online ads

After Instagram, TikTok Targets Snapchat With Its New Augmented Reality Ad Format

After attempting to take over Instagram with its new “Shop Now” button, TikTok is getting prepared to launch its new augmented reality ad format which is similar to popular app Snapchat and Instagram. 

The upcoming ad format will allow users to place dynamic visual effects that interact with their physical surroundings to TikTok videos. For instance, a car could zoom the length of the kitchen table or the user can interact with the advertiser’s mascot as it jumps around the room.

The product is expected to launch later this year with unknown pricing. The AR ads will be clickable and will have music while the user shoots video. As reported by DigiDay,  a TikTok spokesperson said,

“We’re always exploring new ways to bring creativity and joy to our community. Creative effects are a fun way for our users to express themselves and for brands to bring an interactive element to their campaigns with branded creative effects.” 

He further added that they will share details soon and are still experimenting with various ways to make it a valuable experience for brands. This new ad product will be in direct competition with Sponsored Lens and Word Lenses augmented reality formats and Instagram’s AR filters, though the latter is not an ad product but a filter.

TikTok already offers a product ‘Branded Effect’ which allows users to add 2 D  animated lenses to their videos through their hand and face movements. These effects were produced by an in-house team costing $100,000 whereas Snapchat helped pioneer augmented reality advertising but launched Sponsored Lens costing $500,000 minimum for brands. However, over time, Snapchat introduced its lenses to ad auction, bringing the price down and billed on a CPM basis. In its Q1,2020 result, Snapchat reported that 85% more over the last year are playing with the lenses and self serve ad platform is a predominant way to buy AR products.

Meanwhile, the popularity and growth of the video app are soaring. The measurement firm Sensor tower s reveals, TikTok app and its Chinese version, Douyin, crosses 2 billion downloads on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in March. 

TikTok is quick in following the roadmap laid out by competitor social media platforms in rolling new ad products and the pace at which they are moving forward is frightening. As quoted by Digiday, Paul Kasamias, managing partner of performance at media agency Starcom said,

” If they get it right they’re going to be a huge player in the next six months to a year.”

News of the AR effect ads follows just in a month after the development  of TikTok testing a new ad format call-to-action button ‘Shop Now’ for Influencer videos

 

Verizon Media Expands DSP to Offer Premium Native Ad Inventory.

Verizon Media has announced the expansion of its demand-side platform bringing in premium, programmatic, and now its full native marketplace inventory, formats, targeting, and measurement into a single unit. 

The DSP gives a unified solution to the advertisers to check on every aspect of their buys across all formats and inventory purchases- from planning, buying, and management to optimization.

Today, people are using more screens and devices than before. Therefore, it becomes challenging for advertisers to provide a personalized and unified experience across the media mix. This level of fragmentation eventually leads to using different tools for different formats and then measuring the success of each of them would be laborious. But now advertisers can have access to omnichannel inventories including mobile, digital out-of-home, CTV, video, and audio along with native advertising from a single dashboard.

According to Iván Markman, the chief business officer at Verizon Media,

The Verizon Media native experience was separate from the programmatic capabilities in our DSP…Now both are one, and this includes a lot more consistency planning and measurement and attribution. Over the last few quarters, we’ve looked at bringing more transparency and insights to our DSP.

The expansion of DSP’s functionality provides exclusive access to native ad inventory from Verizon’s owned and operated properties like Tech Crunch, Yahoo, and Huffington Post. The robust native marketplace format and premium inventory along with the programmatic offering, supported by 1st party data will help advertisers navigate a cookie-less environment.

In an era when media agencies are on hiring freeze if not headcount cutbacks, it was essential for the company to improve the efficiency of the tools. Markman stated, “You can now do more with less.“He further added,

Sometimes you’d have seven different platforms for things like digital out of home and native then display. Many of our clients have unfortunately had to furlough some team members or lay off their workforces. This helps with performance.

11 Global Brands Create Epic Ads Entirely From Home During Covid-19.

Just weeks into global lockdown, advertising production has changed. It is now confined to homes with shoots canceled or postponed for the foreseeable future. Out of adversity, now comes creativity as advertisers are overcoming the hurdle of not being able to venture out with ads made remotely or entirely from home.

Video advertising isn’t stopped amidst the pandemic but is showcasing creativity in lockdown. 

We have handpicked the best ads produced remotely in the COVID- era from around the world.

1. Apple: Creativity goes on

Apple is one of the top names of all brands creating ads from home. The tech giant has captured how consumers are creative amid the COVID outbreak and are using its products for drawing pictures on the iPad, produce video content on Macbook or Facetime with near ones. The film is produced  in over two weeks starring many celebrities from their homes and ends with a line reading “Creativity Goes On.”

