AdTech trends in 2024 will continue greatly revolutionizing how modern businesses engage and connect with their markets and customers. While it's no big surprise that advertising technology has changed the way marketers and advertisers, the adtech trends we'll go through here give you deeper insights into how you can leverage the expected direction of the industry.
As a startup working in a highly competitive space, our team at Aloa realizes just how valuable adtech solutions are in leveraging the capabilities of a team to reach a new marketing landscape. Applying the right adtech trends to our processes has allowed us to expand our customer base and grow our partner network of custom software developers.
Our goal in this blog is to share what we see as the most relevant adtech trends to leverage in 2024. We'll also review the opportunities and challenges of applying them to your strategic marketing and advertising plans.
By the end, you'll have meaningful insight into the most prominent trends impacting the adtech industry and how to leverage each as an opportunity for growth and development.
Let's start!
What is AdTech?
AdTech stands for advertising technology, and it encompasses a wide range of tools and software solutions that enable brands and businesses to personalize, distribute, and measure their digital campaign efforts.
As adtech continues to evolve, rely on adtech to guide strategic decision-making. These include key business elements such as how to present information, who to target, and what metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) to focus on.
With adtech continuing to streamline processes, it has become part of the advertising industry. Additionally, it utilizes cutting-edge technology and tools to deliver personalized and targeted ads through programmatic advertising, data analytics, and AI.
As a result, brands, advertisers, and markets can strategically optimize campaigns and measure their effectiveness against their target audience. The dynamic landscape of adtech will continue to expand and evolve while empowering marketers to make data-driven decisions to achieve better ROI.
9 AdTech Trends Shaping The Industry in 2024 and Beyond
The adtech trends shaping the industry in 2024 focus on improving existing processes and methods to refine them. Adtech aims to create highly personalized experiences for a brand's audience, resulting in higher ROI and strategic decision-making.
Here are the 9 adtech trends today:
Trend 1: Reliance on First-party Data
Companies collect First-party data directly from their customers through digital campaigns. Companies can also collect such data from brand websites or survey forms. Since privacy regulations have become stricter, using third-party cookies has started to phase out. With that, adtech trends have shifted towards investing in the growth and use of first-party data.
This shift enables brands to rely more on customer data for targeted ads. This leads to a more personalized experience. However, brands need to keep in mind three strategic key factors in the first-party data era when planning digital campaigns:
- Transparency: Brands must ensure clear and transparent processes with their customers about how the data is used and stored. Working towards highlighting how it helps improve customer experiences also engages better sentiment.
- Security: Brands must also keep their customer's data secure and ensure adequate encryption protocols for their digital campaigns.
- Consent: When collecting or using customer data, brands must get explicit permission.
These two factors equate to whether or not your target audience will start to build and maintain consumer trust in your brand. Disregarding these elements can lead to negative connotations and a reputation for your business.
Trend 2: Exploring Vernacularisation
Adtech trends in 2024 and beyond consider a highly globalized and digitalized world. Part of that consideration means exploring vernacularization, which refers to using local languages instead of relying solely on English for communication.
This approach allows brands to apply personalization and become more connected with their target audiences by communicating in a language that enables brands to create highly personalized campaigns that better resonate with their customers. Doing so paves the way for potential opportunities in untapped markets.
Creating digital campaigns that consider vernacularization contributes to better engagement and lead generation. This approach dramatically benefits businesses that want to expand their reach to a global market and reach as many potential leads as possible.
Trend 3: Expansion Into Video Advertising Campaigns
Video advertising is the new best way to get and keep an audience's attention, especially for brands that focus on attracting millennial and Gen Z audiences. Adtech companies will use social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to release campaigns such as reels and video shorts that allow brands to leverage the power of video in their digital campaigns.
Adtech trends in 2024 and beyond will also build on this with more interactive features that enable customers to interact directly with ads, such as 360-degree videos and augmented reality ads. Video advertising allows companies to create a unique narrative for their brand while using audio, visuals, and animation to engage their target audience in a more immersive way.
