The DoubleClick Leadership Summit, held in Key Biscayne, Florida, brought together advertisers and marketers from all over the world to discuss what direction digital advertising and marketing is heading in. This marked a departure from previous DoubleClick Leadership Summits, as the markets at the time were showing their first signs of a shift in consumer behavior in regards to the devices they use. Mobile device use is on a steep rise, will continue to do so, and the summit was a reflection of that. There were many multi-faceted and complex topics discussed at the summit. While it’s difficult to break them down into a select few, here are five of the major takeaways from the 2016 DoubleClick Leadership Summit.
1. Cross-device measurement will be integrated into DoubleClick advertiser products
Many advertisers are unaware of this, but it’s extremely common for purchases to start out on one device and then complete on a separate device. For example, someone may see an ad for an anti-virus software service on their mobile device, but then buy it later on their desktop computer once something reminds them that their computer is unprotected.
This is a marketing capability that was not easy to create is likewise not easy to implement – it was two years in the making before DoubleClick was able to develop properly. The results have shown it to be an incredible measurement tool for marketers, who have seen a 16% increase in conversions when taking cross-device measurement into account. That’s a huge difference and it’s only the beginning in regards to what advertisers will be able to do with this new information.
2. Native Ads Support
Native ads are shown to be far more effective than previous ad types. When people are playing games or surfing the Internet, they don’t want to constantly be interrupted by ads. For example, if someone is playing a game on their mobile device, it makes far more sense to advertise to them in between levels of their game, rather than flat out disturbing them and advertising to them during gameplay. Ads better integrated into their environments are both more respectful and effective as they lead to less ad blindness.
The problem that arises is that advertisers have trouble making ads that fit within these environments on a large scale. DoubleClick is solving that problem by allowing publishers to make native ad formats that work well within their environments and then using those to create ad templates that large numbers of advertisers can use to their benefit. DoubleClick also provides metrics for these ads so that advertisers can see what’s working and what isn’t and make changes accordingly.
3. Expansion of Programmatic Ads
In the early days of the Internet, selling ads was done through human to human interactions. A publisher had space on their site to sell and they would have to find a way to connect with potential buyers of that ad space. Programmatic ads changed all that by removing the tedious elements of placing ads such as manual insertion orders, human negotiations and RFPs. Programmatic ads utilize machines to buy ads, and save everyone large amounts of time.
DoubleClick has taken note of the large increase in programmatic ad buying and are addressing it by offering their Programmatic Guaranteed inventory, which will help to facilitate a connection between both advertisers and publishers on a large scale.
4. Page Load Time
DoubleClick recognizes that page load time is incredibly important for good user experiences and in turn, advertising. Their research shows that if about the time it takes to blink an eye is added to search time, it results in a half-point drop in overall search volume. And these search result times are even more important for mobile. That’s why DoubleClick is integrating their advertising with AMPs, or Accelerated Mobile Pages. This is the future of the mobile experience, mobile advertising, and DoubleClick is leading the way in this type of marketing. The markets are quickly evolving, requiring tech firms to constantly evolve alongside them and DoubleClick is doing just that.
5. A Good User Experience
If there’s one thing that DoubleClick’s proposals all have in common, they’re all about a good user experience. Internet users these days are very savvy and skeptical of advertising. What DoubleClick is doing is recognizing that and putting forth systems and tools that are not only effective for advertisers but also respectful of their target markets.