2. Women’s Aid: The Lockdown by Engine

Engine and Knucklehead created a campaign ‘The Lockdown’ – uses video shot during the daily excursions in London to capture the empty roads and emphasize that domestic abusers are no longer on the streets and are locked inside with their families. Women’s aid has set up a coronavirus advice page to help victims of domestic abuse.

3. IKEA: Making Home Count 

An absolute delight to watch the video advertisement and beautiful creative ad in coronavirus outbreak. Ikea Singapore released ‘Making Home Content’ –  a short ad made remotely by a team of creatives from TBWA to give thanks to those abiding the lockdown rules. It covers simple ‘joys’ like pets, cooking, and playtime with children and family, using the footage shot by the team who captured their lockdown lives.

4. Vodafone Italy: Importance of Connectivity

Vodafone Italy launched an ad campaign made remotely by the crew to demonstrate the importance of connectivity and raise funds for the Italian Red Cross during the pandemic. The ad features the strapline “Even when we can’t be close, we can be together”.

5.Honda Civic: #StayHome

The 35-second spot is the latest video ad made from home entirely for the Dubai region with Memac Ogilvy Dubai. A classic example of creative video advertising where it started like any other sheet metal commercial but with a twist. Honda uses a full-scale miniature car and the camera shots managed to trick the viewers for some time and feel like watching a real car. The ad ended on a hopeful note reading” Until we drive again” with the hashtag #Stayhome.

6.Porsche: Let it Not Tempt you

Another automobile ads made remotely is Porsche for Poland which created a film overnight with a series of graphics to encourage viewers to stay home despite the beautiful weather. It inspires Porsche owners to share photos of the parked cars on social media and comply with safety recommendations.

7.Nike: Play for the World

 

Next on ads made remotely is Nike’s inspiring campaign where it is paying a tribute to all the athletes who are training indoors due to quarantine. 

8. Birds Eye: So, What’s For Tea?

https://youtu.be/Fy4OULzv8QM

This creative video advertising ad was made to help families cope with the coronavirus crisis presenting life hacks like entertaining families that include coloring pages and word searches. Families can download the life hacks on the brand’s website or social media page.  

9.Ad Council: #StayHome, Save Lives

The Ad Council has joined hands with Google, the ANA, and other advertising, media, marketing trade associations, on a wide movement that pleads to the people of America to #StayHome Save Lives in order to slow the spread of coronavirus.

10. The BMW: Contactless Experience

The highly affected sector due to these unprecedented times is automotive. A unique and creative corona ad introduces the BMW India Contactless experience with a digital-purchase experience that gives the feel and benefits of a brick and mortar dealership at a click of a button and from the comfort of the home.

11. Audi: The Drive

Audi is offering a pleasant and innovative experience to house-bound Australians through the freedom of open roads. Audi Australia created a 4 hour long long-slow TV film, a masterpiece of creativity in lockdown for the viewers to experience the soothing nature of the road trip from the comfort of their home.

The creative ads in coronavirus pandemic show that it has not put a damper on the creativity of the people and will inspire audiences to StayHome, StaySafe to win over these tough times.

26 Stellar Video (YouTube) Advertising Examples To Take Creative Inspiration From!

Stephan Vogel, Ogilvy & Mather Germany’s chief creative officer quotes,

“Nothing is more efficient than creative advertising. Creative advertising is more memorable, longer lasting, works with less media spending, and builds a fan community…faster.”

Creativity is the base of advertising and branding and what better medium to propel this creativity than video? Many businesses have started using video advertising creatives to create a buzz for their products and brand. Video tends to drive more engagement and the numbers below from a recent 2020 survey by Wyzowl says it all.

• 95% of marketers say that video has helped user understanding of product and services 
• 89% of marketers say that it gives good ROI. 
• 84% of consumers purchase a product or service by watching brands’ videos. 
• 92% of marketers believe video is an important part of digital strategy.

Brands are facing immense competition to make themselves heard and are opting for creative video marketing to rise. So what does it take to gain attention? Let’s say, choosing influencers for marketing, video advertising campaigns or teaming up with entertainment franchises like Game of Thrones to rise above the noise. 

We indeed see many ads per day but how many do we recall by night? The odds are you might not recall even four ads seen in the week. People don’t read or see ads of what the brand is selling. They are interested to read or see stories of people that have the same challenges as they do. This is why the visual guide below explains why video advertising is the best advertising choice and businesses should consider incorporating it.

Power of Video in Creative Advertising

The beginning of the age of video advertising has created a paradigm shift for marketers. As per Forbes, video ads account for more than 35% of total ad spending online.

Different types of websites – social media platforms, news organizations, company pages, all are employing video content for their voracious audience consumption. Social media platforms prioritize videos over other forms of content as videos help to build trust and engagement. Therefore, all these trends make it important to nail your online video presence. 

