“We meet on a regular basis to discuss the latest trends in search and discuss various research projects and initiatives the IAB is championing. It’s a fantastic opportunity to discuss new opportunities with other search experts and help steer the evolving industry.
I found the discussions on digital innovation particularly interesting – it’s fast paced and there is a lot we need to be preparing for.”
Digital Innovation – What advertisers should be doing now and what to expect in the future
Digital marketing is, like all technology, constantly changing. Keeping up with this increasing pace of change, now more than ever, is the key to being successful in this industry. Below you will find some helpful insights to make this constantly changing environment a little easier to understand. Looking at some products and techniques you should be getting familiar with now, and some ideas of what might be around the corner in the years to come.
Automation, Machine learning and AI. These are the new pillars of digital advertising and should be terms you are already quite familiar with. These are informing the products and features of today.
What you need to be looking at now!
- Data Feeds
Feeds are key to successful automation. Inventory feeds can be useful far beyond your google shopping campaigns, with dynamic ads being able to pull all sorts of information from your inventory feeds to include prices, sizes and availability in real time on text ads using a feed. Don’t stop there though, feeds can include location data, triggers (keyword, ad group, campaign) and much more.
- 1st Party Data (and how to get more of it!)
GDPR is coming and 1st party data is going to be even more important when it does. 1st party data is already the best data you can have, but the abundance of data available may mean you aren’t always capturing data when you can. The humble email list has returned, but now you’re going to have to be a bit more persuasive. Consider using incentives to earn contact details (discounts, emailed copy of receipts) or a better customer experience.
- Voice Assistane
Dunkin’ donuts is the best example of using a voice assistant I have seen so far – not for everyone but if it makes sense it is apparently the future! Maybe a little clunky and still needs a screen but its innovative and a good benchmark for how voice will be utilised in the future.
What to expect in the future
- Voice Assistant personalisation
As with the Dunkin Donuts example above, many more brands and retailers will become voice savvy in the future, but potentially more important than that. The assistants themselves will improve, identifying your preferred brands and alerting you to new products and promotions that become available.
- VR/AR advertising
VR and AR (virtual reality and augmented reality) are interesting prospects, AR is certainly making some waves in marketing, and I’m sure VR won’t be far behind. AR will allow customers to have a much more immersive experience, whether its seeing your products in their home before they buy (Wayfair have a great example of this already) or looking at different designs or colours in store without needing to display every variation.
VR will allow you to transport people to entirely new places, whether it’s a potential holiday destination or a tour of a new flat that isn’t even built yet.