AdTech Predictions: What’s In Store For 2024
Publishers have already started to build out first-party audience strategies to increase their value proposition, but are these targeted campaigns driving results for brands?
With Google’s latest announcement shaking up the industry once again, publishers looking to reclaim control of their audiences, and new channels beginning to make their mark, we have a lot to navigate in 2024.
Here’s our take on the top developments this year.
Google’s 1% gets the ball rolling for cookieless alternatives
After years of pushing back, it’s now finally happening. From January 4th, Google has started to disable third-party cookies for 1% of users (for testing), before “ramping up to 100% from Q3 2024”.
What does this mean for advertisers and publishers?
Available audience data will become increasingly outdated and less accurate, which will have a huge impact on reporting when it comes to user behavior, conversions, and attribution.
Publishers have already started to build out first-party audience strategies to increase their value proposition, but are these targeted campaigns driving results for brands? This will certainly be a year of establishing industry trends and benchmarks, as publishers search for an idea of what’s working and what’s not.
Publishers will take back control
Publishers are beginning to realize their power in a world where the loss of third-party cookies will likely have a major impact on programmatic advertising. Therefore, now is the time to capitalize on the data they have at their disposal.
Publishers are in the best position to create processes for obtaining customer consent for data and building cohorts for how advertisers can target their audiences. We can see this starting to happen as Bloomberg Media shuts off its open-market programmatic advertising in a bid to take back more control over the UX – which is showing early signs of success.
While some are looking to first-party cookies as a replacement for third-party solutions, others are anticipating an entirely cookieless future. For example, The Guardian has recently released a new ad solution for completely cookie-free audiences. ‘Guardian Light’ is based on a ‘lack of consent’ model, which enables advertisers to reach audiences while respecting withdrawal of consent.
CTV, audio and gaming will continue to soar
While traditional channels and social media are still a critical part of the advertising mix, other new channels are starting to gain a foothold in the media plan. CTV, for example, is taking higher YoY portions of ad spend compared to linear TV, and is set to continue on this path.
Meanwhile, digital audio is also on the rise. Following a 20% increase in spend from 2021 to 2022, more recent research (May-June 2023) reveals that for almost half of advertisers and agencies (47%), audio advertising is either their top or among their top media choices. Looking ahead, almost three-quarters of publishers (74%) and nearly two-thirds of the buy side (64%) see opportunities to increase investment in the coming 18-24 months.
Finally, could this be the year intrinsic in-game advertising sees an explosion in revenue as brands seek more engaged audiences through immersive ad formats?
With the market predicted to be worth over $13bn by 2028, we certainly think so.
It’s important to bear in mind, however, that with these growing channels come targeting and measurement challenges that publishers, advertisers, and ultimately vendors will need to address in 2024.
Revival of contextual targeting
As third-party cookies wane before our eyes, it’s important for brands to revisit contextual advertising. AI is helping to create richer contextual signals, not only in display but in CTV. Clearly, targeting is vital at any time, but especially in an election year for both the UK and US, in which we need to consider brand safety in potentially harsh or polarizing environments.
A move to meaningful metrics
Cookie deprecation also poses a challenge to cross-domain tracking, which in turn makes it harder to measure conversion or attribution on platforms outside search or social. This means ad revenue will likely be pushed to these ‘more measurable’ channels. Publishers will then need to justify spending in their own environments with premium CPMs, by focusing on mid-funnel metrics such as brand lift.
In addition, we’ll likely see the conversation around attention metrics evolve from “what are attention metrics?” to “what do attention metrics mean for brands?” and “what results do they translate into?”.
Combating ad fraud once and for all
Another huge conversation the industry can no longer sweep under the carpet is ad fraud. As tools such as fraud mitigation platforms start to emerge, together with frameworks for taking meaningful action, we’ll need to work together to tackle what has become the biggest threat to the industry in recent years.
AI, efficiency and automation
As in almost all other sectors, over the past 12 months, we’ve seen downsizing and outsourcing in enormous quantities across the media industry, both in the US and beyond. And this is likely to continue as companies find new ways of creating efficiencies in process, automating what can be automated, and working smarter, not harder.
Finding the ultimate balance
Adtech is evolving fast. Yes, there will be challenges, but with new channels and platforms continuing to emerge, and publishers having the upper hand for the first time in recent years, this is their time to own the opportunity to reach audiences in new ways.
Finding a balance of monetizing their site (for example via subscriptions) while also prioritizing high-quality ad formats and creatives to enhance user experience (much like the LA Times) will be key in 2024 as the cookie finally crumbles.
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