Snapchat leads to be one of the fastest-growing social media platforms based on its video stories and Instagram successfully introduced a similar feature ”Insta Stories”.

YouTube suggests users use over 1 billion hours of video on the site every day in 2017.

Online Video is predicted to make up 80% of all internet traffic by 2020.

Video Ads are not as Short always and connects through Creative, Personalized Video

Consumers prefer to watch a 15-sec video considering images than read a block with text. However, the most popular video ad length is 30 seconds, and data suggest people are willing to watch a bit longer videos.

For instance, OYO, one of the world’s largest hotel chains, released a series of ad ‘Raho Mast campaign’ inspired by real-life stories. 

Some are more than a minute long but all of them convey the same message that staying in a low-priced hotel room doesn’t require compromise on quality.

With this video ad campaign, the brand is striking a chord with consumers by providing the best hospitality solution with their standardized and comfortable stay at value for money. The advantage of an extended format is that advertisers get time to explain stories and pull consumers into it.

A digital video advertising strategy should involve mixing and matching different length pieces 

15-30 seconds is the optimal length for a video ad, as it allows you to strike a balance between creating a relevant narrative and providing a short attention span.

User-Generated Content Builds Brand awareness

Brands are building creative advertisements that give you real buyers experience and perspective and it blends with the marketing strategy as well. 

In an Adweek survey, 76% of respondents find UGC more influential than content created by the brand directly.

 To help you encourage your own video marketing efforts, here are 26 Crazy and Creative Video Advertisements Examples on social media

Facebook Ads: 

Facebook Ads are engaging and get views if they are well made and too good to be ignored. The best Facebook Ad helps brands connect with new consumers every day.

1. Hello Fresh: Orange Cashew Chicken-Stir Fry

Meal kit delivery service Hello Fresh regularly advertises cooking videos just like the above that walks through an Orange Cashew Chicken Stir-fry recipe. These recipes are impulsively watched by the audience and Facebook users are accustomed to seeing their feed.

https://www.facebook.com/HelloFreshus/videos/vl.1025847054221655/1940931509268024/?type=1

Takeaway: 

Native Facebook ad matches the style and tone of the platform and is primarily for Facebook users. Facebook users are watching more than 8 billion native video ads every day and these videos are longer than 30 mins giving users a feel of organic content than a mere ad. 

This proves the old adage true, People don’t watch ads, they watch things they are interested in.

Twitter research shows 43% of users would fully watch a video ad if it has interesting content.

2. Knorr: Love at First Taste

https://www.facebook.com/dnts2018/videos/1013912421977658/

The brand is passionate to inspire the new millennial foodies and How? By launching a  compelling ad campaign centered around people’s personal experiences about flavor, taste, and food. Knorr’s global research report stated that people are more attracted to people who enjoy a similar flavor profile. 

The brand conducted a social experiment by having strangers met for the first time over a mutually enjoyable meal .with a twist – they must feed each other and not themselves. In a way, the brand tried to tap the thirst on social media for videos including food, romance, and real-life circumstances.

The brand also partnered with a food community Tasty to spread the video. Also, people were directed to a mini-site that asks questions about your favorite type of food, before putting you to 12 flavor profiles

Takeaway:

In the first three weeks, the video received 100 million views. Creative marketing is at its finest where they building an emotional connection with their customer by trying to understand their personal flavor and setting up on date not because of the way they looked but because of their favorite flavors in common.

3. Always

 

The brand took a risk with this documentary-style video. The risk was well handled with the four-minute-long video which is a lifetime on the Facebook Newsfeed.

Takeaway: 

Advertisers need more time to explain a new or complex product in the following areas:

• The uniqueness of the product to solve the problem
• How different it is from other products
• Reasons and proof of why the new product would work.

The video gets a tick in all three areas and it does with irreverent humor that keeps the viewers entertained and hooked throughout. The video starts with a joke right away – a useful tactic to attract viewers early on.

5. Samsung

 

Samsung poked some fun at the dedicated fan following that Apple has gathered over the years by highlighting what they consider an unwarranted mentality of a certain sect of fans.

Takeaway:

The one-minute video is an apt length for Facebook, to hold the viewer’s attention. The video highlights competitor’s pain points, and their advantages in an effective way, all tied up with humor. A hard-core Apple fan who would never consider leaving Apple for  Samsung can also appreciate the boldness of the video ad is making.

Instagram Ads: 

Seeing the best Instagram video ads, it will inspire you to create or boost your own campaign.

6. Underarmour

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpFQ7OrAO4A/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

]Two athletes hanging from hot-air balloons, doing tricks with a soccer ball is creative and crazy. The brand partnered with GoPro for this ad is a win-win situation for both. It is filmed with a GoPro and you can feel the thrill and excitement.

Takeaway:

The ad is a great and adventurous concept that grabs your attention.

