The only way to effectively determine ROI on digital advertising is to make sure your target audience is seeing your ads. This concept is true with all forms of advertising and business — no matter if you are a blogger, business, or retail brand. At the end of the day, it’s all about getting your advertising, services, and products in front of as many people as possible… while also turning a profit in the process.
While the concept of ‘business’ has not changed over the past few hundred years, what has changed is how business is done. As we look at some of the latest ad spending trends in the world today, we are going to see some of the obvious (which is money flowing away from television and print advertising), and also how big business and brands are finally seeing the ROI they have been looking for with digital ad spend.
At the same time, it’s not just about spending advertising dollars online, it’s also about making sure your company is protected and that your advertising is actually working for you. A perfect example of this can be seen with companies like ClickConfirmation, who provide traffic verification services for online advertisers and publishers. Their services help strengthen the online advertising ecosystem by flagging, vetting, and filtering suspicious traffic. This helps increase advertiser ROI and publisher transparency. ClickConfirmation creates a more secure and transparent digital advertising experience by helping advertisers and publishers differentiate between human and bot traffic.
Advertisers are feeling the pressure from the digital transformation now more than ever. In the midst of a growing debate regarding whether brands are spending too much on digital media, Zenith Research Group has discovered that the efficacy of internet advertising has officially caught up to digital ad spend.
It is no secret that up until 2015, brands have been grappling with making efficient use of internet advertising, and their spending habits did not meet by the ‘brand experience’ (or an amalgamation of reach (where consumers able to come across brand messages at each touchpoint) and influence (was the message aligned with consumer views or behavior). Nevertheless, by 2016 internet advertising represented 34% of global ad budgets, yet accounted only 35% of brand experience. Today, internet advertisers are working harder than other advertising mediums.
It comes as no surprise that Zenith’s Advertising Expenditure Forecasts reports have been time after time disclosing considerable increases in the internet share of advertising budgets. However, for the first time Zenith, in its December 2017 edition report, has exhibited the ROI of internet ad spend, not just its scale. According to the report, they used their proprietary Touchpoints ROI Tracker tool to compare internet ad spend to internet brand experience over the past few years.
In 2014 advertisers allocated 27% of their budgets on internet advertising (which generated only 21% of brand experience). By 2015, brands figured out how to employ internet advertising strategies more efficiently, and thus it accounted for 30% of both budgets and paid brand experience. In 2016, brand experience finally surpassed budget share.
Furthermore, we anticipate internet advertising’s share of global ad spend to increase further in the near future, ultimately exceeding 40% in 2018 and 44% in 2020. Its value will increase from US$203bn in 2017 to US$225bn in 2020. The share of advertising spending allotted on internet advertising differs across countries and areas of operation. For instance, in the most developed countries like Sweden and the UK it will represent more than 60% of the entire ad investment budget for next year. Similarly, it will account for between 50% and 60% in another six countries including: Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Norway and Taiwan.
Below are recent trends in ad spend sphere according to the article “Digital ROI catches up with fast-growing digital ad spend”:
- “Big countries are adding most ad dollars – In dollar terms, most of the growth in global ad spend is coming from a few big markets. We forecast that just two countries – the US and China – will contribute 47% of new ad dollars between 2017 and 2020. The five biggest markets – the US, China, Japan, the UK and Germany – will contribute 57%”.
- “Big cities are driving global ad spend growth – Big cities are driving global ad spend by concentrating growth in productivity, innovation and trade. We have conducted a unique study that attributes ad spend to individual cities by estimating the value of their inhabitants to local, national and international advertisers. We forecast that the top 10 cities alone will contribute 12% of all global ad spend growth this year and that the top 725 will contribute 60%”.
- “Big platforms are capturing digital growth – The internet is driving the great majority of global growth in advertising – it will account for 94% of the growth in ad spend between 2017 and 2020. And most of this will be captured by just five big platforms – Google and Facebook, plus the Chinese platforms Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. Between them these five platforms increased their share of global internet ad spend from 61% to 72% between 2014 and 2016, and captured 83% of the growth in internet ad spend over that time. Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent accounted for 54% of the growth in internet ad spend in China, while Google and Facebook accounted for 96% of the growth in internet ad spend in the rest of the world. Between them Google and Facebook accounted for 76% of internet ad spend outside China in 2016”.
So what does all of this mean for bloggers and content creators? Simply to stay focused on creating the best content possible for your audience, and to also keep an eye on where big money is flowing in and out. As markets like Asia continue to flourish and attract more global advertisers, this is an area that you might want to start focusing your efforts on. While these trends will continue to grow and make movements over time, the majority of bloggers and internet-based companies will still conduct business as usual.
As the focus of the maturing online advertising market shifts to a return on investment, companies like ClickConfirmation, and the online advertising verification services they provide, will be essential to ensuring the integrity of the online advertising ecosystem by flagging, vetting, and filtering suspicious traffic.