minimalistic look (they would only feature a logo or a simple icon-like image) but also in the way users interact with such ads.

Since search tile ads are straightforward as to what they advertise, people looking for a specific brand or product don’t need to get into too many details rather than instantly click on a sponsored tile and visit the advertised website. Even though search tiles may not seem as common as classic search text or product ads, more and more platforms start to offer search tile solutions as part of their search advertising inventory. 

Search Autocomplete Ads (eg. NewProgrammatic, Brave, Opera, etc.)

Search autocomplete ads or search bar ads are, again, yet another type of search advertising available on the market. The most interesting thing about the search autocomplete solution is that it allows marketers to serve ads even before users actually complete their search. This is because just as users start to type in their query into the search bar field, keyword-matching mechanisms serve relevant ads in a form of autocomplete suggestions. To differentiate the sponsored suggestions from organic suggestions, search autocomplete ads are usually marked with an “AD” info next to them — just like classic search engine text ads.  

How do Search Ads work?

Although all types of search ads are user-input-dependent, the mechanisms behind each type of search advertising solution differ depending on its type, the platform that serves it, and the technology used by publishers. For example:

• search engine text ads require different content (text information) and ad delivery technology than product listing (visual + key product information) or search tiles ads (minimalistic visual only).
• search engines like Google or Yahoo offer a broader range of advertising inventory (which also means higher competition) rather than a closed app inventory like Facebook or Instagram (offering better targeting options).
• search advertising platforms differ also in terms of their SSP and DSP relations — some need to work with external and/or direct partners to provide the supply, others rely on their internal user base.
• search ads providers offer various ad bidding models, too, that range from static, waterfall to header bidding (including the real-time bidding model). 

Depending on the search advertising provider, marketers and brands need to comply with various ad serving, bidding, and integrations mechanisms. Each platform should be able to provide extensive information on how their search inventory is monetized, served, and optimized for the best performance. So, once a given brand or marketer makes a decision on who to work with, they should contact their platform of choice directly and comply with offered formats, or ask for custom monetization solutions if needed. 

Where to run Search Ads campaigns? Top Search Ads providers.

The common misconception regarding search advertising is that it is only possible with search engine platforms. And although at the dawn of advertising times search ads may have been limited to platforms like Google or Yahoo, the programmatic reality has changed entirely. 

Now, search ads can be run not only with the biggest players in the online advertising space but also with more specific or niche-related platforms allowing for precise user targeting. To help you decide on the best partner for your search ads campaigns, have a look at the following overview of top search advertising platforms

NewProgrammatic

Let us begin with our domestic solution. Why we do it is because, in our humble opinion, NewProgramamtic really is a performance marketing platform that’s designed to capitalize on customers’ intent before they even get to the search results page. Hence, ultimately shortening customers’ path to the searched brand and giving marketers a headstart with their campaigns.

What NewProgrammatic search advertising platform does is help match an already engaged audience with ads featuring relevant content thanks to direct integrations with top publishers in the e-commerce, fashion, beauty, or travel industry (including search engines, apps, marketplaces, etc.) — all done in brand-safe and cookieless way.

NewProgrammatic offers a self-serve platform across our two flagship ad formats — Search Autocomplete and Search Tiles ads (both working on a CPC basis) — as well as custom-made solutions. 

You might be surprised to see some of the world’s largest brands rely on NewProgrammatic ad serving technology, but just as the ad-tech world changes, so should brands’ search advertising strategy. Especially given the recent shift towards vertical marketplaces observed among the purchase-ready customers. 

Remember you can always book a discovery call with our programmatic experts to see how NewProgrammatic can help your business.

Amazon

Amazon Search Advertising platform is by far one of the most powerful ways to utilize search advertising. Just like with Google ads, whenever users input a keyword into the search bar on the Amazon website, the top results would usually feature sponsored listings marked as ads.

Advertisers choosing to promote their products on Amazon can choose from sponsored product ads, headline search ads, as well as product display ads. Given that Amazon is able to power its advertising algorithms with the actual buying data, the Amazon user targeting system is believed to outdo Google’s AI and provide even better results to both advertisers and users alike. 

Interestingly, what NewProgrammatic and Amazon advertising solutions have in common is that both operate within closed marketplace ecosystems — Amazon ads being native to its own marketplace platform, and NewProgrammatic enabling search advertising for various types of marketplace platforms, e.g. BNPL apps, coupon sites, etc.

Google Search Ads

Google Search Ads platform is the largest search ad provider offering a number of ad formats across all types — search text ads, shopping ads, banner ads, video, etc. Which doesn’t come as a surprise given that Google is the largest search engine in the world, too, occupying more than 90% of the market. 

But being the biggest search ads provider also means that the competition among Google advertisers is just as high as the volumes of available traffic. That’s why advertisers need to be either very careful with their budgets running such broad campaigns, or need to be really skilled at precise campaign targeting among google search results. Especially given the Google Ad Rank mechanism and the second-price bidding system that makes the competition even tighter, and Google a bit picky when it comes to ad exposure. 

Apple Search Ads

Apple Search Ads, though a little different from other search ad solutions listed here, are undeniably an important part of the search advertising landscape. Apple search ads focus on mobile app advertising only, helping app owners reach highly interested and well-targeted audiences. Additionally, Apple App Store is reported to outperform Google Play in generated revenue even though Google Play may be generating double the downloads count. 

This proves that a limited reach, yet targeted at a higher-income and brand-loyal segment of the audience may actually turn more profitable even at a much smaller scale. 

Microsoft Bing Ads

Microsoft Bing Ads, previously known as Bing Ads, work on a similar basis to already mentioned Google Search Ads. Both ad formats work on a second price auction system and are powered by keyword input based on user searches in the Bing Microsoft browser. 

What’s important to note is that although Google holds the majority of the market share, Microsoft Bing Ads amount to 12 billion monthly searches globally. Such results prove that even a much smaller audience (in comparison to Google’s 90% market share) can still feature significant numbers of potential users. According to Microsoft Advertising Platform itself, importing your Google Ads campaign to Microsoft Ads allows you to reach up to 44 million US desktop users that Google won’t reach. 

Microsoft Bing Ads inventory includes text ads, app install ads, dynamic search ads, product ads.

Yahoo Ads

Yahoo ads cannot be discussed here without mentioning the Verizon Media Group cluster consisting of the Yahoo Gemini platform, as well as other Verizon properties like AOL, the Huffington Post, TechCrunch, and many others. Another point to note is the arrangement between the Verizon Group and Microsoft Bing ads, stating that the extended partnership will make all Yahoo search inventory available through the Bing Ads platform, while Bing Ads will continue to serve all AOL search inventory, according to the Search Engine Land article. 

What seems like an interesting partnership in terms of the search advertising industry is naturally a strategic move in cutting down on any share of Yahoo search inventory that Google may have served prior to the agreement. 

The Yahoo Gemini platform delivers various search ad formats across text, image, video as well as app environments, and thanks to joint partnerships is able to serve billions of ad impressions to users around the world. 

Yandex Ads

Yandex Ads are offered by one of the largest ad-tech companies, and one of the main search engines in Russia, which is often considered to be Google’s counterpart in that region. So, if a brand wants to tap into the Russian audience segment, then Yandex ads become a natural choice.

Offering a number of PPC ad formats (banner ads, video ads, ads for mobile apps, dynamic ads, text and image ads, and naturally – search ads) across various devices (website, mobile apps, smart TV, and video), Yandex manages to attract billions of monthly users securing its spot as one of the top search advertising platforms in Russia. 

And even though the American tech giant may not like it, Yandex keeps growing as a company working on developing its own technological solutions to help performance marketers reach their goals and attract an even bigger share of the Russian audience. 

Baidu

Baidu Advertising is yet another example of how a region native advertising platform/search engine takes priority over the global solution. 

That’s because the Baidu search engine, and hence its search advertising platform, is a Chinese counterpart to Google  — just like the Yandex Ads in Russia. Only looking at the Chinese search engine market share split, Baidu holds over 76% of it (leaving Google far behind) though it is, in fact, limited to the China region alone. 