7. Feetup

https://www.instagram.com/p/BojfmbODE3s/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

This video is simple and shows their product in action. There is nothing fancy about the advertisement but innovatively showing their product by targeting a passionate yoga learning audience.

Takeaway:

The ad shows what the consumer is interested to see about the product and might be facing a similar challenge. For instance, the video shows the visual demonstration by the FeetUp trainer. Many yogis can recognize the headstands and identify how the product will be helpful to improve the practice.

8. Get Freshly

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrtOLs-DApR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The caption of the video ad is so apt and everyone can relate “Too busy to eat healthy?” The ad is effective and quickly shows videos on how easy it is to eat smart with Freshly.

Takeaway: 

The ad gives a glimpse of all the meal options which are helpful and easy for consumers and ends up with a Call to Action(CTA) of an attractive promo code.

9. Wolf and Shepherd

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmKRFonjqO3/?utm_source=ig_embed

The brand owner had put their dress shoes to a test by wearing the pair of shoes and running with the bulls. This sounds crazy but creative marketing is at its best.

Takeaway:

The brand uses its product to an extreme level to give a reality check about their product to the audience with a  dramatic demonstration. This surely won hearts and helped the brand to be above the pack.

10. Eczema Honey

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl-_jvED8E1/?utm_source=ig_embed

 

The bright colors that pop up in the background are eye-catchy and stand out. It has followed a 2step advertising strategy: – on one hand, the color in the background will grab attention and using 5-starred customer reviews builds credibility.

YouTube Ads:

YouTube ads are best for branding and engagement. It is one of the best options for cost-effective campaigns. 

With 2 million users, the platform has immense capacity to help brands find new audiences and establish a following. Soon, Google is soon going to launch Youtube Shorts an answer to Tik Tok. Tough competition lying ahead.

11. Grammarly: Words to Travel the World

Grammarly has built its social strategy around YouTube video ads. They are a chrome extension that scans your writing and rectifies your grammatical error and suggests how to make it better.

Their majority of traffic comes from video ads and is a user of Trueview ads.

Takeaway:

Google claims brands that run TrueView ads see a 500% engagement boost compared to their other YouTube content. True View ads a brand is paying for are from a more interested audience who is likely to get converted.

However, recently Google announced to stop serving unskippable 30 seconds ad to users and instead push 6-second bumpers and 20-second ad units.

12.GoPro: Fireman Saves Kitten

 

This isn’t a typical GoPro’s user-generated ad but shows its brand as adventurous and extreme. They repurpose many of their user-generated videos and put up on their channel that shows stuff like surfing or jumping out of planes. However, this video is different and deserves a round of applause where a firefighter is saving a kitten from a fire. This ad is beyond the athlete persona and helps to reach a wider audience keeping the heroism theme intact.

Takeaway:

Don’t hesitate to push the boundaries of your brand’s image. Experiment with different ad formats and topics to reach a wider audience and build your brand’s personality.

13. Code.org.: What Most Schools Don’t Teach

The faces in the marketing video are known and famous. The piece opens with a quote from Steve Jobs followed by an introduction by Bill Gates

Code.org is a non-profit organization that promotes computer science in schools across the country. It is a great example of influencer marketing and faces made the piece popular. The faces are the owners of renowned software companies and are sharing stories of their humble beginnings in the field.

Takeaway:

Sometimes, the field you are working in can be intimidating to the people from outside. world’s However, to grow your audience, you need to level it. 

14. American’s Greetings: World’s Toughest Job

https://youtu.be/HB3xM93rXbY

An excellent example of emotion-driven marketing created by Mullen and Cardstore by American Greetings. The content is free of sales and product placements. A creative advertisement using the faux interview to throw some light on the day-to-day mom’s routine everywhere, it is difficult for the viewers to walk away from the video without appreciation. At the close of the video, small witty talk to get your mom a Mother’s day card.

Takeaway: 

Remember to show the plot with unexpected twists and turns to keep your audience engaged throughout the content.

15. Alibaba: To the Greatness of Small

The multinational e-commerce platform is based in China. The global footprint of the brand is similar to Amazon’s. it made a heartfelt and emotional statement of Loyalty to Team Kenya during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

The message at the end of the video is the creative marketing finest of all. It shows greatness comes from small places and the comparison is drawn here is just like a young athlete having Olympic goals, all amazing brands start with an ambitious founder.

Takeaway:

Sometimes the inspiring and powerful messages are more relatable to the smallest audiences.  Be around and vigilant about your actions and you will impress everyone else.

Linkedin Ads

Video advertising is one of the most famous ad formats on LinkedIn. According to LinkedIn, the most successful video ad campaigns are less than 15 seconds.

16. Salesforce

This corporate ad is a 30-second clip that gives a brief introduction about their products and services. The interaction between the animated characters and the human being is in sync and harmonious. Salesforce has done a great job with this advertising piece.

