Performance Marketing: a 360° guide to stay ahead of the trends
We’re three months into the year and it’s fair to say the predictions for 2018 are becoming reality. Businesses are already reacting to topics and trends such as AI and GDPR.
2018 will be a big year! We expect data and insight to establish how those trends create, disrupt or benefit performance marketing activity. With this in mind, we have put together some tips to stay ahead of the game and an overview of how the industry have been reacting and adapting so far.
David vs Goliath: How are the big tech giants shaping our industry?
Google mobile first index, Facebook focusing on personal interaction and Amazon planning to go head to head with Google and Facebook with their AAP solution (Amazon Advertising Platform) will significantly impact our digital eco-system, and ultimately the affiliate industry as a whole.
Amazon are now the most ‘go to’ website for online purchases and their ‘Everything Store’ strategy is reinforcing that trend, whereas for an online store, having an Amazon presence is becoming a must. There is an opportunity to give advertisers access to powerful purchasing behaviour data that can be leveraged at scale through their platform. Tradedoubler gives advertisers the capability to leverage this opportunity through our programmatic trading desk.
Stay agnostic: Give your clients what they need, not what they want…
The digital landscape has fundamentally changed the way consumers purchase and consume goods and services. While online shoppers are becoming more demanding in their online buying habits with heightened expectations for their shopping experience, their purchase journey is getting ever more fragmented, going back and forth between channels, at each stage of the decision process. Advertisers are facing an overwhelming challenge where the simple goal of reaching an audience and converting it into customers can result in a very rocky and cloudy journey. To palliate this complex challenge, advertisers must approach their audience in a multi-dimensional way and therefore require their partners to support them with adequate solutions and technologies.
AI & Machine learning: Looking beyond the buzzwords
AI and Machine Learning (ML) have been spreading their wings across multiple industries for years, especially in digital marketing, due to the large amount of data generated and the democratisation of technologies able to process them.
Many applications of Machine Learning are already considered business as usual. For example, Smart Bidding and bid strategies in AdWords or DoubleClick are already providing marketers with a good level of targeting and insight. Similarly, players such as Sizmek (formerly RocketFuel) for programmatic display advertising and SmarterClick through their onsite optimisation solution, have integrated machine learning at the core of their technology to define trends and constantly optimised their activity toward client’s goals.
Our partnerships with Clicksco bringing analytics tool to our publishers and Sirdata, helping them monetising their data programmatically, are two relevant application of machine learning out of many, to deliver that growth to our clients.
Keep your relationship open-source
Relationships and connections are key factors to a successful affiliate programme and they are. Today more than ever, relationship and connection must remain fully open-source for both advertisers and publishers, in order to embrace new opportunities and work collaboratively toward business growth. The current trend on our network shows a very positive impact of that open-source approach as it helps our partners to clearly and directly identify business needs to then tailor their offering accordingly. Enabling both advertisers and publishers to reach each other, without filters or limitations, and in a fully open-source approach, is the key for growth. As a network, our focus is on the services and solutions provided to them, with the aim to constantly facilitate those relationships and connections in a tailored and flexible way.
GDPR: A taste of millennium bug all over again
GDPR is one of these things, everyone knows that it’s coming but no one really know what effect it will have, a bit like the millennium bug. Tradedoubler alongside other leading UK networks have released a joint statement giving initial guidance to publishers on how to tackle the new regulation. This is the first step toward the new regulation, as every business in their own right must take the necessary actions to be compliant.