The way the Baidu PPC search advertising network works doesn’t differ much from Google, Yahoo or Yandex solutions, offering extensive targeting and tracking options for all the available ad formats. These ad formats include Baidu search, display, in-feed, and brand ads.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo Search Engine is a privacy-focused search engine solution created in response to the growing concerns regarding how user privacy is handled by global tech giants like Google or Facebook. Since its inception in 2008, the DuckDuckGo search engine kept growing its privacy-concerned audience and hence reached over 90 million daily queries in October 2021, placing itself as one of the major competitors to Google on the US market. 

It’s important to note, though, that DuckDuckGo advertising operates via the Microsoft Advertising platform, just like the Bing or Yahoo ads. Nevertheless, DuckDuckGo protects user privacy by withholding any user-specific information. Its advertising solutions are based on keyword matching alone, which provides intent-based ads in a user-friendly form — similarly to NewProgrammatic. 

YouTube

YouTube Advertising Platform, though coming last in this article’s overview, should not go unnoticed — and that includes all the markets that don’t specialize in video marketing, too. 

YouTube is the second biggest online platform in the world, with over 2 billion logged-in visitors monthly. Also, becoming part of the Alphabet Inc. parent company together with Google, regular Google text ads have also been enabled on YouTube search results based on user keyword input on mobile devices. Apart from Google text ads being visible among the video search results, programmatic video advertising offers yet another stream of profit for performance marketers running Youtube campaigns.

Interestingly, although both platforms — Google and YouTube — fall under the same company umbrella, and both are in fact search engines, there’s a drastic difference between how videos are searched (and the returned results) on both platforms. Also, YouTube is predicted to outdo its sister company (and many others) soon given the increasing shift in user behavior and online trends towards video content, as well as moving away from the broad search engines towards vertical ones. Brand marketers — keep watching. 

Conclusions

The advertising industry has come a long way since its humble beginnings in the print form to the AI-powered global ad-tech ecosystem it is today. And just as the world has changed, so have consumer trends and needs, which both brands and performance marketers need to accommodate. That’s why staying on top of industry trends while ensuring that user-privacy and safety measures are put in place is essential for any marketing strategy to pass the test.

In 2022, more than ever, time and health are more precious than money. This also means that brands wanting to engage in quality relationships with their customers and help them go through the buying process as seamlessly as possible need to take that into account and help improve the process even further. People want to find things fast, and they want the findings to be accurate and relevant. 

That’s why the broad search engine advertising may soon lose to ad solutions that deliver the desired content, only where people actually go look for it.

Wondering if NewProgrammatic is right for your business?  
Book a demo call. Let’s talk.

The post What are Search Ads and How do they work in 2022?<span class="badge-status" style="background:#00e5d1">NEW</span>  appeared first on NewProgrammatic Blog.

But there came a shift in digital marketing when browsers started introducing more user-oriented privacy settings. Third-party cookies became the villain of the story and digital advertising started developing in a completely different direction. 

In 2022, we are facing a cookieless future of advertising. Here is what digital marketers can expect from 2022 and the following years.

The death of device ID

Device ID has been the backbone of digital advertising for years. After all, the majority of the population uses mobile devices, and most hold onto them at all times. There was never a better way to gather information about a person’s habits, likes, and dislikes. 

In 2016, Forbes reported that people didn’t mind exchanging privacy for rewards. Sharing some of our data with a company in exchange for discounts and reward points seemed like a good idea at the time. 

In 2022, that’s no longer the case. Consumers want a say in how their personal data is used and additional rewards are rarely considered a fair trade-off. In the past, advertisers relied heavily on device identifiers to track browsing habits, purchases, and downloads. But that will have to change after the results of Apple’s decision to offer users a choice. From iOS 14.5 up users have to opt-in (rather than opt-out) to be tracked by every single app they have installed on their devices. As it turns out, the monthly opt-in rate has not exceeded 25%.

Since then, there’s been a shift in advertiser spending towards Android devices. Losing granular data has pushed many marketers to look for other options. However, as stated in one of Google’s policy updates, from April 2022, regarding all Android phones, tablets, and Android TV:

“[…] when a user opts out of interest-based advertising or ads personalization, the advertising identifier will not be available. You will receive a string of zeros in place of the identifier.”

Consequently, device ID might not be the most reliable identifier going forward.

The renaissance of contextual targeting

Behavioral data is steadily becoming harder to obtain. Because of growing restrictions and expanding privacy control for users, the data supply chain is breaking down. So how can advertisers make sure that ads are reaching the desired audience?

There are multiple strategies for navigating the cookieless, privacy-oriented industry. But one of them has a clear advantage in terms of durability. That’s contextual targeting. 

According to Statista, 68% of marketers in the United States are familiar with contextual advertising. This is, perhaps, the most native form of advertising, which focuses on matching ads with the theme of what’s currently at hand, rather than browsing history and habits. A recent study also suggests that contextually matched ads are easier to remember and are viewed as an integral part of the reading experience.

“Endemically matched ads, or those that align with and match the surrounding content based on vertical (e.g. auto ad near auto content), drove a 23% lift in activation within the part of the brain responsible for memory of practical details, which includes key messages, calls to action, and branding elements.“

What’s more, while browsing history can be wrong (as is in the case of shared devices or ads for a product appearing long after the product has been purchased), placing ads in the relevant context ensures that the reader is looking at an ad of something they’re actively learning about.

While relying on data, and especially third-party cookie data, used to be considered the most efficient method of targeting, it’s always been unclear whether it pays off. In 2019, WSJ reported that “publishers only get about 4% more revenue for an ad impression that has a cookie enabled than for one that doesn’t.” 

The price they’re willing to pay, however, is disproportionate. 

User experience comes first

Cookies are going away because consumers were fed up with them. Digital advertising went to great lengths to serve as well-targeted ads as possible. Many users began to feel watched and even listened to. 

So how can the advertising market change to accommodate the needs of the consumers?

Apart from the above-mentioned solution – contextual advertising, there are further steps that need to be taken to ensure a good consumer experience. People hate to be interrupted. They find it uncomfortable to be followed, and they prefer shopping in apps to websites. 

According to a study conducted in 2020, 43% of respondents are not comfortable with sharing information to receive more relevant ads and 35% would like to dictate data collection preferences. 

It has been found that consumers use emotions rather than information in evaluating a brand. It is likeability that drives purchase decisions, not legitimacy, information, and claimed superiority of the product. Hence, the future of advertising will focus on creativity and unobtrusiveness. Autoplaying video ads and audio ads on music streaming services are considered to be annoying by over 50% of respondents. These are not the recommended strategy for 2022.

Advertising and seamless experience can go hand in hand. For example, choosing in-app mobile advertising and direct partnerships should provide a better result than interstitial advertising. What’s more, in-game advertising is yet another option to display ads in a non-disruptive way, possibly in a contextually relevant environment. On the other hand, research and case studies were the most trusted forms of advertising.

Brand safety as an indispensable part of digital advertising

Brand safety is an existing issue that gets increasing attention due to arising social conflicts and issues. In 2017, there was a series of incidents where ads were displayed next to offensive content on the YouTube platform. It resulted in many advertisers moving their campaigns to other advertising platforms. 

As a part of a smooth user experience, displaying adverts in an environment that creates negative associations is something every advertiser is actively trying to avoid. And while most advertising platforms are doing their best to adhere to brand safety standards, the advertising dollars of big brands will flow towards the most brand-safe options. And so should yours. 

Keeping online ads in a safe and suitable space can be achieved in a variety of ways. 

• Whitelisting and blacklisting keywords in contextual advertising allows brands to narrow down the context in which the ads appear. Companies can not only block keywords with intrinsically negative connotations, but also those that don’t match the theme of the brand. 
• Private deals and buying directly from a publisher is a strategy that allows for complete control over the ad space and its context. In that case, the quality of the ad space depends on the publisher. As long as there is a proper context moderation system in place, direct access to the publisher’s inventory can provide the most value.
• Brand-safe ad formats are, of course, the ideal solution. Intent-based advertising is about displaying ads in circumstances where customers are actively searching for a product. Ad formats like Search Autocomplete or Tiles offered by NewProgrammatic meet the highest standards of brand safety by taking consumers straight from the search bar to the brand’s website. Cutting out the middle step of displaying an ad in context. 

