The digital landscape is everchanging with constant updates to established technology and access to new cutting-edge technology. The digital team at Bottom Line works hard at making sure we master both within the context of each individual campaign we run. Here are some interesting new digital advertising trends to look out for in 2020!
Artificial Intelligence Playing A Larger Role in Your Advertising
In recent years, ad networks and publishers have developed heavily in artificial intelligence (AI). Whether it’s utilizing algorithms to analyze thousands of location check-ins over months of attribution for a display campaign or utilizing new “smart bidding” strategies on search networks, machine learning is becoming more and more of a focus in maximizing efficiency of ad dollars with more and more data being accessible to us.
With Google having over 90% of the search engine market share worldwide, utilizing their search data allows advertisers to drive the most granular messaging possible to hot leads in their market. As a result of their increase in data and relevancy, Google has rolled out several “smart bidding” strategies over the years that allow machine learning to make more educated decisions at a higher volume than any human could. None of this could be properly managed month-to-month or implemented without human interaction, but more and more of the analysis falls in the hands of AI.
One of the cool things about smart bidding is that it allows you to use different signals for optimizations which are unavailable in more manual bidding strategies. These signals include language, remarketing lists, location intent and more.
Smart Bidding has been around for a bit but will continue to become more heavily utilized as AI plays a larger role across all your advertising efforts.
Google Discovery & Gallery Ads
Google introduced a new personalized mobile feed called “Google Discover” in late 2018. The goal of Google Discover is to surface relevant content to users even when they’re not searching for something specific, much like many social networks have done for years. Discover presents content in more of a thumbnail setting, allowing users to click freely on their content of choice with a variety of formats; from video content to different blog posts, news articles and recipes. The goal is to not always deliver the most current content, rather the most relevant content based on that user’s interest. Discover is specifically tailored towards mobile devices. Earlier this year, Google introduced Discovery Ads, which are native ads that show up in multiple Google feed environments.
Similar to Display Ads or YouTube ads, Discovery Ads must be visually engaging and mobile-friendly so that they feel native to the feeds they are displayed on. Google uses artificial intelligence to optimize ad placement based on users’ search history, feed engagement and other factors to deliver them to the most interested potential customers. Discovery Ads also allow you to showcase more than one image, much like Carousel Ads across Facebook and Instagram. These ads are deliverable across Discovery feeds, YouTube and Gmail.
Alternatively, Google has also released “Gallery Ads” independent from Discovery ad placements, which will appear exclusively on the Google Search Network, top of page with 4-8 different display images. Each image has its own text, headline and click-through URL. Similar to PPC on the Google Search Network, advertisers only pay when a user clicks on their Gallery Ad. This is the first time in Google’s history that advertisers are able to utilize display content within a search network (not including shopping as those are strictly product ads) … and a great time to incorporate this new tactic to your marketing strategy!
Omni-Channel Attribution
With the gap between data and advertising bridging more and more each year, so are the touchpoints between advertisers and consumers on a daily basis. We are able to leverage more data to get a better picture of the full consumer journey, not just the last interaction before they eventually engaged with your brand.
By identifying other touch points with the consumer, we can see where the interest was truly peaked and make reference for future A/B testing across multiple services.
Omni-channel attribution will allow us to see every time a consumer engaged with your advertising over the course of the day, across all devices and mediums within the digital space. Just another step towards making your ad dollars more efficient and driving more qualified leads to your business!