According to Denis Lagutenko, who is a serial entrepreneur with two internationally operating digital companies under management, the main symbols of the online marketing postpandemic are the two E’s – economy and efficiency. The former implies the automation of all existing processes and the latter is about targeted advertising.
This article describes the brand new technologies for auditory analysis and content production, which the founder of AdsProfit and ADSbase digital agencies plans to implement along with expanding capabilities of already existing services for helping worldwide brands promote themselves.
Remarketing
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the digital world saw constantly growing outreach and improving of an overall social media advertising efficiency (reactions, comments, adding items to shopping carts, etc.). At the same time there was a reduction in the number of conversions (filling out online forms, purchases and orders). This altogether made the total search volume high, but still ineffective.
Since March, according to the data from WordStream online advertising agency, Facebook and Instagram witnessed a 12-14% monthly decline in cost per mille (CPM) rates. One of the recent surveys conducted by Econsultancy and MarketingWeek between marketing managers from the U.S. and Great Britain reveals that more than a half of marketing budgets were frozen while a half of new campaigns were postponed for an indefinite period.
What the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) told in May, almost 90% of largest transnational corporations delayed their campaigns as well. But the WFA also predicted that, sooner or later, they’ll get back in the game, causing market prices to surge again.
Denis notes that since the advent of the pandemic, all the key companies, marketing systems and databases have already started to actively process the collected information. Thus, they segment and identify the viable audience in order to test various remarketing opportunities mainly concentrated around Google and Facebook. The prospects of dynamic remarketing systems based on AI technology and machine learning look promising in the near future especially because their functionality is ever-evolving.
Expansion in the form of new partners
Based on his professional observations, Denis indicates that the economy of advertising forces more and more companies to create mutual alliances and collaborate with different marketing systems. Using your own audience to promote associated or similar goods and services is a great way to improve efficiency, reduce advertising costs and earn on commissions.
Businesses that were most affected by the ongoing crisis, share their client bases with companies from other spheres by displaying external ads on their websites. Moreover, the classic inner CRM-systems can gradually evolve to Data Management Platforms (DMPs), which gather extended anonymous data using cookies.
Right now implementing DMPs enables to increase cost per action (CPA) rates up to 46% and ensure a 15% increase in sales. A few DMPs combined with each other create fully personalized Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), which helps systematize and segment any audience depending on addresses, phone numbers and devices, as well as users’ online behaviour.
Lagutenko is confident that this represents a tremendous opportunity for both data exchange between advertisers and application of innovative marketing instruments, including advertising campaigns optimization and advertising materials created dynamically in accordance with descriptions of auditory clusters displayed in real time.
Automation of content production
As the personalized advertising offers deepen, manual methods of creating, editing and spreading content are sinking into oblivion. What really wins over the advertising market players is the Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) technology that allows to display creatives that are tailored to different audiences.
With DCO instruments, creators can automatically produce multiple versions of the same banners, ads and other content forms with various design solutions and languages. Along with that, they enjoy the ability to change prices and special offers in real time. Taking into account the surging demand for targeting, this will give companies a chance to significantly save on paying for creation services, explains Denis.
Enhancing the DCO technology as a near-term priority will contribute considerably into automatic production of the variable advertisements for several product lines at once. No more need for creating advertising materials manually for separate audiences, which lessens high costs for design.
Increased number of actions into the sales funnel
Lagutenko highlights that users in quarantine were not only engaged in surfing the Internet, but also improved their experience. The so-called “conscious” consumption has turned from something stylish to a real necessity. After people had been watching the changes appearing in brands’ advertising policies, they made up their minds and developed their consistent preferences for years to come. Over 80% of customers assume that experience created by a given brand is of the same importance as its product or service. Edelman Trust Barometer 2020 found out that 65% of internet users consider brands’ behaviour in response to the pandemic as a primary aspect when opting for them in the future.
This is exactly why the impact of complex marketing solutions on the sales funnel will be crucial for all kinds of products and services. The pandemic has formed a new type of user who not just enter names of desired goods in the search engine, but also ask additional questions and use key words. This phenomenon will lead to revolutionizing the SEO promotional strategies together with the whole marketing policy by the majority of companies.
Now, at the core of the sales funnel there is a way that results in sales themselves due to the high quality content and engagement campaigns. This way should be automated and targeted while also useful, empathetic and very human. For brands this means searching the balance between personalization and automation. And in this context, personalization defines not just a mere users’ demography, but a single personality of every single client or buyer.
Visual content adjustment
The pandemic has imposed some habits that people would not be able to waive soon. And these trends relate to the perception of commercial advertising.
The research from Pattern89 creative company involved more than 1,100 brands and advertisers working with Facebook and Instagram to get a proper understanding of what creative changes are taking place in real time. Once they had processed over 150 million commercial ads with the help of AI, a few curious insights were received.
The number of advertising materials on Facebook and Instagram where people kiss each other, hug and hold hands is 27,4% down. Instead, the models are depicted alone.
As for images and videos showing the process of washing face and hands, the quantity of displays has grown. The same is true for advertising materials with multiple variations on the theme of pure water, splatter and water jets.
The number of ads including the words “sport” and “fitness” has also increased from 5,7% to 21%. At the same time the number of travelling images (depicting airplanes, luggage, etc.) has declined by 8% in March and still keeps falling.
Electronics (computers, smartphones, TVs) appear in 39% of commercial ads. The tendency, as Denis clarifies, is a result of both sales of these specific goods and overall surge in gadget usage during the lockdown.
Displaying images and videos that depict the home environment that has become annoying for users who had to comply with self-isolation have dropped by 20%, while the number of inspiring sceneries and landscape videos has skyrocketed. Along with that, in the social advertising headlines there were more words similar to “rest” and “sleep”.
Conclusion
According to various forecasts, by the year 2025 the e-commerce sector will have a 30% share of all retail sales. And the role of digital marketing is only going to grow. That’s why Denis pays much attention to the need for changes and recommends considering the aforementioned trends while developing a modern approach to advertising and promotion.