The future of advertising lies in brand-safe environments. Read the article on the importance of brand safety to learn about how brand-safe ad formats can improve your business.

The future of digital ads lies in user willingness to opt-in

Sooner or later, third-party cookies are going away. Giving a chance to opt-out of being tracked proved just how much the world doesn’t appreciate the notorious tracking practices. However, there is a large part of users who are willing to share their data for an enhanced experience.

There is no place for third-party data in the future of advertising. The Internet has made it clear – tracking cookies and rampant data sharing is not something that enhances the browsing experience. First-party data, on the other hand, gives advertisers the ability to target users who want a more personalized experience.

After all, sharing one’s habits and transactions in exchange for being the first to know about promotional campaigns and trends seems like a fair deal to 44% of users according to one study. 

Unfortunately, the definition of acceptable personalization varies from one consumer to another. Delivering messages with the right content at the right time can, however, be facilitated through the use of first-party data which is more likely to be shared by the consumer. 

“74% of consumers are willing to share preferences, interests, and demographic information directly with brands if that would improve their online shopping experience.”

Video advertising as the key to reaching younger audiences

The younger generation is driving up the statistics for video ads. According to Forbes, there is a clear societal shift where teenagers and young adults are moving away from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter (which are now filled with political content) and towards visual-based platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok. 

Advertisers who intend to engage the younger generation of consumers, need to remember that the requirements for grabbing user attention will be completely different. For once, video content and human creativity are what gets the attention. 

With Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework making it more difficult to track engagement, video advertising can give brands newfound leverage. Cisco estimates that video will account for 82% of internet traffic globally by 2022. Expert predictions also see the rise in popularity of user-generated content and AR and VR content. 

The next decade is bound to see many technological advancements and a lot of them will be tied to video. Multiple platforms with social aspects invest in more video making and sharing options for the community and the advertising industry is following right behind. 

Companies who want to appeal to younger users should adjust their creative messaging to make it suitable for social media. Studies have found that ads on TikTok are more memorable than those found on other platforms. The future of advertising depends largely on the younger audience and so far it seems that video ads are in high demand. 

Mobile takes over the advertising industry

While spending on desktop advertising is facing a slight decline, mobile advertising keeps growing. And while this is not news to anyone from the technology industry, the continuous growth of mobile advertising means that in 2022 more brands will shift their budgets. 

Adoption of mobile devices has always been high for younger demographic groups, however, there has been a rapid growth in the percentage of older adults who now own a smartphone. 

As of 2021, 96% of those aged 18 to 29 and 61% of adults over 65 own a smartphone. What’s more, while it’s still the smallest number out of all the age groups, the percentage of older users who use social media has grown four times in the past decade.

In 2022, social media apps are most frequently used on mobile devices and customers prefer shopping via apps over the browser version of the shop website. They’re also 200% more likely to engage with the brand through mobile devices. 

What’s important to remember is that mobile advertising only works if it’s done well. Companies that run promotions and create engagement strategies for mobile devices need to remember one thing – optimization is key. Slow loading time, issues with image display, or bad user experience are likely to deter users from seeking that brand’s services again.

Conclusions

The future of advertising lies in inobtrusive technology that follows the latest privacy directives and provides a high-quality user experience. The choice of sharing data belongs to every consumer. The value provided by companies will determine how much of that data will be shared. And if you don’t have the means to shape the brand’s relationship with consumers, you need to switch to privacy-oriented contextual advertising. 

NewProgrammatic provides ad formats that can shape the future of digital advertising. 

Book a demo and learn more.

The post The Future of Advertising – The biggest changes coming to online marketing in 2022<span class="badge-status" style="background:#00e5d1">NEW</span>  appeared first on NewProgrammatic Blog.

While there are plenty of benefits to digital meetups, there is no denying that live events provide unmatched networking opportunities. This year, thanks to loosening restrictions, many key organizers are gearing up to bring back the digital marketing events as we know them from before. 

Media buyers, entrepreneurs, business owners, and agencies are all looking for insights, experience, and most importantly, networking opportunities. To ensure no deadline is missed, it’s best to make a list of potentially valuable events ahead of time. 

To make it easier, we’ve listed summits, conferences, and expos that are not only relevant to the programmatic industry but also worthwhile to attend for anyone interested in growing a brand in a digital space.

NRF 2022 Retail’s Big Show

The NRF 2022 Retail’s Big Show conference brings together representatives from retail companies all over the world. This event is not limited to digital marketing. The sessions cover a wide range of topics, from entrepreneur and investment advice to innovation and opportunities. The NRF Big Show is an experience tailored to retail visionaries.

Since 2018, the event organizers have put greater focus on showcasing new technologies from both online and offline retail spaces. Consequently, a part of the event is dedicated to budding solutions that aim to revolutionize the retail space. 

RampUp 2022

RampUp is a conference where marketing technology enthusiasts meet to discuss the future of the industry. The 1.5-day event encompasses sessions on dealing with the most pressing digital marketing issues as well as strategies on improving data handling, partnerships, and performance optimization strategies.

This year, RampUp will be happening in hybrid mode. What’s more, all participants will be given the possibility to access the sessions online, regardless of whether they participated live or online.

Mobile World Capital (MWC)

Mobile World Capital Barcelona is an annual event dedicated to the mobile communications industry. The participants usually include such technological giants as Facebook, Nokia, Ericsson, Intel, LG, or Vodafone. The theme for 2022 is Discover Connectivity Unleashed and the event is directed at business and marketing professionals from the mobile advertising sector.

While two previous editions encountered hiccups and presenter withdrawals caused by the pandemic, this year, the event is anticipated to meet the standard of the pre-pandemic editions, while offering the added benefits of the hybrid model.

The date of the MWC Los Angeles Edition is yet to be announced, while the MWC 2022 Shanghai Edition will be happening June 29th – July 1st. 

Affiliate World Global

Affiliate World Global is the official offline meeting place for affiliate marketers from all over the world. The conference intends to focus on all things affiliate marketing, with special emphasis on Facebook ad tracking, lead generation, eCommerce, and additional sessions on pressing topics such as email marketing, native advertising, or chatbots.

This edition of the Affiliate World conference will actually combine two previously canceled events – Affiliate World Europe 2021 and Affiliate World Asia 2021. All attendees receive a special pass to replay sessions online for 3 months after the event.

Affiliate Grand Slam 

Affiliate Grand Slam is yet another digital marketing event that brings together the industry leaders, innovators, affiliates, companies, and businesses operating within the sphere of online marketing. While the in-person gathering is about scouting for business opportunities in the world of affiliate marketing, search and programmatic enthusiasts can still benefit from the shared knowledge.

With two editions – one in Dubai and the other one in Europe, the event tackles such topics as digital ad tech and upcoming technological revolutions, marketing automation, market trends, e-commerce, social media marketing, content creation, and many more. 

The 2022 editions are set to begin as planned.

LeadsCon

LeadsCon is a meetup point for lead generation and performance marketing enthusiasts from all over the world. This digital marketing event offers its participants the opportunity to discover new business partnerships, gain strategic insights on performance marketing and lead generation as well as introduce practical solutions for dealing with the ever-changing market.

While most attendees of LeadsCon are lead buyers and agencies, this is an important event for agencies and marketing professionals from all corners of the online marketing industry.

Affiliate Summit

Affiliate Summit is yet another conference with multiple locations. The conference revolves all around scaling online businesses in the fast-growing retail environment. The event is aimed at affiliates and media buyers working with the ecommerce industry but it’s also the perfect place to search for innovative ideas to grow your business. 

The affiliate summit is split into 4 in-person events although not all of them are planned to take place this year. 

Search and Performance Insider Summit 

Search and Performance Insider Summit is the first conference on the list that focuses strictly on programmatic marketing. This is a must-attend digital marketing event for performance marketers, agencies, and business leaders in search of technology companies providing the latest trends in programmatic advertising solutions. 

