How Adtech is paving the way for targeted advertising and content monetization

• The rise of digital advertising, massive content bloom, targeted marketing and novel ways to earn attention are some things that the market is transitioning to embrace.
• Amitt Sharma, CEO & Founder, VDO.AI writes how the advent of adtech in India is resulting in a complete revamp of advertising, and leading to more targeted communications.

The advent of state-of-the-art adtech is revamping the traditional advertising industry. The rise of digital advertising, massive content bloom, targeted marketing and novel ways to earn attention are some things that the market is transitioning to embrace. While the industry packs enough punch in terms of potential, the right way to magnify ROI is not yet penetrated through the market.

The Status Quo

India's content industry is booming in terms of consumption; however, ad spending is declining significantly. This poses a critical question on the viability of the conventional ad models. Hence, a need for multi-disciplinary content monetization strategies and business models are becoming imperative for the industry.

The 2019 report from Maga Global stated that digital advertising alone represented half of the total advertising market for the first time. The pandemic also impacted the industry where television advertising experienced a de-growth of 14-18 percent, while online mediums became a proactive method for mass communication.

Adtech paving the way through

2020 posed immense operational challenges and triggered an increased reliance on programmatic media buying and dwindled from its direct, IO based booking counterpart. Other than that, enterprises are looking for more efficient solutions to advertise. A recent survey showed that out of 2,000 global IT decision-makers, 72% have already invested in technology to improve brand content, customer experience and reduce operational costs. The use of AI and machine learning to increase speed, accuracy and gain high customer-centricity will be the primary goal moving forward.

Advertisers are prioritising digital video as the primary format for the decade. 86% of marketers today will bank on videos to advertise, educate, and entertain their audience. Unique formats of advertising will be encouraged with growth in software technology. For example, app-based video advertising underwent an expansion of 78% in 2018 and expected to grow to 84% in 2023. This displays the tremendous potential of mobile advertising to get more clients, increased sales, and higher brand message penetration.

Targeted Advertising and Website Monetisation

One prominent way to content distribution is through web portals. With real-time traffic trackers, demography settings, and advanced targeting mechanism, website publishing is becoming a scalable source of content and developing unique audiences for everyone. Now, these platforms can be monetised through display advertisements (like pay-per-click or cost per impression) as a proactive, cost-effective, and highly ROI driven alternative to traditional ad spend.

Website monetisation will help expand revenue, generate passive income for the publisher. It's also proven that having videos on the website increased organic search traffic on a website by 157%.

Targeted communication Vs Mass communication

Though the world of mass communication is still strong, it might face some critical difficulties in the coming years. With social media delivering viable solutions to virtually touching your end consumer, mass communication's relevance as a one-size-fit-for-all will not work in the future. Hence, digital publishing gives the advertiser an option to choose a platform that fulfils their exact needs, touches their actual audience and ignores everyone else.

We live in an ROI driven world

We have entered a world dominated by performance, data, automation and insights. This has initiated an economy of performance-driven solutions and products, and ROI has become of utmost importance. Companies are continuously looking for quantifiable results for ads and investing in adtech to justify every penny of their investment. Website
monetisation giving an option to deliver detailed reports on investment and processing ROIs in an instance makes it an even lucrative option for brands.

The work-from-home culture is expected to stay and open new possibilities in the office spaces by making them more dynamic. The drastic change in consumer behaviour while consumption of content is compelling advertisers to use their options well. Sticking to just one option will not bear much fruit in a hyper-digital world.

Furthermore, customer-centricity is becoming of prime importance, and the audience has become the king even in the virtual space. Adtech might solve the distribution problem, but the customer's choice and preferences need to be followed in every aspect of marketing and advertising. Website monetization allows that while creating this win-win situation for both parties and develops a new ecosystem of healthy advertising and drives massive ROI.