Trend 4: Increased Brand Transparency
A considerable part of building up a brand in this decade is building a high level of trust and authority with your ideal audience. To do that, increasing brand transparency works to showcase a brand in the best light possible. At the same time, increasing transparency results in accountability and social responsibility.
With brands focusing on these core aspects, adtech trends will continue to promote and turn to more transparent methods to better connect with customers. This applies to both the digital and physical sides of advertising. Digital campaigns should consider increasing transparency in their ads by providing detailed insights into where personal data is going. It also benefits to look into it's being used and how it's contributing to a brand's ROI.
The goal of adtech in 2024 is to ensure that brands promote a sense of trust and honesty with their customers. In return, brands can build loyalty visibility and increase ROI in the long run.
Trend 5: Swaying the Digital Narrative
In a highly digitalized world, being able to sway the digital narrative is the goal of many major brands. Even mid-sized to small brands aim to be part of the digital conversation surrounding their niche. With that, digital marketing and adtech trends in 2024 will continue to focus on creating highly targeted campaigns that can specifically sway the digital narrative in favor of a brand.
This is done through data-driven decision-making, personalized content, and leveraging social media platforms to amplify brand messaging. The potential benefits of paying close attention to how a startup or business sways its digital narrative are:
- Increased brand visibility
- Building a loyal customer base
- Establishing thought leadership in the industry
Trend 6: Rise of CTV and Advertising
CTV is short for Connected TV, a new way to consume television content other than traditional cable or satellite TV. CTVs include smart TVs, gaming consoles, and streaming devices like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
From CTV also comes an "over-the-top" (OTT) advertising trend. OTT refers to ads placed on streaming channels like YouTube. OTT offers new opportunities and solutions to targeted advertising, such as tracking viewership and behavior in real-time.
This allows hyper-targeted ads to reach specific audiences based on their interests, location, and viewing habits. CTV and OTT advertising presents a unique opportunity for adtech companies. It allows them to tap into a growing market of consumers moving away from traditional TV. It also allows for more precise targeting and measuring ad performance, making it a highly cost-effective and efficient brand advertising option.
Trend 7: Embracing AI and Automation
Brands can now utilize machine learning algorithms to analyze data in real-time to better understand their market's user journey. Additionally, applying AI and automation into adtech makes it easier for professionals to streamline their workflow.
Advertisers and marketers can significantly increase their productivity and efficiency. The essential features of automation in adtech software potentially shave off hours of manual work, which they can then spend on driving more sales and conversions for the brand.
Trend 8: Inclusive Advertising
Inclusive advertising has become a significant trend in the adtech industry in recent years. This means creating ads that celebrate diversity and intentionally include underrepresented groups in their campaigns. Brands are becoming increasingly aware of contextual advertising in representing diverse audiences in their advertisements to connect with and better serve their customers.
In 2024 and beyond, adtech trends will continue to focus on inclusive advertising, with brands making a conscious effort to showcase diversity in their campaigns. This promotes inclusivity and representation and helps brands resonate with diverse audiences and build consumer trust.
Trend 9: Heavy Reliance on Social Platforms
Lastly, ad tech trends will continue to rely heavily on social media app engagement and platforms. Social media platforms and social commerce will become widespread for personal and professional purposes.
In line with that, brands invest more in advertising through these platforms. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn will make up over half of all digital ad spend by 2024. Knowing that brands will invest heavily in making social media ads their primary customer touchpoint. In effect, brands will continue to leverage social media platforms' vast reach and targeting capabilities to connect with their ideal audience and drive conversions.
Opportunities That Arise From Leveraging AdTech
As the adtech industry evolves and adapts to new technology and consumer trends, businesses have numerous opportunities to grow and thrive. By leveraging these adtech trends, brands can:
1. Expand Their Reach to Global Markets
Trends like verbiage translation for better contextual targeting in adtech can help businesses tap into new, diverse markets and expand their reach on a global scale. Since eCommerce and online shopping continue to rise, it opens up an opportunity for worldwide connections. In line with that, social media platforms make it easier to target regions and demographics, allowing brands to tailor their ads to different markets.