Previous editions of SPIS provided new insights into programmatic strategies after COVID-19. They also touched upon the ongoing changes in terms of growing privacy concerns. We can only expect the new edition to offer more valuable insights on the critical updates in the sphere of online privacy.

Digital Marketing Expo & Conference (DMEXCO)

The Digital Marketing Expo & Conference is an annual event gathering the best of the best from the digital marketing industry. This is the largest conference tackling the subject of digital advertising and the program is so varied as to appeal to any kind of audience. DMEXCO offers seminars, debates, expositions, and masterclasses. It also covers a wide array of marketing channels, including programmatic. 

Last year’s event didn’t shy away from topics like privacy changes, brand safety, and upcoming cookieless revolutions. It’s safe to say we can expect a lot more of that this year.

Traffic & Conversion Summit

Traffic & Conversion Summit lasts 3 days and is packed with sessions straight from industry leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators. The agenda includes the staple of digital marketing, that is, future predictions, social and influencer marketing, content, email, automation, e-commerce strategies, and a corner for media buyers.

Whether you choose the in-person event providing an unmatched networking experience or the virtual digital marketing event that can be comfortably experienced from anywhere in the world, there is bound to be something valuable for all niches of the advertising community.

Digiday Publishing Summit

While the Digiday Publishing Summit is on the expensive side, the networking functions of the event are unlike any other. On top of three days of discussions and insights, attendees are granted two or four eight-minute sessions with publishing executives of their choice. The one-on-one meetings are what makes this digital marketing event special. 

The publishing summit will be happening in person. The differently priced passes vary only in the number of one-on-one sessions available and the benefit of early access booking. 

Note: September edition as well and the Europe edition are yet to be announced.

Brandweek

Brandweek is a conference from the leading source of digital marketing information – Adweek. The event, just like the rest of the platform, touches on topics from the advertising industry, such as innovative technology, content strategy, privacy issues, brand building, and anything in between. 

While the organizational details for 2022 are still tentative, previous editions included attendees from just about every sphere of life e.g. sports, social media, food, fashion, technology, transport, and many more.

Digiday Media Buying Summit

Digiday Media Buying Summit is another digital marketing event hosted by the Digiday crew. This time, focused on media buying, the summit will deal with challenges and opportunities the mid-pandemic world will bring to agencies as well as business and marketing professionals. 

Similar to the Digiday Publishing Summit, the event offers the unique benefit of accessing special one-on-one sessions with executives of one’s choice and the number of such sessions depends on the level of pass purchased.

What? Digiday Media Buying Summit

When? March 7th – 9th

Where? New Orleans 

Moscow Affiliate Conference (MAC)

While there is still little information on the 2022 MAC edition, last year’s event had around 3000 attendees and 2 full days packed with top agencies and media buying professionals. While the majority of attendees fall under the category of webmasters and marketers, programmatic newbies and gurus alike can benefit from the event.

The 2020 digital marketing event had to be postponed due to the Covid outbreak, however, the 2021 edition took place as planned and there are no issues anticipated for 2022 either.

Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit

Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit is yet another version of the previously mentioned events by Digiday. This time, the focus lies solely on programmatic strategies. While third-party cookies are dying, programmatic marketing is changing rapidly. 

The leading experts of the industry will attempt to answer the most burning questions regarding the new programmatic landscape.

Web Summit

Web Summit has been called the world’s premier tech conference. In 2021, it brought together over 40k people including many senior leaders and technology pioneers of the vast webspace. The event is not limited to digital advertising but focuses on the whole online entertainment industry, including eCommerce. 

Last year’s topics included such niches as advertising, crypto, gaming, investment, leadership, sport, social media, and many many more. In short, there is no company that wouldn’t fit the criteria to benefit from this conference. 

eCom World

Ecom World is the largest e-commerce conference that comes exclusively in an online form. It deals with the topic of leading and growing an e-commerce business from the ground up. Consequently, the topics cover every aspect of such an operation, including customer service, store design, brand building, and advertising (including search advertising).

It’s possible to attend as a solution provider or a freelancer, brand, or e-commerce store. The difference between the kind of ticket is the option to get featured on the marketplace, plus prolonged access to conference benefits.

Hero Conf 

Hero Conf is a meeting place for brands, agencies, and SaaS companies from all over the world. The event is aimed not only at professional-level enterprises but also at freelancers and affiliate marketers that are only getting into the business. PPC advertising is the theme of this conference.

Hero Conf comes in two editions. The schedule for the Austin event is already out and it includes such topics as Programmatic Advertising for PPC Experts. So, while this isn’t strictly a programmatic event, it will be useful for business and marketing professionals who want to expand their knowledge.

Search Love Conference

The Searchlove Conference is a two-day event offering all kinds of skill-building workshops. Despite the name, the conference covers a much broader range of subjects than search. From SEO, analytics, and customer experience to email marketing, search and Google algorithm updates, Searchlove provides value to anyone from the digital marketing sphere.

Searchlove comes in three in-person editions. What’s more, all attendees can access the slides after the conference or opt to purchase a special video ticket that grants access to conference recordings.

DigiMarCon

DigiMarCon is the largest digital marketing conference series in the world. The lineup of events includes 40 separate events in 18 different countries. When it comes to topics, there is no specific focus point. Everything connected to media, advertising, and marketing gets its fair share of attention. 

While not all events will have their online counterparts, DigiMarCon enthusiasts who can’t or won’t be able to attend the events can still benefit from a special online edition. 

We won’t be sharing the full lineup here due to a large number of events, but the full list of conferences with dates and locations can be accessed here.

MozCon

MozCon is a conference for SEO professionals that also touches upon other topics from the online marketing sphere. Agencies and executives looking to expand the outreach of their businesses are bound to benefit from this event. However, if your interest is purely in programmatic advertising, this event might be the most optional position on our list.

The agenda for 2022 is set to be announced in spring this year. Moz customers, however, are already able to purchase the early bird tickets.

Programmatic Summit Melbourne/Sydney

Marketing professionals from down under can’t miss the Programmatic Summit created in partnership with IAB Australia. The event is aimed at digital marketing professionals from both supply and demand sides of the programmatic industry. 

There are two editions of the Programmatic Summit and while this is a large regional event, presenters are not limited to locals and the agenda tackles global marketing issues.

Munich International Search Summit

The Munich International Search Summit focuses on global problems and challenges of working with search traffic. While Search engine marketing is the primary focus of this conference, search engine optimization is an area that won’t be omitted. 

The 2022 agenda is not yet fully developed, however, sessions that are already planned include the latest trends in Google Ads, SEO content clustering, and practical solutions for search marketers.

What’s more, three additional editions are in the works. Search Summit London, Global, and Barcelona are all set to return in 2022, however, details are yet to be announced.

UnGagged London

The UnGagged London conference is advertised as an edgy, liberating event without the sales pitches and trivial bits. It’s aimed at intermediate to professional digital marketers and offers a broad program including programmatic marketing. 

While in the previous years, Ungagged appeared in the US as well, in 2022 only the UK version has been announced so far. What’s more, there is no online coverage. The event organizers take pride in providing the attendees with practical solutions that have not yet been made common knowledge.

Programmatic I/O

Programmatic I/O is a strictly programmatic conference for both the sell-side and buy-side of the digital marketing industry. The event allows attendees to meet leading experts and decision-makers in the sphere of programmatic advertising. The two-day event is aimed at anyone operating in the new cookieless world. 

While the 2022 agenda is yet to be announced, last year’s schedule covered all the key areas of programmatic growth (e.g. privacy changes, first-party data takeover, or new forms of performance measurement).

Programmatic Pioneers Summit 

The Programmatic Pioneers Summit unites programmatic and marketing leaders from all over Europe. The event includes brands, agencies, technology providers, platform providers, and anyone else operating in the programmatic space. 

With the key topics revolving around the cookieless future of digital marketing, this advertising conference provides all the strategic insights for brands planning to grow their business in 2022.

