The search for privacy-compliant, high ROAS marketing solutions has recently pushed programmatic to the limelight. In 2023, programmatic ad spending in the US is expected to reach over $200 billion. But with cookie deprecation reshaping the advertising sector, programmatic, too, is continuously evolving. Moreover, the shifts in programmatic have been even more apparent since adtech and martech interventions prioritized transparency. Add regulatory changes in the advertising space, creating storms before the calms, and 2023 programmatic trends & beyond are hard to predict and tricky to keep up with.
When programmatic advertising first appeared, it threatened media planners with their jobs. The top conclusion we can make today is that this is not about to happen any time soon. The AI powers of programmatic and adtech stacks and the human intelligence of media planners will continue to work in tandem as digital advertising continues to evolve. Let’s look at the top 2023 programmatic trends and adtech and martech landscape shaping digital advertising in the coming year.
Top 2023 adtech and martech trends shaping programmatic advertising
Trend 1: Back to the future with contextual targeting combined with the powers of AI and first-party data
Contextual advertising is one of the oldest and most natural forms of targeted advertising. In recent years, cookies and behavioral ads have overtaken contextuality. But with the imminent demise of cookie-based tracking, contextual advertising will rapidly grow as a privacy-first hyper-personalization solution. Even if behavioral targeting is possible through other data sources, contextual targeting will trump it as the audience expects a less annoying and intrusive era of digital ads.
In the UK, 79% of consumers want to see ads relevant to their content. Moreover, 66% feel uncomfortable with ads tracking their digital behavior, especially if they are personalized and relevant. If brands want to sell and gain long-term customer loyalty, then contextual advertising will be the answer.
Contextual targeting will be one of the hottest 2023 programmatic trends due to advancements in AI and adtech. With contextual AI, brands can employ a more human-like approach to scan text and video-based content and identify the best spaces to reach the target audience.
For example, renowned publisher The New York Times generated the same revenue in half a year from contextual-based advertising products compared to all other products. Their digital ad impressions from contextual advertising were also up by 15% from the previous year compared to audience-based targeting. Publishers are combining contextuality with first-party customer data to create more powerful ads and strengthen engagement and ROI. A new era of AI- and data-based contextual advertising is here – it will be marketers’ top choice to replace cookie-based advertising.
Trend 2: CTV programmatic ads will become more measurable with adtech interventions
CTV advertising is projected to see a 44% increase in 2023. Brands are more ready than ever for CTV programmatic advertising. This will be especially crucial as cookie deprecates because CTV advertising allows contextual household targeting, scaling the reach of digital ads.
But even if CTV is one of the top 2023 advertising trends, there is one minor concern. The channel continues to be in its early years and is still challenging to measure, primarily due to its device-agnostic nature creating fragmentation. Without standard and reliable measurement metrics, brands neither know nor demonstrate ROAS, suffer ad wastage, and are not ROI-insured.
All of this is set to change in 2023. With a recession looming and cookies fading, CTV’s importance and the need for its measurability are both snowballing.
CTV is one of the top 2023 programmatic trends because of the immersive ad viewing experience and no skippability. These lead to higher completion rates and better ad impressions. In 2023, we foresee CTV advertising measurement and metrics solidifying based on emerging tech stacks and AI and ML-based tools.
For example, video tagging can provide unique tags to video content irrespective of which device it’s being played on. Advertisers can also measure ad impressions, completion rates, and campaign performance across devices using these tags and other digital and physical world behaviors. In addition, CTV attribution and measurement will bring location data into the equation to demonstrate the real-world impact of ads.
Deep learning capabilities in ad tech and measurement models will see more robust attribution using device IDs. This means a stronger viewability of how many times an ad was played, subsequent actions, and conversions. In addition, lookalike modeling will help advertisers and agencies target similar individuals and households to scale the reach and impact of CTV ads.
Trend 3: Demand for programmatic measurability will see more VC investments in adtech and martech SaaS platforms
After the doom of cookies became evident, venture capitalists were skeptical of the path adtech and martech industries would take. But over the past couple of years, adtech and martech, collectively MADtech, have bounced back with privacy-compliant solutions, receiving investments in billions.
Seedtag, an AI-based adtech startup, recently raised more than $250 million in funding. The picture is similar for other adtech companies, with Zocket receiving $3 million in the seed round and Perion projecting $733 million in revenue for 2023.
Investors see programmatic as one of the most promising 2023 adtech trends because it has made the cookieless transition easier and more profitable. As a result, brands are placing high demand on MADTech self-serve SaaS platforms. These solutions help brands meet their digital audiences and measure ad performance on platforms like CTV, OTT, and others. The measurability, especially, will be MADTech’s triumph, leading to customer and investor interest.
Investors continue to open their wallets for this goldmine of returns because the need for transparent, targeted, and measurable advertising will continue to grow. In addition, with marketing automation spending expected to reach $25.1 billion in 2023, more VCs will invest in the adtech and martech sectors in the coming year.
Prepare for 2023 programmatic trends with ReBid
The rise of programmatic as a cookieless, ethical, privacy-compliant advertising solution is evident in 2023. Any brand that expects high ROAS should prepare now with self-serve adtech, martech and MADtech SaaS platforms. It’s the only way to make the most of 2023 programmatic trends.
ReBid is here and prepared to help you make your programmatic strategy measurable and impactful. If programmatic in-housing is your roadmap, we have the stack and seasoned expertise you need to get started. With ReBid, you employ AI and ML techniques to collect, analyze, buy, and strategize your ad data to build an effective programmatic strategy that brings results and revenue.
Book a demo with ReBid today to be an early bird of the new age of programmatic.