The Future of Advertising [Expert Predictions & Data]

In a world of banner blindness, I’m sure you’re concerned about the future of advertising. If you’re in marketing, I’ll bet it’s one of your bigger concerns.

But it’s a new dawn and it’s a new day. And as technology and advertising continue to evolve, so will your strategies.

Below, let’s dive into the future of digital, mobile, video, and TV advertising.

Future of Digital Advertising

Let’s start out with some stats:

• 91% of respondents agree ads are more intrusive today compared to two to three years ago, and 87% agree there are more ads in general (HubSpot)
• 42% of consumers feel that ads across digital media are irrelevant to their needs, an increase of 10% since last quarter (RevJet)
• 73% of consumers dislike companies with repetitive messaging, representing a 15% increase in negative sentiment quarter over quarter (RevJet)
• 62% of companies have, or plan to have, an omni-channel marketing strategy (AdWeek)
• Conversion rates actually increase the more users see an ad within remarketing campaigns (WordStream)
• Nearly all ad buyers expect digital advertising to comprise more than 50 percent of their total marketing budget in two years (Accenture)
• Today, buyers and sellers on average use programmatic for only 17 percent of their inventory. Within two years, that will more than double (Accenture)
• Digital advertisers believe automation would have an impact on achieving their goals (Forrester)
• Consumers are are more likely to engage with brands that advertise beside legitimate content, are less likely to engage with brands that advertise next to false, objectionable or inflammatory content, would stop using a brand or product if they viewed the brand’s advertising next to false, objectionable or inflammatory content, and believe that advertisers bear responsibility for ensuring their digital ads run beside trustworthy content (The Harris Poll)

So what does this mean for the future of digital advertising? Essentially, it means that ads continue to need to be personalized. Once you have the consent of your consumers to use their data, you need to use that data effectively so you can create the right ads.

Additionally, you shouldn’t just focus on one area of advertising. You should have an omni-channel, multi-device approach.

When you’re going back to the drawing board for your digital advertising strategies, remember that remarketing continues to be a good strategy to reach users and programmatic advertising is on the rise.

Now that we’ve looked at digital advertising as a whole, let’s dive into more specifics. What will mobile advertising look like in the future?

Future of Mobile Advertising

Here are the stats:

• 85% of advertisers and 72% of publishers are currently utilizing programmatic advertising (IAB)
• Nearly 80% of programmatic ad spend will go to mobile—rather than desktop—ads (eMarketer)
• When asked to specify which mobile ad types were annoying, 73% said ads that pop over the entire screen were the worst (HubSpot)
• Mobile users value search ads compared to others likely because they’re relevant to their information needs (HubSpot)
• Twitter ads are 11% more effective than TV ads during live events. (Twitter)
• In 2019, mobile advertising spending worldwide amounted to 189 billion U.S. dollars and it is expected to surpass 240 billion dollars by 2022 (Statista)
• Mobile advertising has been rapidly growing in the past couple of years, but it is expected to slow down to about 10.4 percent by the end of 2022 (Statista)

At the end of the day, programmatic mobile ad spend is increasing, as in-app ads dominate. Automation in mobile advertising will continue to rise as well.

Additionally, when it comes to mobile advertising, you might want to consider search ads instead of banner ads, since they create a better user experience.

Now, let’s take a closer look at video advertising.

Future of Video Advertising

Let’s look at the stats:

• Consumers do not find value in watching video ads if they don’t have to. 100% of respondents reported they will always skip ads when given the opportunity (RevJet)
• The pandemic has overwhelmingly increased the amount of online video people watch (Wyzowl)
• Marketers feel more positive about the return on investment offered by video than ever, as it continues to strongly influence traffic, leads, sales, and audience understanding (Wyzowl)
• 87% of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI — a world away from the lowly 33% who felt that way in 2015 (Wyzowl)
• In 2019, video was the #1 form of media used in content strategy, overtaking blogs and infographics. (HubSpot)

Video remains to be one of the most powerful advertising tools. And it’s continuing to rise, even in the face of the pandemic.

Before we sign off, let’s review what the future of TV advertising looks like.

Future of TV Advertising

The stats:

• Programmatic TV will represent a third of global TB ad revenue (PwC)
• It is expected that TV advertising revenue in the United States will grow from 71 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 to 72 billion in 2023 (Statista)
• Global TV ad revenue is projected to increase from 173 billion U.S. dollars to 192 billion between 2018 and 2022 (Statista)

Even though TV advertising might seem like it would decline, it’s actually projected to increase. However, it’s important to note that the future of TV advertising is going to look programmatic.

Without a doubt, the future of advertising is going to look interesting, because as technology continues to evolve, so will our marketing strategies.

Originally published Feb 1, 2021 7:00:00 AM, updated February 01 2021