Inbound

The Inbound conference is not limited to programmatic media but encompasses the whole sphere of digital marketing. Apart from the latest trends and innovations, Inbound provides the fundamentals needed to immerse yourself in the world of online, e.g. meetups allowing you to connect with peers and exchange ideas.

Hosted by Hubspot, Inbound is gearing up to organize its biggest online event in 2022. All details are yet to be announced, however, Inbound has a proven track record of delivering one of the best virtual events amongst digital marketing conferences.

Conclusions

There is no shortage of networking events available in 2022. In fact, many suspended events or online events are back to their regular in-person form. Marketers and agencies looking to discover new solutions are presented with a varied line-up with a focus on any sphere of affiliate marketing. 

2022 will be a year of making connections and discovering new solutions. 

See what NewProgrammatic has to offer.

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The post Programmatic Advertising Conferences – Most valuable events to attend in 2022 appeared first on NewProgrammatic Blog.

Regardless of the size and characteristics of the agency, we’ve distinguished five categories of top advertising agency tools to help with optimizing the performance of the business from the inside as well as the outside.

Performance Marketing Agency Tools for Advertising

Marketing agencies who have a lot of aces up their sleeve are more likely to surprise clients with creative ways of finding new audiences and converting them into paying customers. While most consumers hate advertising, without it brands don’t stand a chance of survival. That’s why advertising agency software for smoother and more efficient audience outreach is the first position on this list.

NewProgrammatic

NewProgrammatic is a performance marketing platform that allows for acquiring customers before they complete entering their search query. NewProgrammatic ad formats rely on contextual targeting without involving cookies or other personal identifiers. In addition to meeting the highest standard of brand safety, they seamlessly connect potential customers with a brand in the right place at the right time –  in the search bar.

NewProgrammatic can be a great addition to other forms of advertising but as an underutilized search ad format, it can carry a successful campaign as a standalone advertising strategy. 

As a provider of advertising solutions, NewProgrammatic gives your agency access to hundreds of thousand users daily at an ad display price starting from $0.01. You can learn more about NewProgrammatic by booking a call with an expert or reading one of the case studies. 

Socital 

Socital provides a set of tools for data collection, email database segmentation, conversion optimization, targeting, and personalization. It’s an ad agency software aimed at e-commerce businesses. Socital helps in managing user journeys from start to finish by collecting data in a GDPR-friendly manner and providing personalized pop-up messages which, in turn, can help reduce cart abandonment.

Socital offers different types of campaigns, depending on the needs of the brand. Naturally, pop-ups and contact forms are fully editable with a variety of ready-made templates to streamline the process of creating campaigns. For the more demanding ad agencies, Socital integrated with the majority of popular email marketing platforms.

The pricing of Socital depends on the website’s pageviews and it ranges from a free version to an Enterprise plan for $157 per month (billed annually).

Drip

Drip is an ad agency software for managing and segmenting mailing lists. The functionality of Drip focuses mainly on running email and SMS marketing campaigns based on precise audience segmentation and 1st party data. The complementary form templates and automation workflows are what makes Drip one of the best advertising agency tools for growing e-commerce businesses.

To make project management easier, Drip integrates with a wide range of e-commerce tools including such popular solutions as Shopify and WooCommerce, and reaching far more specific tools such as Podia (for creating online courses) or Wishlist Member (for gating websites behind membership tiers).

Drip membership depends on the number of customers on your mailing list. Small mailing lists of up to 500 members have pricing of $19 while lists with over 130,000 contacts will require a plan for $1.499 per month or higher. There are additional costs depending on how many SMS messages are planned to be sent out each month.

SendPulse

SendPulse is a tool for creating chatbots for Facebook, Instagram, Viber, Telegram, and WhatsApp as well as for sending emails, SMS, and push notifications. The cloud-based ad agency software operates in more than 200 countries and allows for full automation of a message-dispatch schedule. What’s more, the suite of marketing tools has a drag and drop editor as well as a system for nurturing leads that can be automatically triggered by events.

Chatbots, however, might be SendPulse’s most important feature. The interactive flows are not only a form of providing efficient customer support. They can also serve as a means of streamlining the shopping experience or engaging with customers mentioning the brand on social media.

SendPulse has varied pricing strategies depending on what features are needed. There is a free plan providing up to 3 chatbots with limited variables. The plans are made to grow alongside the business and a plan with a subscriber count of 50,000 costs €143.20 per month (billed annually).

Pitchbox

Pitchbox is an advertising agency software that helps with connecting with influencers and promoting content across various channels. It’s aimed at agencies with extensive outreach programs – not only does it automate the outreach process, but it also has a reliable keyword search feature that makes finding bloggers, publishers, and influencers easier than ever.

What’s more, Pitchbox has many integrations and its functionality grows beyond outreach to the general area of content and email marketing. Accordingly, the campaign dashboard, white-label reports, and pipeline provide the necessary project management tools.

While the pricing is only available on request, there are case studies, a knowledge base, and an attentive support team to answer any questions regarding the product. 

Project management and agency management software

Planning and management software is the basis of any business, not just ad agencies. While there is a large number of popular solutions on the market, their functionality is often similar with minor differences in workflow management. Here are ten tried and tested contenders for the best advertising agency tools for management.

Monday

Monday is a project management platform offering task management, resource management, and time-tracking features that can make team collaboration as smooth as possible. What’s more, users have access to a timeline, dependencies, and unlimited boards all contained in a user-friendly dashboard.

The Monday marketing software is aimed at a variety of businesses from marketing to IT and HR. The pricing depends on the plan and on the number of team members. Individual plan for up to two users is free while the Pro plan with more extensive functionality costs $16 per seat. 

Productive

Productive is an ad agency management platform with tools and features that check all the boxes for managing each project from start to finish. Apart from basic functionality such as time-tracking and project management, it focuses most heavily on financial reporting. While task management lies at its core, Productive is an agency software ideal for budgeting and keeping track of salaries, profit margins, rates, and revenue.

Productive offers a 14-day free trial period and after that pricing depends on the number of users and on the plan tier. The standard plan starts at $12.50, and an advanced Enterprise plan starts at 100+ users and has custom pricing.

Forecast

Forecast is an all-in-one advertising agency software for task management, team collaboration, and business intelligence. What makes it unique are the capable AI features for project automation and resource management. While Forecast is a capable marketing tool it’s most suitable for web development and IT-leaning businesses due to the built-in cooperative features for Agile, Scrum, or Kanban business processes.

Forecast offers a free trial and three plans which differ in features such as the available integrations. The simplest Lite plan starts at 27€ per seat a month for a minimum of 10 seats. The Plus plan offers full customization.

Wrike 

Wrike is an all-around project management software with supreme organization features. It’s suitable for both small and large marketing agencies and the available integrations (Salesforce, Dropbox, Adobe Creative Cloud, etc.) make collaboration and file sharing a breeze, especially for creative teams. Wrike makes it easy to assign tasks and manage real-time collaboration while remaining user-friendly and intuitive.

Wrike has both a free plan for teams that are only getting started and a free trial for any of their available plans. The cheapest plan comes at $9.80 per user, billed monthly. More advanced plans offer many customization options and are priced individually.

Mavenlink

Mavenlink is an ad agency software with a holistic approach to running a marketing business. The tool specializes in resource management and project management and offers extensive reporting tools and integrations with the most popular business suits. While it’s project managers who gain the most by picking Mavenlink, this task management program has capabilities to help a wide range of specialists as well as clients. 

Mavenlink doesn’t publicly disclose its prices and before reaching out to them, you have to specify the type, size, and geolocation of your company.

ClickUp

ClickUp is a popular project management tool suitable not only for advertising agencies but for a variety of other industries as well. Thanks to the versatility of ClickUp, it provides some unique capabilities such as a widget notepad or easy video recording and sharing. Both internal and external communication is a big focus of the tool, which makes it suitable for advertising agencies of all sizes.

ClickUp has a free plan for personal use and a variety of tiers for teams. The prices start at $5 per person and reach upwards of $19 per person for larger agencies with multiple teams. 

