Predictions Series 2021: TechBytes with Luke Taylor, Founder and COO at TrafficGuard

Tell us what you think about Apple’s impact on the current Adtech businesses?

I think Apple would take a bigger bite of the Search pie

We are seeing increased Apple Bot activity across our clients’ traffic which points to Apple upping the ante on indexing the web. We don’t really think Apple will bin its $12 billion fees from Google to priorities its own search engine but interested to see if this is a backup plan in the unlikely event that the anti-trust suit prevents that arrangement from continuing. Or, do they have their sights on some other use case of an extensive web index like use in voice-activated devices?

How would privacy-related issues shape up and disrupt the adtech economy?

Certainly, privacy shall disrupt ad tech.  

A year ago, a privacy prediction might have been more focused on regulation. Today, we are seeing the tech giants taking the lead on privacy by limiting cross-site tracking – Apple through its strengthening ITP and Google with the promised sun-setting of third-party cookies. Once these measures are in place, regulation can almost stand down completely because the tech will make it near impossible to violate related regulations. For ad tech, this means disruption. Some businesses that rely on tracking mechanisms to provide services and data to advertisers such as retargeting companies, data companies, and maybe even some DSPs, won’t be able to operate. New types of tech will evolve to help marketers measure performance and marketers will shift the ways that they measure success. If they haven’t started yet, marketers need to be testing these new tools and measures while they can still track and attribute conversions to verify effectiveness in this current, trackable environment. In terms of advertising, marketers need to gain a better understanding of context to guide their future strategies and put more emphasis on creativity to cut through when their audiences aren’t as targeted as they once were. Advertising will need to work harder when it’s not as targeted.

Tell us more about ad spend and how invalid traffic impacts the budget?

Invalid traffic will take more and more ad spend

A report by HP put Ad Fraud as one of the most lucrative and easiest-to-commit forms of cybercrime. COVID-19 had been a dream for ad fraud perpetrators – with lots of businesses new to digital advertising pumping their money into campaigns to keep business coming in, unaware that up to 30% of their spend is wasted on invalid traffic. Additionally, the extreme changes in consumer behavior have made it even more difficult for even the most sophisticated digital marketers to tell if, and to what extent, invalid traffic is impacting their performance. The amount of money fraud drains from digital advertising rises every year – and these elements have exacerbated that. It’s been the perfect storm, really.”

Thank you for answering all our questions!