A survey from Integral Ad Science (IAS), produced with YouGov, tapped into 250 media buyers and sellers. These experts shared their ad market concerns for the coming year. As you help clients plan their digital marketing program, you should know the key areas of focus.

They’ll include social media and digital video, which encompasses CTV.

Marketer Concerns

Marketer concerns will center on a several areas next year. Let’s look at two topics: brand safety and ad fraud.

Brand Safety

Marketers invest significant funds into building brand reputation. It only takes one high-​profile incident to erode that hard-​earned trust.

These days, it’s easy for a bad actor to destroy brand value using the latest technology. At least 20% “of media experts agree that advertising adjacent to deepfakes will represent the most serious threat to media quality over the next 12 months.”

Marketers are well aware of the problem. Specifically, they believe that social media (43%) and digital video (40%) can be easily used to generate fake content.

Ad Fraud

While marketers strive to maintain brand reputation, they also want to spend their ad budget effectively. With billions of dollars lost to advertising fraud, marketers will pull back from platforms they believe are risky. The riskiest platforms highlighted by marketers are social media (59%) and digital video (34%).

As you seek to assist your clients with their digital marketing program, prepare to share case studies and other evidence. You must assure them that you’re working to protect their brand and to reduce ad fraud.

Promising Media Formats

Few businesses are willing to skip media formats that consumers clearly spend time with. In the next year, decision-​makers will be watching for both problems and opportunities in social media and digital video.

Social Media

Spending on this format is a key component of nearly every digital marketing program.

But social media can be a double-​edged sword. Looking ahead, marketers will be watching for consumer distrust in social media.

If that sentiment grows, your clients may reduce social media spending. Increased government regulation of social media may also result in decreased spending.

At the same time, there is growing opportunity in social media. Specifically, the lines between social media and influencers are blurring. 

Influencers now directly post to a brand’s social channel. And more influencers are driving social shopping. This is an area where brands can drive more ROI from the social media spend. According to AudienceSCAN from AdMall, at least 5% of consumers already buy products on Instagram.

Digital Video and CTV

Increasingly, digital video appears on social media. Brands post video messages to outlets such as Facebook and Instagram to connect with their target audiences.

Marketers are also following consumers to CTV programming as viewing time shifts from linear TV. Consumers are willing to watch advertising in exchange for access to their favorite programs at no additional cost.

As a result, brands are increasing their spend on streaming TV ads. But that’s not the only reason for interest in this media format as your clients develop their digital marketing program.

Technology Enhancements

Technology is allowing more interaction between consumers and CTV. The major CTV providers now offer technology that lets advertisers show shoppable ads. When a consumer purchases an item appearing in an ad, marketers have proof their strategy works.

One major marketer complaint about streaming services is that consumers can skip ads in some cases. Marketers have deployed shorter messages to keep consumers engaged.

But there’s a new trend that has captured marketer attention and money. Some major CTV players “…have developed picture-​in-​picture ads to combat ad blockers.”

Viewer Experience

Picture-​in-​picture ads may appeal to marketers that want to be sure their media spend isn’t wasted. They may believe that consumers will notice these ads while watching their programs. However, 78% of industry experts suspect that guidelines will be put in place to avoid “ad frequency overload.”

Consumers don’t appreciate ads that take too long to load on CTV services (80%). Earlier this year, analysts reported that up to 25% of ad space on some FAST channels were not filled. This arrangement left viewers watching a “We’ll Be Right Back” message.

Even worse, some studies show that viewers do not have great ad recall when they encounter advertising hiccups online. While technology is improving, there’s work to be done. 

Assure your clients that your services remain cutting edge, and that you remain on top of the challenges technology poses. You can help them adjust their digital marketing program to reach the buyers that matter.

Photo by Mikael Blomkvist on Pexels.