Everything You Wanted to Ask About Online Advertising in 2015

The Internet has transformed the advertising world. For those of you who have watched the changes take place over the past few decades, it may seem as though everything they knew about advertising has been turned upside down with the introduction of new channels, techniques, and analytics. I’ve been studying the online advertising revolution closely as its being unfolded, and I’m here to give you a few key takeaways to help you prepare for 2015 and beyond.

What is the future of online advertising?

Online advertising is growing at an increasingly rapid pace. According to Business Insider, Forrester predicts by 2016 that US advertisers will spend more on digital ads than television ads. This is by no means a petty statistic – as advertisers move to new digital channels, the channels of the past do not become obsolete. Rather, the advertisers who will succeed will understand how to harness all of the multimedia outlets at their fingertips to create cross-media advertising that instills strong brand identity and incentivizes engagement.

Are ad exchanges the next stock exchange?

In a nutshell, no. Ad exchanges, or the digital marketplaces where advertisers and publishers sell advertising space, may strive to be free trade markets, but in reality, the demand and supply do not yet operate on a scale to facilitate anything close to a stock exchange notion. For more reading, check out Exponential’s presentation on why ad exchanges are not the next Wall Street.

What is the biggest threat to online advertisers?

Right now, bots are an enormous concern as they pretty much tamper with every aspect of ad profitability and ROI. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Association of National Advertisers, fraud can seriously affect the overall growth of the online ad market unless a solution is found.

How do bots work?

Scammers infect computers with malware code, which controls how machines operate and makes it possible to imitate ad loading and viewing on unknowing computers.

Forensiq, an ad fraud company, infected one of its own computers with malware to discern how bots work. In a day, the infected computer was able to create 10,000 fraudulent ad impressions, including for major brands.

What’s up with programmatic?

Programmatic has become something of a buzzword in the online advertising community, but a lack of transparency has hurt its takeoff. Luckily, advertising marketplaces like SmartyAds are rising to close the understanding and communication gap between advertisers and publishers by striving to put visibility at the forefront of purchases. As publishers realize the necessity (mostly driven by bots) to sell truly high-value space and break down the barriers imposed by click fraud, programmatic is predicted to make a rise to being one of the most important ways we buy and sell ads.

Of course, there is plenty more going on in the world of online advertising, but these points hopefully cover the points you have been the most befuddled over. Feel free to shout out at me if you have any other burning questions about how to plan for online advertising in 2015 – I’m happy to help. What are some of the biggest changes that have affected your advertising over the past few decades?