Zack Dugow is Founder and CEO of Insticator, a global leader in increasing engagement for publishers.
John F. Kennedy famously stated, “The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger, but recognize the opportunity.”
There’s been a storm coming to ad tech for years, and 2024 is the year I believe it makes landfall. Long-postponed, third-party cookies have begun their phase-out this year, bringing a kind of industry-wide shift we haven’t experienced for quite some time. This will likely bring chaos and uncertainty, but it will also bring opportunities for anyone prepared to adapt.
Five Ad Tech Industry Trends For 2024
This change will cause a cascade of other changes that ripple through the industry as ad tech settles into a new normal. Meanwhile, companies will jostle for edge and position while new leaders emerge from the fray.
Let’s delve into the trends and opportunities of 2024, beginning with the most obvious.
1. The End Of Cookies—What Comes Next?
The inciting incident for all these changes tops our list. For years, third-party tracking cookies enabled the industry to gather unprecedented amounts of data on consumer behaviors and unprecedented amounts of pushback from privacy advocates and government watchdogs. While the departure of cookies will go a long way towards clearing the air, it’s an understandably scary situation for advertisers to be in in the short term.
The winners will be those who wield first-party data effectively. There are many proposed solutions to be vetted and tested this year, including enhanced conversions, device fingerprinting and seller-defined audiences. Still, everything hinges on the ability to package first-party data in a way that empowers advertisers to make consistent decisions. During that tumultuous testing phase, advertisers are going to be looking for safer places to put ad dollars.
2. 2024: The “Year of CTV”
Connected TV (CTV) spend is expected to surpass $30 billion in 2024, positioning it as a necessity—and it’s easy to see why. With detailed demographics, high visibility and untapped markets, CTV has been growing consistently. The deprecation of cookies will only accelerate this shift. Additionally, some of the ‘tried and true’ wisdom from linear TV advertising will continue to provide value to this space.
CTV advertising has evolved from a Wild West environment to a mature market, but there’s still room for evolution. There’s no magic bullet metric for measuring audience attention yet, and businesses will be applying different formulas and approaches to their CTV metrics during this time. That search for formality and accountability will be a key driver in ad tech this year.
3. Adoption Of Standards And Accountability
2024 will bring greater adoption of the IAB’s OpenRTB 2.6 and features designed to spur automation of CTV spending. One particularly exciting feature is pod bidding, which allows sellers to list inventory for multiple ads in a single bid. This gives bidders the ability to fill those pods with their available campaigns in a way that leaves higher fill rates and happier participants on both sides of the equation. This can also help reduce energy costs and carbon footprints while providing a smoother viewing experience for users at home, as fewer auctions will mean less lag.
Being able to justify re-allocating budget from last-click performance channels in favor of CTV and BVOD is going to be key in the coming year. We’ll see a tightening up on industry standards, and whoever can deliver the best experiences for buyers and sellers may see their in-house metrics become the baseline for the next generation of CTV growth.
4. Locally Targeted Content Driving Growth
The loss of cookies means that you won’t be able to gather the granular data that has been the bread-and-butter of ad tech for decades. But there are other ways to target your audience, and those ways can be more effective than you might think.
Locally targeted marketing can be a way to take advantage of a treasure trove of data without tracking individual users. Demographics, income and household size are all metrics that are tracked locally by businesses and governments, allowing you to get your ad content in front of the right people, even without cookies. Locally targeted SEM can serve highly relevant ads to your target audience by geographic parameters you set yourself.
With locally targeted ads on the rise and users increasingly utilizing mobile devices to search for products and services “near me,” using local content to target your audience is a great way to use data effectively in a post-cookie world.
Many of these trends will be working simultaneously, which could make for a banner year for organizations ensuring a strategic approach. Still, there’s one more significant trend that will have a likely impact on ad tech in 2024.
5. Record-Breaking Spend On Political Ads
Political ad spending in the U.S. is expected to pass $10 billion in 2024, shattering the previous record. Every available advertising space, from traditional media to the latest digital platforms, is being snatched up by political candidates and PACs. While midterm races for House and Senate seats generate substantial ad dollars, the sheer magnitude of spending during a U.S. Presidential election is unparalleled.
In fishing, it’s called a jubilee. Schools of fish beach themselves simultaneously, allowing locals to show up and easily gather them. Similarly, businesses can expect a surge in advertising demand, but handling it requires careful planning. Those prepared to manage this sudden influx will see a healthy boost in their bottom line. Furthermore, this influx will accelerate ongoing trends, as the increased spending and exposure provide more data to refine our advertising strategies and infrastructure.
Final Thoughts
There’s a lot of understandable trepidation about 2024. With all these seismic shifts, it will be a make-or-break year for a lot of ad tech companies. It’s safe to assume that for every fortune made, there will likely be several companies receding into the background. But if you see the opportunity within the crisis, 2024 could be the biggest year for many organizations.
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