Where to Focus Your Ad Tech Efforts 

In the past, marketers would divide their advertising spend into two distinct categories: linear TV (nearly half of which was spent on the upfronts) and digital. As consumer habits shift and the media landscape evolves, however – with fewer and fewer dollars being invested into the upfronts – allocating more of that budget into digital environments makes it easier to answer questions like, “Who do I want to reach?” and “How do I reach them?”

Fortunately, innovations in ad tech are expanding marketers’ capabilities across linear and digital, while (positively) disrupting the status quo. Here’s a quick rundown of what this will look like in the months ahead, and steps advertisers can – and should – be taking to remain agile and efficient.

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Keep Measurement Top-of-Mind

With tighter budgets this year, marketers need to be able to measure the impact of how and where they’re spending their ad dollars. Linear advertising may be a high-control medium, but more and more consumers are choosing digital streaming, and digital advertising is more accountable to outcomes with so much audience and performance data available. A holistic, all-screen approach can help brands reach more viewers, and measure ad impact in real-time.

Further, ways of measuring delivery in linear are actively transforming, with new players constantly entering the scene. Advertisers are increasingly turning to alternative currencies and alternative types of TV as their budgets take shape.

The added benefit of digital is the flexibility it gives marketers; with the right data, marketers gain the performance insights they need to pivot or adjust quickly to optimize and scale their campaigns. While this may not be true for some streaming platforms that are operating as walled gardens, marketers should be mindful that in the greater CTV ecosystem, actionable data is abundant and able to provide greater transparency around campaign performance.

Seek Out Transparency (and the Big Picture)

In the theme of transparency, another consideration for marketers is the role ad tech partnerships play in budgets. Point solutions can be great test ground for experimentation, but the associated costs can add up when marketers employ multiple vendors, and it can create very siloed views of audience data. Marketers should be strategic about how many partners they’re working with and seek opportunities for consolidation, greater transparency and easier flow of data. End-to-end platform solutions, for example, can offer more holistic views for cross-screen planning purposes, and tend to have increased audience match rates because the data is contained within a single system.

Collaborate Where Possible

Working with a smaller number of highly strategic partners is undoubtedly the way to save time, money and advertising teams’ energy in the coming year, but another important question to ask here is, “How collaborative are those partners with other players in the ecosystem?”

Take OEMs, for instance. The more closely and collaboratively your ad tech partners are working with hardware providers, the more data they’ll be able to tap into, and the more holistic their measurement solution will become.

Bottom line: taking an all-screen approach and working with fewer, stronger partners can help marketers stay agile and efficient, no matter what challenges lie ahead.

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