AirTable

AirTable is a cloud-based marketing project management tool that’s based on spreadsheets. It’s aimed at midsize businesses or marketing teams within larger organizations. This ad agency software has the power and functionality of a database but the intuitive interface and easiness of use make it useful for the entire team (not only members with database expertise). Integrations with Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Drive as well as specialized plans make useful additions for departments from and beyond advertising.

Airtable offers a free plan for individuals and small teams offering basic functionality and a limit of records and attachments. The lowest-paid plan starts at $10 per person monthly (billed yearly) and the enterprise plan with higher limits has custom pricing depending on the needs of the ad agency.

SmartSheet

SmartSheet can be an ad agency management software but it can also help manage projects from all types of industries. Just as the option described above (AitTable), this tool bears many similarities with a spreadsheet with additional features and functionality. The customizable dashboards provide a solid foundation for task management and collaboration, workflow, and reports. The equally potent automation features make it an ideal solution for all kinds of professional service businesses. 

The pricing starts at $7 per user a month (billed yearly) for the Pro plan and $25 per user a month (billed yearly) for the Business plan. There are custom pricing options with advanced functionality for larger businesses.

Float

Float is one of the best advertising agency software due to its simplicity. It has everything that’s needed in an agency management system and what makes it unique is the user-friendliness and clarity in reading data such as time-tracking and workload management. Team members can also use the iOS or Android apps for easier access and Slack or email notifications can keep them up to date in real-time.

Float has a 30-day free trial and after that, there are two options – Resource planning for $6 per person per month (billed annually), or Resource Planning + Time Tracking for $10 per person per month (billed annually).

Hygger

Hygger is said to be the perfect project management option between a simple board such as Trello, and a complex solution such as Jira. It can be used by digital marketing agencies but it’s limited to creative teams when it comes to features for collaboration. In addition to standard project management functionality, the software has extensive options for prioritization, product strategy, and client communication.

Hygger has a free version with unlimited users, boards, projects, and 100MB of storage. The Standard paid version costs $7 per user per month (billed annually) and the Enterprise plan starts at $14 per user per month and includes such advanced features as unlimited API access.

Data and reporting marketing agency tools

While agency management program is essential to team collaboration and task management, in order to track the performance of marketing campaigns, additional reporting software might be required. Here is a list of useful tools for tracking and gathering data on your marketing and business operations. 

Improvado

Improvado is a marketing data aggregation tool used to create dashboards and reports for both internal and external use. It’s cloud-hosted but has an option for on-premise hosting which makes it perfect for both big and small advertising agencies. 

Improvado is integrated with many advertising channels including Facebook ads, Google Ads, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and many others. The available integrations provide superior insights into a wide range of campaigns and the flexibility of data aggregation and reporting meet the requirements of the most unique advertising agency needs.

Although the pricing is not publicly available, there is a contact form with some basic information that needs to be filled out to receive the pricing. There is also a free trial version available, however, as Improvado is not a self-service platform, it’s necessary to schedule a demo in order to set up a test account.

Whatagraph

Whatagraph is a cloud-based advertising agency tool that helps in creating and automating marketing reports using predefined templates and various data sources. What Whatagraph does especially well is establishing brand identity by allowing businesses to white-label the reports by dressing data in elements of branded design. 

Reports can be automated and notifications can be sent out on a scheduled basis. What’s more, there is a report-building feature that can make creating client reports a quick and painless process. Additionally, the extensive integrations cover just about any tool or traffic source that might be needed by an agency. Overall, this is a solid choice for small to medium-sized agencies with regular needs.

Whatagraph offers three plans. The lowest, professional plan with very limited integrations starts at $119 per month, the premium plan with limited integrations costs $279 and the growth plan with all integrations and public API access costs $699 per month (billed annually). 

AgencyAnalytics

AgencyAnalytics is an all-around tool for gathering and analyzing insights from multiple client accounts and clients’ marketing channels in a single dashboard. It provides an advertising agency with the possibility to connect and monitor the top SEO tools, PPC platforms, social media, email marketing services, and call tracking providers in one place.

AgencyAnalytics focuses on providing a holistic view of all advertising agency operations. The possibility to deliver client reports seamlessly and based on an automated schedule makes working with numerous users on multiple projects a specialty of this advertising agency software. There are some white-labeling options available as well.

Pricing depends on the number of clients and the professional services offered by the agency. For basic functionality, AgencyAnalytics charges $10 per client campaign. For additional functions and a larger client base, it’s $15 per month per client campaign (billed monthly).

Hubspot CRM Suite

Hubspot CRM Suite might be one of the best advertising agency software when it comes to nurturing leads and analyzing business metrics. It’s a solution that focuses most heavily on customer relationship management and collaboration. The Hubspot platform, however, has much more to offer in each of the plans that are aimed at particular functions of a business. 

The Hubspot CRM Suite is a relatively expensive but extremely powerful tool that every big advertising agency will grow to need. However, it is possible to purchase any of the more specialized plans, e.g. designed for sales or customer service, or marketing. Each option contains tools necessary to gain insight into existing processes, be it email automation, sales funnel creation or lead management.

The pricing depends on the CRM Suite starting at €41 per month but additional charges are counted for more than 2 users or a larger contact base than 1000 users. The enterprise solution aimed at big agencies starts at €3,680 and again, additional charges need to be taken into account based on the size of the staff and the customers. 

Tableau

Tableau can help a marketing agency collect data from multiple source points, not only strictly related to marketing. Integrations with SQL databases, spreadsheets, cloud apps like Google Analytics and Salesforce make Tableau the ideal solution for dissecting all data in one place. 

This advertising agency software has extensive capabilities for creating professional reports in visual or interactive ways. What’s more, there is a fully functional app, to make accessing data much easier. Of course, the features of Tableau also include presenting data in a clean illustrative format – making sure it’s understood by the least data-savvy team members. 

Tableau has a role-based licensing format which means that the advertising agency can pay less for team members that are only viewing, vs. team members that are creating. There are three options: creator, explorer, and viewer. What’s more, the pricing depends on whether Tableau is hosted locally or in the cloud. 

Search Engine Optimization ad agency tools

Another type of advertising agency software that is optional but highly recommended is an SEO tool. Depending on the responsibility of a business, the SEO tools can carry the weight of keeping a business site relevant and discoverable or simply help with brand building and content creation. Here are the best advertising agency tool picks for a variety of purposes. 

Semrush

Semrush is a multipurpose SEO tool that doesn’t need an introduction. Its capabilities cover deep insights into Google searches as well as Google PPC advertising. Apart from that, it offers a content marketing toolkit for keyword research and competitor analysis and unique back-link analysis features that are not available on other platforms.

Agencies that deal with both SEO and paid advertising might find Semrush to be the perfect tool. The size of the databases, high limits for daily reporting, and exhaustive insights into CPC competition data (including campaign planning tools) are only some of the tools that make it worth the investment. 

Semrush has a variety of plans starting from a Pro option with limited functionality at $119.95 per month and ending at a Business plan for $449.95 with high limits and a wholly functional marketing platform. There can be additional charges e.g. for an increased number of users, white-labeling SEO reports, or specific advanced features, however, before deciding on the tool there is a free 7-day trial of the two lower plan tiers.

SimilarWeb

Similarweb is a website analytics & competitive traffic intelligence platform. It’s a tool that offers the most in terms of market intelligence and web measurement. The data is gathered by Similarweb’s browser extensions and provides the best insights into any website of interest for your advertising agency.

While gathering intelligence on the competitors is the first step to creating a successful business, SimilarWeb is a powerful tool for delving deeper into their strategies. Other features, including ad creative research or keyword research, makes SimilarWeb an ideal solution for agencies who look to outdo their competition in terms of quality website traffic.

SimilarWeb offers three plans for marketing agencies. The plans have the same functionality but differ in limits and granularity of insights. The simplest, Essential plan starts at $249 billed monthly, the advanced plan comes at $449 and the unlimited plan with no restrictions and available add-ons has custom pricing.

Ahrefs 

Ahrefs is an all-around SEO tool with the most powerful backlinking capabilities that provides insights into various search engines such as Google, Amazon, YouTube, Yahoo, or Bing. This ad agency software can also be especially useful when gaining intelligence on the most popular content on a given topic. 