17. WeWork

One of the best video advertising ads on LinkedIn. This corporate ad is powerful in its visual content and is below the recommended time span of 15 seconds. A simple, appealing, and short ad. It is easy to process and engaging.

18. Slack

A great example of creative marketing. The ad is impressive because of its creative way to offer a job position. It shows a couple of interviews with its existing employees and the way they bring the most out of their job. The company expresses its values in a great manner and shows the electrifying work atmosphere and happy employees which gives you an instant desire to work at Slack. 

Though the advertisement is fun but a bit longer.

19. Adecco:

Two words to describe the corporate ad- hilarious and funny. In this creative advertisement, the recruiting company Adecco have compiled the best and worst CV’s received by their client and is worth the minute to watch it. In fact, it can leave you craving for the video to be longer.

The brand should have had a better CTA but its creativity is at its peak generating brand awareness and engagement.

20. Amazon Web Services

Another great simple, straight, and short video by Amazon Web Services. The best part of the video ad shows the audience’s real-life application of the technology ‘AWS’ for EDM artists. It is easy to comprehend, practical, and less technical which makes it easy to process. The CTA is also clear.

TikTok Ad Campaigns

According to HubSpot’s social media team, the video-based social app TikTok is “leaking” with brand opportunities. Recently it launched an advertising process for brands. 

21. Chipotle:

Chipotle, a popular Mexican restaurant chain has over 55,000 TikTok fans. They publish an array of posts using music, memes, and other references to highlight their menu.

The above video marks the one-year celebration of TikTok using hashtag #oneyearofTikTok  showing tortilla chips set around a bowl of guac with the Adele song, “Someone Like You”. As the sound bite features Adele’s audience singing back to her, it feels as if the chips are actually singing to the guac –  a perfect blend of creativity and video marketing.

22. San Diego Zoo: 

San Diego Zoo’s TikTok account is a treat to all animal lovers. The zoo has over 50,000 fans who are enjoying the zoo’s simple strategy to post videos of animals with fun music.

Like this one -How would one not enjoy and follow them after seeing the video of lounging meerkat?

If this is not enough to fall in love with these cute animals, check this duet created by the zoo with other friendly animal accounts, like the Monterey Aquarium.

This is a perfect example of a cross-promotion of two similar brands using TikTok features. Because of the zoo’s tagging strategy, this video ad would be seen by zoo and aquarium followers. 

23. NBC’s Stay Tuned 

After the success of Stay tuned originally for Snapchat News Show,  produced by NBC to target Gen Z, the network started making content for TikTok. The account has nearly one million followers and offers a mix of behind-the-scenes videos, quick news bites on pop culture, and weird events.

In the following example, the reporter surveys on top fast-food chains.

In the next example, the host explains complicated AI news in a short amount of time and in a funny way. 

Stay Tuned has had huge success on Snapchat and is not repurposing the content or putting the same content for Tik Tok. It creates specific content for each platform which proves that it can give you big wins for brand awareness and engagement. This strategy can help publishers, bloggers, academics or others who post about news, interesting topics, or studies on different platforms.

Snapchat Ads

Don’t believe the press- Snapchat has a big fan following and is blowing up. They have highly engaged and over 210 million Daily users. Snapchat is rising quickly in creative marketing as the Snaps are fun, engaging, and creative.

24. Shein

 

A global fashion brand operating in 224 countries delivers stylish and in vogue apparel to women and men. They partnered for clothing advertisements with Snapchat to create an immersive full-screen ad experience to target Gen Z and millennials.

Takeaway:

They created a short-form video to showcase their products front and center to attract Snapchatters to swipe up. The brand also used Snapchat ads to highlight their product lines to engage the audiences with fashion interest. The clever headline, creative images drove curiosity among Snapchatters to tap Story in Discovery feed.

They also used Snapchat’s optimization tools- Audience Insights and Goal-based bidding. This helped them reach the relevant audience who were likely to convert and achieve a 50% lower cost per purchase compared to other platforms. This video marketing strategy is highly effective and achieves a 20% ROI.

 25. FitBod

This mobile app uses machine learning to customize your workout goal and guides you to reach your fitness goals. The aim is to create Snapchat ads to reach a new audience that would not only download the app but spend time on the platform.

Takeaway:

To achieve the goal of acquiring new users at the lowest CPC and CAC, it ran APP-install campaigns. It also used a combination of predefined and lookalike audience targeting to reach Snapchatters who are most likely to engage. Each snap ad followed a creative practice of CTA to prompt Snapchatters to Swipe up and download.

This resulted in a 54% lower CPA than other platforms and a 31% lower CPA than their average CPA goal.

