As Third party cookies are phased out, contextual advertising as a trend is evolving fast. Brands also increasingly rely on contextual advertising to connect with consumers with better data privacy compliance.
According to Statista’s report, Contextual advertising spending worldwide from 2022 to 2030, the global 2023 contextual advertising spending was estimated at USD 227.38 billion. It is expected to more than double by 2030, amounting to USD 562.1 billion.
This article aims to delve deeper into the trends and changes in contextual advertising and its strategies.
Contextual Advertising Trends in 2024
Enhanced Personalization
With the constant evolution of the digital world, the norms and regulations also change accordingly. As third-party cookies gradually fade out, contextual advertising fills the void it will leave. The trend will continue in 2024.
Leveraging privacy-compliant and contextually relevant strategies, brands will use contextual advertising to connect with consumers in 2024.
As per Marketsplash’s report, Contextual Advertising Statistics For 2023, Utilizing contextual data to improve advertising effectiveness has become a strategy for 74% of marketers. This is especially so after device IDs and third-party cookies decline in online advertising.
One of the main features of contextual advertising is that it doesn’t rely on user behavior or profiles. Instead, ads are displayed based on the page content the user is viewing.
In this way, advertisers, advertisers use advanced algorithms to analyze the content on the display ads page. The death of third-party cookies may not impact them too much.
Advancements like specific ad placement and anticipatory user behavior have improved user experience through ad relevance.
Brands can now use platforms that help identify the most relevant contextual interests and audiences for their customers. This helps to enhance relevance and engagement. This also makes it easier for marketers to connect with their target audience.
A cookie-less world comes with its own set of challenges. Without cookies, advertisers lose the advantage of trackability and the ability to measure campaign effectiveness.
Contextual advertising, however, provides a solution for this.
New platforms will provide more relevant information about customers securely. These platforms will change the way technology interacts with users.
They will help to overcome this challenge by providing an alternative to cookie-based tracking.
This way, advertisers can shift their focus from measuring clicks and conversions to metrics such as
- Engagement
- Viewability
- Brand lift
Marketers look for a more secure advertising platform to leverage these benefits.
Contextual advertising can act as an alternative to programmatic and direct advertising campaigns. Contextual advertising platforms can bridge programmatic and direct advertising campaigns using privacy-first rules and AI-powered tools.
AI-Powered Contextual Advertising
AI has disrupted various sectors; the latest in the list is the marketing and advertising sector. With the integration of AI, the way advertising works has been transformed. The biggest impact is the increased accuracy of customer data. This platform’s key feature delivers the biggest value to advertisers.
Advanced contextual platforms powered by AI tools can accurately interpret the underlying meaning of text, images, and videos.
The real-time insights AI tools deliver help brands target precise audience interests rather than a broader spectrum of the market. This helps to pin down greater interest from the audience, maximizing campaign effectiveness.
For instance, in the pre-AI era, image recognition tech would have classified a picture of a dog as “an animal with four legs and fur.” But today, due to the advancement of image recognition tech, it can identify the pic as a “golden retriever puppy playing with a ball in a park on a sunny day.”
Such information can be used to improve the accuracy of:
- Search results
- Targeted advertising
- Assistive technologies for the visually impaired
This information can be used to improve contextual targeting for other categories.
The use of AI in contextual advertising has also increased the ability to analyze video or audio content and draw out its true meaning through context. This was not possible in a scalable way before AI tools came along.
Combining content and audiences, AI generates contextual messaging that drives brands’ highest return on ad spend (ROAS).
It is clear that AI will continue transforming marketing in the coming years, making it more accurate, effective, and efficient.
Rise in Hyper-Personalization
Contextual marketing will drive a rise in hyper-personalization. For marketers, this will come as a boon.
By hyper-personalization, marketers can map the customers’ identities and preferences with their offerings. This allows marketers to tailor their ads for a better reach.
With AI-led hyper-personalization, the same content will change according to the target audience. For instance, an ad related to football will be presented differently according to the audience genre. For each audience genre, the soundtrack will be different, which can appeal to them.
With increased personalization, Content-as-a-Service (CaaS) platforms will boom, experts say. They help repurpose content creation, making it easy for marketers to tailor and manage their ads. Using contextual advertising’s plans, marketers can place their messages on the relevant channels. This will also use the power of targeted marketing content and advertisements.
Contextual advertising demands a much higher level of hyper-personalization. This is because customers increasingly lean toward content they find relevant and tailored to their needs.
In 2024, the trend of contextual advertising will become a significant game-changer for marketers. They can earn a higher revenue as users are more likely to click on ads displayed in the context of their interests.
Rise in Personalized Contextual In-Game Advertising
2024 will see contextual advertising changing the gaming landscape. With the expected decline in third-party cookies, contextual advertising will see even higher demand.
The rise of machine learning, contextual data, and behavioral metrics on gaming habits will help advertisers create player personas and analyze emotional responses to their ads. This will help advertisers to create more effective campaigns by connecting with the gamers on a personal level.
In-game advertising has already been in use for some time.
As gaming becomes increasingly mobile-friendly, in-gaming advertising is becoming popular for marketers. Machine learning can help advertisers to analyze player’s in-game behaviors. This helps to serve them relevant ads during the game. It ensures that marketers provide value to their audience by showing them relevant ads.
Personalized ads in gaming are set to be another trend as a contextual advertising strategy.
As mentioned, machine learning helps advertisers create player personas and understand their emotional responses.
This will enable advertisers to serve personalized ads based on a gamer’s purchasing history, interests, and behavior. The creation of more personalized ads results in higher engagement with the user. This, in turn, translates to higher engagement and conversions.
Lastly, e-sports and gaming events are another area advertiser can tap into. More and more people participate in e-sports tournaments and gaming events. Advertisers can use the popularity of these events to target more audiences through contextual advertising. This allows advertisers to create more effective campaigns that resonate with gamers and provide value to event organizers.
Conclusion
In a cookie less world, advertisers are actively looking for ways to deliver targeted ads to consumers. Contextual advertising will be a critical marketing strategy in 2024.
The biggest strength of Contextual advertising is that it can use AI tools to gather extremely relevant customer data, securely and accurately.
Then, it can help identify a complete gamut of customer preferences that helps marketers to deliver a high degree of personalization to their customers.
It also ensures that these ads are displayed in a relevant and engaging manner.
The icing on the cake is that it can do all this in real time without compromising the privacy of the customers’ data. This is a huge advantage given the increasing compliances on data privacy.
While contextual advertising is not a new concept, its importance is set to grow in the coming years. Marketers who embrace it will have a competitive advantage in the ever-changing advertising landscape.
