- dvertisers are ready to invest 65 percent of their digital ad spend in programmatic advertising in 2019.
- We will see the spends rise to $84 billion in 2019 from $70 billion in 2018.
The implementation of GDPR stole the AdTech limelight for most of 2018. Here are 5 ways programmatic AdTech will evolve in 2019.
The introduction of GDPR had the AdTech industry in some turmoil in 2018. Despite taking a hit, advertisers are ready to invest 65 percent of their digital ad spend in programmatic advertising in 2019. We will see the spends rise to $84 billion in 2019 from $70 billion in 2018.
Of course, there are a few reasons why brands are willing to bet on programmatic AdTech despite the GDPR scare. Let’s look at 5 ways programmatic advertising will evolve in 2019.
1. GDPR Will Cease to Be a Dampener
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was enforced on May 25, 2018, to give users control over their private data. The implementation of GDPR caused much confusion, causing advertisers to cut their programmatic buys by 20-50 percent right away after the law came into effect. Although programmatic spend is gradually increasing, advertisers are still treading lightly to avoid hefty penalties.
2019 will be the year where all disarray surrounding GDPR will be clear. As publishers and advertisers gain more understanding of the law, their activities will be in accordance with the regulation.
Also Read: After the Countdown: The Roadmap for GDPR Going Forward
2. Artificial Intelligence Will Continue to Rise
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the talk of the AdTech town throughout 2018. AI assists with auctions and dynamic creative optimization, allowing publishers and advertisers to be more creative and productive. AI is used in remarketing and lookalike modeling to connect with the most relevant prospects and improve personalization. It also helps in media buying by predicting the likelihood of a customer responding to an ad and bidding on that opportunity accordingly.
The data-driven approach of AI and machine learning lets advertisers communicate the right message at the right time to the right audience.
With so many developments this year, it is undoubtedly going to be a promising year for AI in AdTech.
Also Read: The Role of AI in Redefining the Programmatic Advertising Experience
3. Blockchain and Ads.txt Will Come to the Rescue
The programmatic AdTech industry has been ongoing issues of transparency and ad fraud, causing advertisers to lose $19 billion in 2018 alone to fraudulent activities. To curb ad fraud and promote transparency, advertisers have high hopes from blockchain-based products and ads.txt.
BlAdTech (Blockchain+AdTech) is based on the principle of decentralization, and it aims to solve the most common issues faced by advertisers and publishers. Blockchain products have been able to tackle ad fraud by removing domain spoofing, verifying the legitimacy of publishers and allowing transactions using cryptocurrencies.
Another way ad fraud can be curtailed is by preventing unauthorized reselling of ad inventory. Publishers can now host ads.txt — an Interactive Advertising Bureau-approved file on their servers that lists all the companies allowed to sell the publisher’s inventory.
Amanda Martin, Director Enterprise Partnerships, at Goodway Group spoke to MTA on this subject:
“The maturing of programmatic AdTech will continue and most likely intensify in 2019 with both the sell side and buy side raising expectations and directly influencing the AdTech ecosystem. Programmatic AdTech is going through its teenage years; while we move towards maturity, we are still learning from our mistakes. Many facets of the programmatic AdTech landscape have become commoditized making the ability to differentiate oneself in the space harder. This will likely bring about consolidation both from M&A and buyers/sellers narrowing the number of partners they choose to work with. Transparency will continue to be an industry buzzword, both pertaining to pricing and methodology, black box solutions will/should face more scrutiny, and buyers, brands, and agencies, should showcase their discretion via their ad spend. The continued promise of TV dollars moving to programmatic will drive innovation while programmatic audio and digital OOH will make large strides in 2019, potentially beating TV to programmatic saturation. Overall, choice will be the driving factor of 2019 from both the buy and sell side of programmatic AdTech, how the industry continues to adjust to those choices is to be determined.â€
4. 5G Will Accelerate the Growth of Video Ads
The 5th generation of cellular mobile communications, i.e. 5G is set to undergo its first phase of commercial deployment in March 2019. The bandwidth of 5G is 1000mbps, which is 10 times more than its predecessor — 4G.
Also, the rise of videos brings advertisers the perfect opportunity to deliver high-res, 4K ads to its target audience.
Due to its nascency, it is estimated that 5G will have only 4 million users worldwide in 2019, but by 2024, that number is predicted to grow to 1.4 billion!
Also Read: What is 5G and How will it Shift How People Consume (And Disperse) Information in 2019?
5. Omnichannel Is the Way to Go
Marketers are slowly moving to omnichannel from multi-channel marketing as they become more cognizant of their users. A digital user today owns 3.2 connected devices on average. Advertisers therefore have to be present on smartphones, computers, digital assistants, TVs and tablets to reach users wherever they are.
2019 is the year we will see omnichannel marketing at its peak potential.
Closing Words
We will let Will Margiloff, CEO, IgnitionOne have the final word on AdTech in 2019. He stated to MTA that:
“Amazon’s second headquarters in NYC comes at a critical time for the advertising business, one that can disrupt the ecosystem. Amazon is sitting on tons of credible and relevant data, that rivals intent data from Google and behavioral data captured on Facebook. The platform specializes in consumers with the intent to shop, and have created an ad strategy that caters to these needs. In 2019, we will continue to see AdTech companies challenging the duopoly, with Amazon leading the charge.â€
Despite the bumpy ride that’s been 2018, programmatic AdTech is set to go through a resurgence in 2019. We may not be able to see 5G gain prominence in 2019 itself, but AI, blockchain and omnichannel appear to be trends that will bring a change in programmatic advertising in 2019.
Indrajeet Deshpande Community Contributor
Source: https://www.martechadvisor.com/articles/ads/ways-programmatic-adtech-evolve-in-2019/
Tags: adtech, programatic advertising, tsx