While most SEO tools cover similar topics and have the same most crucial functions, Ahrefs especially excels at finding new backlinking opportunities and monitoring the performance of the currently active backlinks. What’s more, Ahrefs gives agencies more control of internal linking with a function to automatically generate link ideas. 

Let’s not forget that on top of the powerful linking capabilities, Ahrefs is one of the two most capable SEO software on the market. The pricing starts at $99 with a single-seat, billed monthly, and ends at $999 with 5 seats. For the two lowest plans, there is a week-long trial for $7. 

Moz Pro

Moz Pro is an SEO ad agency software with broad functionality but specializing in keyword research. It provides robust reporting capabilities and offers unique features of website, issue, and digital asset management. 

Moz Pro is intuitive and easy to use which makes it accessible and pleasant to interact with. It’s a capable tool allowing for deep keyword research and it manages to provide unique insights while remaining comparably cheap. 

The pricing starts at $99 billed monthly for the lowest plan and ends at $599 billed monthly for the premium plan. Purchasing a yearly subscription comes with a 20% discount and there is a free trial for the medium plan ($179) that lasts 30 days.

Majestic

Majestic is the best advertising agency software for backlink management. While other tools mentioned in this section provide an array of SEO functionality, Majestic focuses on two things only – backlinking and indexing. 

For an ad agency that needs to focus more heavily on backlinking, Majestic can provide the perfect set of laser-focused tools. With a backlink history function and insights into competitor site information, the reports generated by this tool will provide a holistic view of the site’s connections and influences. 

The pricing for the LITE plan starts at $49.99, however, the functionality offered by this plan is rather limited. The PRO plan for $99.99 per month has more comfortable limits and functionality. For more demanding agencies, there is an API plan with considerable limits and full Majestic API access. 

Design advertising agency software

Last but not least, digital marketing software for design tasks is an integral part of every agency. That type of program might focus on team collaboration, file sharing, time tracking, or simply on creating visual assets. Either way, design and web development are agency branches that require their own software and these are our top pics.

Asana

Asana is a digital workspace for project management that can be especially useful in orchestrating collaboration between teams working on visual assets. The extensive features for workflow management along with goals, dependencies, reporting, to-do lists, and progress tracking make it suitable not only for design work but also for the whole marketing campaign creation process.

What’s more, Asana has detailed organizational capabilities all contained within a clean and user-friendly UI. There is also a high level of customization – custom templates and fields allow for creating the exact kind of custom workflows that are needed by an organization.

Asana has a free basic plan that has unlimited essentials and basic reporting. More advanced plans such as Business for €10.99 per month, or Business for €24.99 per month (billed annually) are options with more advanced features for reporting and workflows. There is also a custom Enterprise plan available.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a different kind of ad agency software as it’s a tool for creating vector graphics and animation. While Adobe Illustrator is not suited for managing projects from start to finish, its core features take into account team collaboration on design files and projects. 

Every ad agency needs software for creating digital assets, be it logos, animations, or banners. Adobe Illustrator is just the right tool for that. It allows for endless possibilities in creating and manipulating vector graphics all within a single platform with additional access from mobile devices.

Adobe Illustrator can be purchased separately for $20.99 per month, billed annually. It can also be purchased as a part of a yearly subscription to Creative Cloud for $52.99 per month.

FileStage

FileStage is a content review platform that puts the most emphasis on a smooth approval workflow. The platform allows users to bring all files, versions, and comments into one platform where both team members and external stakeholders can review and approve tasks. 

For agencies handling repetitive tasks, FileStage offers structured and automated workflows that can be shared across all clients. The file-sharing options and integrations with popular business suites (such as Google, Asana, or Basecamp) make collaboration on designs, videos, websites, articles, and community outreach easier.

FileStage has different pricing tiers depending on the size of the ad agency. The Essential plan starts at €9 per month per seat, however, it allows for only one active project at a time. The Advanced plan with more capabilities comes out at €19 per month per seat and the Professional plan starts at €39 with a limit of 25 active projects and significantly more storage space.

Ceros

Ceros is a digital experience platform where ad agencies can create interactive landing pages, graphical eBooks, lead generation forms, and infographics without any coding. However, the simple-sounding drag and drop program has a lot more to offer.

Ceros offers creative agencies the possibility of creating white label web designs without having a dedicated web development team. No HTML knowledge is required to operate Ceros and the capabilities are not lacking. Team collaboration and design features make it possible to create professional web assets and the numerous integrations help in tracking, automation, and analytics.

Ceros does not have publicly available pricing.

BugHerd

BugHerd is an issue tracking and project management software for web developers and designers. The most crucial feature of BugHerd is the ability to leave comments on a staged website which allows for the highest precision in team collaboration.

Ad agencies and marketing teams working heavily on website development can not only receive visual feedback and precisely positioned comments but can also access extra information in the form of metadata straight from the staged site. What’s more, the feedback is sent directly to a task management board where it can be picked up and reworked accordingly.

BugHerd has a 14-day free trial. After that, the standard plan for 5 members costs $39 per month, the premium plan for 25 members costs $129, and the Deluxe plan for 50 members costs $229, with additional users for each plan available for $8 per user (billed monthly). There is a custom plan available for agencies with a high number of members.

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The post Marketing agency software – Best tools to manage and grow your business appeared first on NewProgrammatic Blog.

Search advertising is often associated with Google Ads only. However, Google is not the single provider of search ad solutions, and search ads don’t come in a singular form either. 

And although the search market is indeed dominated by Google, it’s still a form of digital advertising enabled by various search engines. And almost all of them offer a way to monetize their traffic. 

That’s why in this article we want to present a thorough overview of the search market inventory, talk about different types of search ads, explain how they work, and most importantly, help brand marketers understand how to utilize alternative search advertising solutions.

Search Autocomplete Ads

The first type of search ad we want to discuss today is one of the aforementioned alternatives — that is Search Autocomplete ads. 

Search autocomplete technology offers a unique approach to search advertising in which ads are triggered even before users complete typing the search keyword into their mobile or desktop device search bar. Autocomplete search ads usually appear right underneath the input field (e.g. web search engine bar or a marketplace search) providing the most optimal user experience by showing suggested ads/search results related directly to the searched phrase. 

Search Autocomplete Ads are available for both mobile and desktop devices. Platforms providing this specific search ad format are typically keyboard apps, marketplaces, browsers, and search engines. Although some search traffic providers host their own solutions, a variety of platforms and audiences can be accessed via performance marketing platforms allowing brands and marketers to instantly match with potential clients. 

Simply put, search autocomplete ads utilize the power of contextual targeting to display ads relevant to what the user is looking for, but more importantly, this specific type of search advertising provides marketers with brand-safe and privacy-compliant cookieless solutions.

Search Ad Tiles

Another underutilized way to drive traffic to your brand is working with Search Ad Tiles, also known as Suggestion Tiles. 

Search Ad Tiles allow marketers to display a logo of an advertised brand right in front of users’ eyes, exactly when they need it… or in the right context, one could say. This happens because search ad tiles are displayed in the form of a small icon right below the search bar or a text field your audience uses to enter the related keyword. Some placements can be fixed, and some can be dynamically displayed based on the set targeting. 

The dynamic tile placement works on a similar basis to the Search Autocomplete solutions explained above. In this case, ad tiles appear as soon as users start typing their search queries into a search engine bar or a search text field. Search Ad Tiles are available for both mobile and desktop devices and are provided by a variety of apps, search engines (Opera or AVG Secure Search), or online marketplaces.

Both Autocomplete and Search Ads Tiles are purely intent-based solutions. They help drive users to your website, right from the moment they engage with a search bar. Unlike with the usual search text ads solutions, there’s no middle step of displaying the general SERP. 

Overall, this is the most direct way for users to get what they want which makes Search Ad Tiles the ad format utilizing the fastest search-to-brand route available on the market.

Text Search Ads

Text search ads are the broadest category here, but one that cannot be overlooked. The most popular search text ads solution comes from the Google Search Ads platform, which dominates the search engine market with a 92.47% market share. They show either above or below organic results on the first SERP.

