As the year 2022 comes to an end, all eyes are pointed at the new year and the changes and trends 2023 will bring. As the digital advertising industry continues to grow and evolve, it's important to stay on top of emerging trends to make informed decisions about how to monetize digital content and offer relevant advertising products to clients. Here are some key trends that are expected to shape the digital advertising landscape in 2023.
The continued rise of programmatic advertising
Programmatic advertising is expected to continue to grow in popularity in 2023. This trend is driven by the increasing use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize ad targeting and deliver more relevant and effective campaigns for advertisers. Further, advertisers' ability to handle campaigns in-house makes it attractive as they can more quickly change creatives and adapt strategies. Overall, US programmatic advertising is expected to increase by 33% YoY in 2023 showing its increased relevance.
The growth of native advertising
Native advertising has already seen a sharp increase, with a boost of 14,9% YoY in native ad spending in 2022. This trend is expected to continue to grow in 2023, as advertisers seek more effective ways to reach their target audience without interrupting their user experience. While social media companies have found ways to include ads more seamlessly in their user interface (UI), publishers are still struggling with out-of-place content. As such can easily lead to ad blindness, it is important that advertisers continuously search for new ways to make their ads fit the page to drive more engagement with their ads.
The increased use of personalization
As consumers become savvier and expect more personalized experiences, advertisers are expected to turn to more advanced techniques such as machine learning and artificial intelligence to deliver more targeted and relevant ads. Similar to the usage of native advertising, personalization and knowledge about users are critical to driving engagement with the ad. Social Media's move to push more dynamic content, like Meta's Advantage+, is only one of the many examples of how to drive personalization. This trend will continue in 2023 with more technology supporting personalization.
The rise of audio and voice advertising
With the increasing popularity of smart speakers and other voice-activated devices, it's expected that advertisers will turn to audio and voice advertising as a way to reach consumers in new and innovative ways. Just in 2022, audio advertising spending grew by 8%. Just the rise of podcast advertising shows the potential behind audio advertising and as users spread over more channels, advertisers must follow omnichannel strategies to be successful.
The growing importance of data privacy
At this point, everyone has heard about first-party data. As concerns about data privacy continue to grow, it's expected that new regulations and industry standards will emerge in 2023 to ensure that advertisers are transparent about their data collection and use practices. Advertisers that are used to being able to track their campaign performance across platforms and using third-party data to target users must change their behaviour. With less ability to use a single platform and different objectives for all advertising, using a variety of channels for different goals becomes more important and new strategies are required.
The impact on publishers
As a publisher, it's important to stay on top of emerging trends in the digital advertising industry to make informed decisions about how to monetize your digital content and stay relevant for advertisers.
The continued rise of programmatic advertising, for example, presents both opportunities and challenges for publishers. On the one hand, programmatic advertising can be a lucrative source of revenue, as it allows publishers to sell their ad inventory to the highest bidder in real time. On the other hand, publishers need to be aware of the potential drawbacks of programmatic advertising, such as the risk of ad fraud, decreasing margins on O&O, and the potential for a loss of control over ad content.
Similarly, the increase in data privacy requirements requires publishers to have a strategy in place for how to utilize the data available. The upside can be a strong advertising product that differentiates them in the market. However, if publishers do not move quickly in creating a data strategy, they might risk their close relationship with important advertisers. Also, a change in tracking across the web changes the importance of different channels in the marketing funnel. Publishers must therefore be clear about how advertisers can best use the advertising products in their overall advertising strategy.
Overall, the digital advertising landscape is expected to continue to evolve and change in 2023, with new trends and technologies shaping the industry. Publishers and advertisers need to stay informed and adapt to these changes in order to remain competitive.