26. BMW

This is an excellent example of creative video advertising where the launch of BMW X2 wanted to change the way people discover cars by turning the world into a showroom. BMW’s AR Trial lens helps Snapchatters to take X2 for a ride from their phones. A unique experience, isn’t it?

Takeaway:

One of the first advertisers to use Snap Ads that deeply connected to a World Lens in order to swipe up by users to unlock the lens.

The lens provides a different feel to experience the car. This creative video marketing campaign was running in 7 countries worldwide. The BMW X2 lens witnessed an average of 54 seconds of playtime.

To create excitement for x2 and maintain the levels, Snapchatters Gold color feature was turned on to drive awareness of the car color. This allowed lenses to change the color of the face to gold. There were 1 in 4 shared or saved x2 lens and 40 million impressions of the face lens.

Where is Video going in 2019?

This infographic by Hubspot with uscreen, a VOD platform will explain:

Summing Up:

These stellar examples of video advertising grab the audience’s attention and keep them engaged. If you want to see the increase in audience engagement and ad-click through, you need to invest in an integrated video advertising campaign.

An excellent video ad campaign is within your reach and can be a driver for increased traffic and sales. It is a great way of storytelling and drives your performance. The visual content is here to stay. Buckle up to fully embrace the effectiveness of video ads. Social media platforms are the perfect place to meet prospects who can see engaging video content. 

Do you have any questions or wish to know more about video advertising trends and practices? Leave a comment below as we are happy to serve you.

 

 

 

 

Google Withhold Programmatic Data, Advertisers Pulls Back Ad Spend

Advertisers around the world are looking for more transparency and data into their programmatic buys from their ad tech vendors. However, one hold out is Google in the negotiation, a dominant player in the ad tech world. 

Recently, a US-based retailer decided to not buy ads from the world’s largest online ad Digimarketplace Google Ad Exchange. They wanted granular log-level data about the bids won or lost by them over a festive period last year however Google refused. So, the advertiser spent dollars on the other programmatic platforms who were willing to share data and offer discounts.

As quoted by Digiday, the Head of Display at the U.S based retailer said,

“Google’s ad exchange didn’t make the list primarily because they’re not willing to give us any transparency or data around not only their take rates on our media sped but also anything we could already pull from our demand-side platform.”

Advertisers are unaware of how much money is Google making from the bids. Google shares aggregated information rather than impression-level data CPMs (Cost Per 1000 Impressions). Therefore, many advertisers are now looking for an alternative that gives them better CPMs and complete transparency over the data. 

Some of the US-based advertisers are reducing, if not completely, stopping their spending on Google’s platform. Procter and Gamble’s marketers are one of them who are in the process of reducing the amount of money they spend on Google’s Ad Exchange, as explained by ad tech executives to DigiDay. He further expanded on the point, that it is unlikely that P&G will pull of the media dollars from Google’ s Ad Exchange. After all, Google holds power over auctions which means it can keep prices lower for advertisers and can perform better than other marketplaces.

For now, a handful of the larger programmatic advertisers are weighing their options on how much money to pull off from the Google marketplace. However, companies that have achieved better CPMs with other publishers have stopped buying ads completely from Google. On the other hand, some big programmatic spenders are pushing Google to share more granular data or else they will seek other ad exchanges.

“We’re seeing Google’s ad exchange become slightly less of the total pie,” said Jay Friedman, president at programmatic agency Goodway Group to DigiDay.

”I don’t have a percentage but it’s less but not significant.”, he further added.

However, it seems clear that Google would rather loose a few smart programmatic advertisers to protect the share of a multitude of other advertisers that buy Ads regardless of the price that they are paying.

Over the last decade, Google’s auction model has media buyers in a bind as on one hand, Google gave advertisers audience targeting specific data and a better chance of winning the Ads auction on its own platform rather than on the rival platform. Whereas, on the other hand, those benefits were only for those advertisers who used Google’s ad tech products to buy its inventory. Some advertisers stopped short over the setup but many believed that working on Google’s platform has more advantages and limited downsides.

The rival ad tech vendors, also known as Supply-side platforms soon turned the tide in their favor using header bidding to bid every impression. They started the first-price auction where the advertiser could bid exactly what he is willing to pay unlike in Google’s ad exchange where the price an advertiser pay is slightly higher than the bid they made.

Eventually, Google caved in and changed its policy in 2019 and introducing unified auction that would put Google in the level playing field with the rival platforms like Pubmatic and Rubicon Project that give advertisers access to granular data as per their need. Data from rival platforms is helping advertisers to chart the best course for a low-fee route to CPMs in this highly competitive market. In these auctions, there are chances of the same publisher inventory is made available through multiple ad tech vendors at the same time leading to advertisers paying more for inventory. To avoid this, advertisers are using the supply-path optimization technique to broker better programmatic deals, many of which are dependant on the data they receive from the vendors.

