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Digitisation has rapidly accelerated due to the onset of COVID-19, and 2021 has witnessed a major uptick. This has brought MADTech into the limelight owing to its efficiencies and capabilities. As there’s been a hike in the use of programmatic ads, especially during the current times, some trends may become the highlight of the MADTech industry in the coming times.

In fact, you will find it highly relevant as you would have witnessed these trends setting in slowly around you. As a publisher or an advertiser, you should not miss out on these trends because you weren’t notified on time.

Let’s go through the latest eight trends in MADTech that are on the rise.

Cohorts

With the growing awareness about privacy and data sharing, users have become increasingly conscious about sharing their personal data. Publishers also want to find a middle ground where they can have enough parameters to target customers in a manner wherein their behaviour is targeted rather than fixed parameters.

Now, this has one more advantage which brings us to another trend that we have covered further below. Cohorts create algorithms with the help of search patterns based on the cookies and history of the user. No information is shared in terms of fixed parameters.

Anonymous groups of people sharing common interests and online behaviour are targeted and cohorts are assigned within Google Chrome’s browser where user information is stored locally.

Rise of CTV

The rise of OTT platforms and the majority of people moving towards connected TV (CTV) devices as replacements for conventional entertainment media consumption has opened up new avenues for advertising.

These can track the behaviour as well as relevancy factors which can further be used as a parameter for developing the algorithm that will therefore be used to target relevancy.

Also with CTV devices, there is the opportunity for non-skippable advertising options that can further make for a better click-through rate.

Now it increases the risk of over advertising and reaching the point where the potential customer might be interested but might get irritated. The next trend tackles exactly this point.

AI and ML

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have moved to the point where they have been working to place programmatic ads targeted on certain parameters and relevancy. ML is the way forward and the ad placement platform should have these to become future-proof.

It also reduces wastage of inventory and creates a win-win system for both publishers and advertisers. The new trend here would be leveraging cohorts to gain more insight on how certain types of users move in on the Internet and when is the right time to target them.

Audio searches

Due to exponential progress in AI and ML, voice assistants and understanding voice for machines has become better and more convenient than ever before. Moving forward, there will be increased involvement of the voice assistance system, which will learn behavioural aspects and tones.

Advertising on audio-based searches is quite premium quality as it has only one spot and a chance of very well native ad integration. Also, voice-based searches already have a lot of acquired data that can be used to provide people with targeted relevant results.

Apart from searches, MADTech can take advantage of placing ads on podcast platforms. As a lot of learning and longer duration engagement happens to take place on podcasts, the publishers have already started leveraging their premium inventory from their podcast platforms.

The only challenge that the audio experience puts forth is to create ads that are hammering but they can take advantage of the mobile-based interface which can be used to execute the CTA right at that moment.

Programmatic ads can also take advantage of voice-based assistants in vehicles. These can leverage location-based tracking which can add more relevance to the targeting algorithm.

Hyper relevance over hyper-personalisation

Consider two scenarios where different sales executives approach you in a supermarket. In the first scenario, you are approached when you pick certain products and the other approach depends upon a certain path across the supermarket.

Which one feels more intrusive and creates a negative feeling? Similarly, targeting a customer based on relevance is necessary rather than targeting and adjusting revenues according to their needs. Hyper relevance based targeting is possible through programmatic.

It is a more sustainable way for publishers and advertisers to serve ads without being invasive by collecting data that the user has to fill out. As mentioned earlier the cohorts are an extension of the same MADTech trend.

Wearables

Wearables generate data that can be accurately tracked and give results that pinpoint a lot of variables that have not been conventionally considered before. According to estimates, 305.2 million devices were shipped in 2019. There is a projection of these digits to grow to 490 million by 2023.

Also due to COVID-19, the fitness and health sectors have created both demands as well as supply for advertisers. Targeting the right customers at the right time with relevant ads can lead to drastic conversions from impressions.

Prepare for 5G

5G has improved speeds and higher processing power. It enables a better reach as ads will be able to reach more channels within the same amount of time. It will also result in a hyper-speed RTB. The improved device speed will be 22 times and is expected to be about 45 Mbps up to 1 Gbps.

For this advertiser will require a compatible programmatic technique that keeps up with the speed of the system/device. Reaching always-on consumers will be much easier. Along with improvements in mobile digital marketing, it will also open avenues like infotainment and in-vehicle advertisements.

With 5G there will be lower load times which will allow advertisers to stream better quality of ads and also experiment with 4K footages. Also with the 5G, the ad tagging system will be optimised.

Along with this the ad industry will need to update beyond the cell tower to meet consumer expectations. This will eliminate most of the latency in ad serving are located at distant points beyond the cell tower like the backhaul and cloud.

With these faster load times and higher resolution, advertisers can have new pricing options and ad formats. Also, this could overall supplement other ads which are seen in the form of wearable and voice-based devices.

DOOH Ads

DOOH (Digital-out-of-home) has also witnessed a lot of innovation as DOOH ads are not restricted to hoardings and billboards. MADTech can provide access to a lot of ad spaces that are cheaper but also have the same amount of impressions on people.

DOOH also has another layer of targeting where a particular user can be targeted based on his path of travel and mode of transportation. A lot of public spaces display ads that can have one fixed parameter which is very high quality.

In conclusion, MADTech advertising is an interesting medium that is constantly evolving. The advantage of capturing audiences and being listed in the same spaces where there are a lot of bigger players. Programmatic technology has already been widely accepted by numerous brands and digital agencies.

Having said that, it is important to note that the changing trends in MADTech can not be a substitute for all other forms of advertisements. These trends can certainly help you stay ahead of your competitors and harness more conversion rates.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YS.)