2. Engage Audiences Through Video Advertising
Engaging audiences through print ads is no longer the most viable way to reach people. Today, video ads, facilitated by online video makers, allow brands to create more engaging and interactive content for their audience. Brands that utilize this will move to the latest technology, such as 360-degree videos and augmented reality ads. With that, businesses can create a unique narrative for their brand while using audio, visuals, and animation to captivate their target audience.
3. Build Trust and Transparency with Customers
Trust and transparency become evident when a brand follows good practices in engaging and interacting with its customers. Following good ad practices like adhering to privacy laws and providing transparency in data usage can help foster trust with consumers. Also, brands can build a stronger relationship with their audience and establish themselves as trustworthy and responsible business as they leverage adtech trends in 2024.
4. Establish a Strong Digital Presence
Establishing a solid digital presence is necessary for any successful marketing strategy. With adtech trends like personalized content and social media advertising, brands can create a strong digital presence that resonates with their target audience. This not only helps to increase brand visibility but also builds trust and credibility in the digital world.
5. Continue to Innovate and Stay Ahead of Competitors
Innovation in the ad tech industry is the best way to stay ahead of competitors, especially in highly saturated industries. Using adtech solutions to create unique and targeted campaigns allows brands to stand out from the competition and connect with their audience meaningfully. With that, brands can use adtech trends to continuously improve their marketing strategies and stay ahead of the curve for higher ad revenue.
Challenges Facing The AdTech Industry
Like any industry facing digital transformation, the adtech industry faces a few challenges. These challenges arise because of how powerful adtech solutions have become, especially in a data-driven era where customer information is as good as gold.
Let's look into the common challenges startups, brands, professionals, and businesses could potentially face as they move to leverage adtech trends:
1. Data Privacy and Security
As mentioned earlier, personal data and user privacy are valuable assets in the adtech industry. However, with the increasing demand for data protection laws and regulations, businesses need to know how they handle customer data.
2. Ad Fraud
With the rise of programmatic advertising, ad fraud has also become prevalent in the industry. This refers to fraudulent or false clicks on ads, resulting in wasted ad spend and less effective campaigns. Ad fraud can be prevented through proper monitoring and vetting of ad placements to ensure legitimacy.
3. Ad Blocking
Consumers will become more aware of the amount of ads they see online. Knowing that using ad blockers will increase makes it challenging for brands to rely heavily on digital advertising. With ad blockers, advertising could reach a potential limit for conversions. To get around that, brands should focus on creating valuable content. This means keeping intrusive ads to a minimum, ensuring it is less likely to be blocked.
4. Ad Spamming
Another challenge in the adtech industry is ad spamming, which refers to bombarding users with excessive or irrelevant ads. This can lead to frustration and a negative perception of a brand. Advertisers should be mindful of how often they advertise to avoid spamming their audience. Steering away from ad spamming also fosters a better user experience for consumers.
5. Lack of Transparency
As adtech trends play a pivotal role in making or breaking a brand image, it is possible to see a rise in lack of transparency. A lack of openness could occur regarding how brands use their advertising practices like first-party data. Brands must remain transparent to their audiences about how their data is used. It's also advisable to showcase the reasons behind their targeted ads. These two considerations work towards building trust and maintaining a positive brand image.
Key Takeaway
The adtech trends in 2024 and beyond will significantly impact the industry, streamlining the processes and decision-making for brands and consumers. However, there are also potential challenges that businesses must be aware of and address to fully benefit from these trends.
Brands and professionals leveraging adtech trends and solutions must use responsible and strategic practices. Otherwise, they could damage their reputation or waste valuable resources. However, properly executed, brands can expand their reach, engage with audiences, and stay ahead of competitors in an ever-changing digital landscape.
If you're ready to leverage the potential of adtech trends through custom software solutions, reach out to our Account Executives at [email protected]. Our team will go through potential solutions and help you develop your team of professionals to handle your project.