 

IAB GCC Report: Ramadan Budgets Shift Towards Performance based Ad Spends

Advertisers are changing their digital ad spend due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis affecting the businesses and the economy. The Dubai based Interactive Agency Bureau(IAB) that empowers GCC based media and marketing industries surveyed the marketing teams of nearly 30 Agencies and Clients between April 6 to  April 12, 2020, for the impact of COVID-19 on Advertising. 

Here are some  main points from the report:

The findings suggest a huge downturn with 48% of respondents expect less than 30% of budget cuts in April and 41% of respondents see a decline in ad-spending or paused post-June.

With the Holy month of Ramadan expected to begin within weeks, there are still 34% of respondents who are yet to take decisions on Ramadan budgets while 51% are unsure about the directions of second-half budgets in this unprecedented period. This suggests that the majority of marketers are in ‘wait-and-see’ mode.

The report also states that 59% of respondents are suggesting that they will significantly increase the ‘Performance-based’ ad spend. This indicates marketers are in favour of Performance media in the second half. 

Even though advertisers might be working on leaner budgets but are opportunistic to see 17% growth in Digital display in the second half. They also expect a rise in the audience and programmatic buying.

Lastly, 77% of respondents see COVID-19 will have a significant impact on the MENA advertising market than the 08/09 financial crisis.

Take a look at the pictorial images of findings and methodology from the report.

 

There is a wave of optimism about the second half right now and are looking ahead of a post-pandemic world whenever it is possible. Definitely,  there is a pendulum swing in the minds of advertisers whether to decrease ad spend or pause it entirely to what we hope for a clear picture very soon.

 

Digital Advertising v/s Digital Marketing: Know the Difference.

In this digital age, marketing is no more a choice but a prerequisite for businesses who are leaving no stone unturned to get their message across to the customers effectively and powerfully.

Then the question arises, in order to put forward the message in the right way to the right people, which one to go for? 

Marketing or Advertising?

Well, aren’t they both the same?  The answer is ‘No’.

There is a thin line of difference between them. This article will help you to understand it and justify the answer to the above question.

Know the basics-

Digital Advertising:

It is also called online advertising, web advertising or internet advertising

Digital advertising is defined as a form of marketing or advertising where businesses leverage internet technologies to deliver their promotional advertisements to customers.

In simple words, if you see an ad on the internet, it is called digital advertising.

There are three types of digital advertising:

1. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads: (Adwords search ads, bing ads, etc)

For example, the ads you see in search results.

2. Display ads : (Banners, video, mobile, pop-ups, etc)

For example, this ad by eBay is promoting its products. eBay is the biggest player in banner advertising and invests a lot of money in display advertising.

3. Social ads: (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc)

For example, A ‘suggested post’ on Facebook is a social ad.

Digital Marketing:

Digital Marketing includes all the marketing efforts using the internet or digital technologies. Businesses leverage digital channels like emails, search engines, websites, social media, blog posts, logos, and everything else that is helpful in online promotion and connect with current and prospective customers.

There are six types of digital marketing:

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
2. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
3. Content Marketing
4. Email and Mobile Marketing
5. Affiliate Marketing
6. Online advertising

The following infographic explains digital marketing in detail:

Now that we know the key processes in each segment, let’s look at the major differences –

• Digital Advertising is a part of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is a broader term whereas digital advertising is a part of it. This raises a question,

Is digital advertising necessary for your business?

Not really. Your business can survive without digital advertising. 

Why and How?

The definitions make it clear that digital advertising is a subset of digital marketing. When you start with a business idea, from that very moment you are involved in marketing and not advertising.

Product creation, Product Pricing, Packaging, Promotion, market segmentation, target audience are all a part of your business strategy and marketing mix.

 

Digital advertising is part of the marketing mix. It comes into play when you use the internet to promote your product or service or to generate traffic. However, you can also choose from other tactics – a search engine, content management, social media, email marketing, etc to generate traffic.

It is not necessary to use digital advertising at the promotion stage to reach your target audience. 

For instance, DemandBase in one of the campaigns used white papers, infographics, Slideshare, and webinars to generate new leads. This helped the company to generate over $1 million in new revenue through content marketing resulting in 1700 new leads and connect with 125 webinar viewers.

You can run your business without digital advertising but not digital marketing. The purpose of all marketing techniques is to generate leads and generate traffic and so you can choose any tactic – SEO or PPC or both whichever helps to grow your business.

• Digital Advertising is an activity while digital marketing is a process: 

Digital marketing helps to build a strategy to market your business in the following way:

• Define your target audience,
• Ways to attract, engage, convert and retain the customers, 
• Evaluate existing and new digital channels like SEO, PPC, content marketing, etc
• Analysis and monitoring

In broader terms, digital marketing is a process that runs your entire business on the internet and it begins from the moment you start with the business idea.