The mechanism behind search text search ads in Google is based on the second price auction. When many bidders place a bid, the highest bid wins, but rather than pay the set price for the bid, the bidder only has to pay $0.01 more than the second-highest bid. Google combines that with its Ad Rank algorithm that decides the position of your ads. The algorithm takes into consideration expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience to decide the quality of your ad. If certain criteria aren’t met, the Google ads platform can decide not to show your ad despite a winning bid.

Search text ads are not exclusive to Google. In fact, other search engines such as Yahoo or Bing, or geo-specific options like Baidu and Yandex, also have their own search ads. Overall, they work similarly to Google’s search platform, often employing the second price auction and a form of ad ranking.

What’s more, Google, among others, offers responsive search ads (a successor to expanded text ads) where the algorithm tests up to 15 headlines and 4 titles to create the best combination for a given keyword or query.

Text search ads are a universal and advanced solution. They have many providers and the Google ads platform alone offers several variants, e.g. dynamic search ads; and additional features, e.g. ad extensions. But the availability and popularity are also what make search ads an extremely competitive field where the most expensive keywords cost $50 or more per click.  

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Shopping (Product) Search Ads

Search ads are by nature high-intent ads so it’s only logical to utilize them in the case of both shopping campaigns and brand awareness campaigns. Nonetheless, one of the most popular types of search ads is shopping ads. And how do shopping ads work? 

Shopping ads (also known as simply product ads)display a tile-like product preview on top of or on the side of the search engine results page. In the case of Google shopping solutions, product previews form a line right under the search bar. They correspond to the search query, just like the rest of the results do, but offer a richer format that includes a product picture, a price, and a source URL.

Google Ads is not the only ad network that makes running shopping campaigns possible. For example, Bing’s search engine also enables shopping ads on the right side of their search engine results page. Pinterest, on the other hand, has shopping ads that seamlessly blend with the rest of the inspirational pictures, with the exception that these ads lead straight to a products page where users can make a purchase. 

Among all the examples of shopping search ads platforms, a very prominent one is naturally the Amazon Advertising platform. Amazon is a product-based search engine which, in 2017, surpassed Google in the number of product searches. While this is not the most up-to-date data, there is no reason to believe that product searches on Amazon should be declining.

Amazon offers similar, although slightly inferior, tracking and optimization capabilities when compared to Google shopping ads. Still, it comes with plenty of advantages. To put it simply, the competition is smaller and targeting options are better, allowing for the most precise display of advertisements. What’s more, Amazon’s product targeting is the most unique and advantageous option that allows marketers to target by brand, star reviews, price, and Prime shipping eligibility.

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Video Search Ads

Video search ads, powered by Google Ads and hosted by the YouTube platform, are among the search ad types perfect for brand awareness campaigns. YouTube Discovery Ads appear on the top of YouTube video search results, the video watch page, or on the YouTube Home feed on mobile devices. These are not auto-playing ads. In fact, these look exactly like organic search results with video thumbnails, titles, and descriptions, with an exception of an ad tag. 

Because users have to click on the ads to actually view them, they are also called TrueView ads as opposed to ads that autoplay unprompted (which does not guarantee they were viewed, let alone intentionally). The last thing to remember is that YouTube Discovery Ads are only for brands that already have a functional YouTube channel. After all, the primary purpose of the campaign is to gather views of the video ad. Gathering subscribers or making sales are secondary goals.

Another example of video ads based on a search engine is Pinterest Video Ads. 

(source)

App Install Search Ads

App Install Ads are a search-based ad format, most commonly used in mobile in-app environments. The two most prominent examples of this ad format are app install ads on Google Play and Apple Search Ads.

Google provides many options for install ads, however, most of them are display ads. The search-based Google Play Store listings are meant to aid in increasing the visibility and discoverability of your app. And with nearly 3.5 million apps in the store, that kind of help is often needed. The ads appear on top of the search results in the Google Play store and are matched based on keyword targeting with three options —  broad, phrase, and exact match. 

The Apple App Store is the second-largest app store in the world with 2.2 million apps. The purpose of Apple search ads is the same as their Google counterparts — to help users discover your app. This high-intent ad format offers keyword targeting and various options for displaying the ad. Your app campaigns can appear in a form of video, a selection of screenshots, or a plain form with text and an icon. The advertised app can be installed straight from the advertisement. 

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Display (Image Ads)

While the notion of display ads is completely different from search ads, the search advertising market doesn’t exclude expanded search formats such as Image Ads. An image ad or a display ad would usually appear in the form of a banner, interstitial, or full-page ad. But it can also be a search ad. 

The best example of an image search ad would be Pinterest, with search-based targeting. Pinterest, although it is a standalone platform used for inspiration, it’s also an image-based search engine. Hence, ads appearing among the organic search results come in the form of images, integrating seamlessly with the grid. 

What’s more, Pinterest is a platform where people look for inspiration and 46% of UK Pinners have discovered new brands or products on Pinterest. The demographics are leaning towards the female audience with higher incomes and the average age of a Pinterest user is 40 years old. 

(source)

Search ads and brand advertising explained

As we mentioned at the beginning, search ads are currently an essential tool for brand marketers. This is because search ads can be hyper-targeted and directed straight at purchase-ready audiences. 

While your marketing strategy can include many ad formats and campaign types, search ads are currently the best solution for brands looking to gain quality leads that turn into paying customers. Let’s consider some benefits.

Benefits of Search Ads for brand marketing

• Specific search ad types can reduce the customer journey to a maximum extent – skipping the search engine results page and leading users from the search bar straight to the brand’s website.
• Search ads are contextual and directly related to the search bar input, hence, they provide a high-quality user experience that isn’t distracting or intrusive.
• The short path from the intent-focused search query to the brand’s website leads to an overall higher conversion rate.
• If your brand’s website is lacking in SERP positioning, using search ads is a faster way of increasing visibility than through the process of search engine optimization.
• Search ad platforms allow you to test your strategies in a quick and efficient way by providing you with actionable data on clicks and conversions. 
• Relying on programmatic advertising platforms offering search traffic inventory helps marketers maximize the reach and utilize the full potential of the available search market.

New programmatic solutions to revolutionize your business

What all search ad types have in common is that they lead the customer from the search bar through the search engine results page, and then show relevant ads right at the top as the most visible suggestions. There are, however, two ad types that skip the middle step. 

Search Autocomplete Ads, as well as Search Ad Tiles, are both types of search ads triggered the second customer starts typing in a query. These ads will appear there and then, right under the search bar field. There is even no need to press enter and wait for the search results to load. 

This is what makes such Google search ads alternatives a unique approach to a saturated and competitive market. This is also why and how NewProgramamtic solutions help performance marketers tap into a whole new search advertising market and get a headstart for the brands they promote. It’s also worth adding that both aforementioned ad formats work on the CPC cost model and offer worldwide inventory with robust targeting options. 

Apart from the main targeting options being Branded Search (redirecting users looking for the brand’s product straight to the brand’s website) and Generic Keyword Search (redirecting users looking for the brand’s or related products straight to the brand’s or a related yet authorized site), users can be targeted based on devices and locations. 

Please note there are no cookies involved in the process which makes Tiles and Autocomplete Search ads meet the highest standards of privacy.

Search Autocomplete Ads and Search Ad Tiles are simply a straightforward solution that works particularly well with an intent-driven audience, especially given the recent (and still growing!) shift towards product-specific marketplaces rather than broad search engine searches users now tend to perform.

Conclusions

What all search ads have in common is intent-based targeting. Users typing in a query into the search signifies readiness to discover, research, and finally buy a product. Search text ads are the most common type of search advertising so far, but the constantly evolving market and need for innovation called for new programmatic solutions to come onto the stage and take their fair share of the market. In a nutshell, global investments into online marketplaces keep increasing which gives way to more solutions providing marketers with a chance to match users with desired products exactly when and where they’re looking for them. 

If you’d like to try an alternative approach to search advertising, we welcome you to book a demo and find out how NewProgrammatic can prove to be exactly what your business needs.

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The post 7 Types of Search Ads Brand Marketers Need to Know About 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!

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