The digital marketing process is continuous. It begins with the research phase and continues until the refining stage and the data from the refining stage is used again for the research to develop a new marketing strategy. It is a perpetual and never-ending process.

Digital advertising is an activity in the digital marketing process. It fits at Step 6: Promote- the purpose is to promote your primary digital identities (blog, website, app, product or anything else) via ads to relevant people in order to generate traffic. To do this, a digital advertiser will need inputs from a digital marketer on what to promote, who to promote, advertising budget, etc. An advertiser will accordingly create an ad to generate traffic.

• Digital advertising is tactics while digital marketing is strategic

A strategy is a long term and complex plan which involves decision-making at various levels while a tactic is a short-term plan or means to achieve the desired result. 

Digital advertising is tactical in nature as the promotion of a particular product or an offer to the target audience is momentary and short term. Subsequently, it can be easily replicated by competitors.

For instance, Facebook ads are short-lived. You might run an ad on Facebook to promote your product or an offer during Easter. Once you achieve the goal from the campaign, you will discontinue it and move on with another ad campaign or platform.

Whereas, digital marketing is strategic in nature that involves long term planning, projections, defined goals and objectives, budgets and resources to achieve the objectives.

For instance, Slack is a collaboration tool that allows teams to share files and communicate easily. They had an amazing rise at the launch with 15000 users in 2014 to over 500,000 in less than a year, and currently holds nearly one and a half millions of which are paid accounts.

Their strategy was clear from day one – focusing on the customer experience. They believe in selling solutions and not products. The company acknowledges to 8000 help desk tickets and up to 10,000 tweets every month.

This is what digital marketing plan does versus a digital advertising campaign that shows results instantly.

A digital ad campaign if fails will not impact the business overall but if digital marketing campaign fails it will affect the running of the business immensely.

• Digital advertising promotes the brand while digital marketing develops the brand image.

Digital Advertising promotes a brand, product or services. A compelling ad engages the customers, generates leads and creates brand awareness.

For instance, Typeform, a survey software company offers a freemium option with a condition that customers should include a thank-you page that includes its logo and message. It is a win-win situation that helps customers get to know the product for free and the brand gets free advertising. 

 

Digital marketing builds a brand and brand image with a strategy in place. You plan the logo, design, taglines for your brand. You will develop a strategy on how your brand will be perceived by the target audience and what message your brand will convey to the target audience. It is a long term planning to build a robust brand image based on values and ethics that remain etched in the minds of the consumers.

• Digital Advertising is sales centred while digital marketing is audience psychology centred.

Digital marketing is not always sales-driven. The ultimate goal is to increase your ROI and sales but along with building a relationship with the target audience.

Let’s say you write a blog and publish it not only to increase traffic and revenue but build a relationship with your readers. This is what digital marketing does, it is based on audience psychology. To understand your target audience, their needs, and wants, it is essential to know audience psychology.

On the contrary, digital advertising focuses on a specific segment of the target audience that can be reached via ads. For instance, if you pay $50 for a $5 CPM slot, you are content as long as you get your 5000 impressions. In digital advertising, you are not much concerned about who sees it as long as the ad is performing and reaches out to the people.

Conclusion-

After reading this article, you may now have a clear idea about digital marketing and digital advertising. They are not the same and has an individual role to play.  Let’s have a short recap to have no doubts in mind.

	Digital Marketing	Digital Advertising
	If you see any form of marketing online, it is digital marketing.	If you see an ad on the internet, it is called digital advertising.
	There are six types of digital marketing: i) Search engine optimization (SEO) ii)) Social Media Marketing (SMM) iii) Content Marketing iv) Email and Mobile Marketing v) Affiliate Marketing vi) Online advertising	There are three types of digital advertising: i)   Pay-per-click (PPC) ads ii)  Display ads iii) Social ads
	Digital Marketing is a broader term and it starts from the moment you share a business idea. The marketing mix comes into place.	Digital Advertising is a subset of Digital Marketing. It is one part of the marketing mix.
	Digital marketing is a process.	Digital Advertising is an activity in the process.
	Digital marketing is strategic in nature.it involves long term plans and decision-making.	Digital Advertising is tactical in nature. Tactics involve a short-term plan and means to achieve the desired goals.
	Digital Marketing builds brand and brand image. A well-defined plan and strategy help to build a brand from a long term point of view.	Digital Advertising creates brand awareness. It generates traffic and promotes a brand or a little push to sales.
	Digital Marketing has a large number of tools and techniques to get their business to customers like blogs, videos, whitepaper, infographic, content management, website and more	Digital Advertising is a tool in the Digital marketing toolbox.
	Digital Marketing is based on audience psychology. It understands the target audience and creates a buyer persona.	Digital Advertising is more sales-driven and focuses on a particular segment of the target audience that can be reached through ads.