Author: paykel

The connected fridge of the future will enable programmatic commerce, a new channel set to redefine retail – but, what is it?

Connected devices able to make purchase decision on behalf of consenting consumers and businesses based on pre-programmed preferences.

Connected devices able to make purchase decision on behalf of consenting consumers and businesses based on pre-programmed preferences. As an example, you wake up in the morning and your coffee machine tells you it’s almost out of your favourite blend.  Your internet enabled coffee machine then instantly does the ordering for you – adding it to your shopping basket, along with the washing powder that needs replacing. The machine has had pre-programmed parameters set based on preferred brands, price limits and other learned preferences.

Shopping changed forever with the birth of the internet.  Programmatic Commerce will be the next revolution. Such concepts present almost limitless opportunities for retailers, brands and smart device manufacturers to revolutionize the way that goods and services are offered to customers.

Programmatic commerce: a world where mundane repeat purchases and those easily being shared (especially millennials), add to the reasons programmatic commerce will become commonplace in the future.

Whereat the moment, much of advertising is pushed around emotion, the future could well be geared more to utility and, of course, to price. While consumers will undoubtedly still look for variety in their lives, the whole conversation really changes what loyalty looks like in terms of basic everyday goods. For brands the challenge is to ensure they are not locked out due to competitors dealing exclusively with smart device manufacturers.

Salmon commissioned an independent research consultancy to explore consumer attitudes and expectations surrounding the concept of automated purchasing. The results:-

Product types that consumers are most comfortable having ordered via programmatic commerce

54% household supplies, food and drink
34% beauty, healthcare, personal hygiene

Youth leads the change towards programmatic, while older shoppers require convincing.  32% of 25-34 yr olds are totally comfortable with the idea of programmatic commerce vs 7% 55-64 yr olds.

As might be expected, the expected time savings (37%) and convenience factor (25%) are cited as major benefits, but a third key element is cost.  More than a third (37%) see programmatic commerce as a potential money-saver, highlighting that it would offer them a way to automatically purchase the cheapest products within a category. Bargains, not brands, win the heart of the consumer here.

Key Out takes

• Programmatic commerce will be especially important for consumer goods and grocery markets.
• The access to personal data will eventually make search and pay per click less dominant.
• Marketing will play a lesser role in driving decisions, as demand can be anticipated
• Speed, convenience and simplicity will drive customer demand. However, brands and retailers still need to prove that customer data is being used securely and appropriately.
• Older shoppers are less accepting of the idea of technology automating their purchases. However, they hold the wealth.

Time for businesses to really start thinking about it.

Source: Forbes & Salmon

Scenario: Your mobile digital campaign has a Click-Through Rate above benchmark. However the Conversion Rate to site drops drastically with less than 50% of clicks landing on site.  

This could easily be assumed as a result of fraudulent inventory. However, we shouldn’t always assume unusual performance is a result of BAV (Brand Safety, Ad Fraud and Viewability).

If your website takes longer than an average of 3 seconds to load then you are at risk, as Alex Shellhammer from Double Click draws a study insight by Akamai, that:

“53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes more than three seconds to load”

Furthermore, Google’s Maile Ohye also states in a blog that “Just as an FYI, at Google we aim for under a half-second [load time]”!

Given that Australia’s download speed is currently ranked 50^th in the world according to Akamai’s 2017 State of the Internet Report, it is even more important for client’s to optimise their own site load speed across all devices for a positive user experience.

But what does ‘load’ mean, and to whom? Is it when all content appears within the screen? Is it when you can interact with the page?

Philip Walton stresses that page loads shouldn’t be acknowledged as a single metric, as this becomes a “misrepresentation of reality”. But rather, load times are a moment, which vary drastically from the device capabilities, network conditions and by definition to the user. Therefore Walton mentions that you must consider some of the below;

• The hero element of the page should load first
• Interactive elements should visually render when they are capable of responding to the user’s output
• Continually test across different devices to build first party data of your average load times.

But in even more recent news, on the 17^th Jan 2018 Wang and Phan announced on the behalf of Google that “starting in July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches”.

Below are a list of free resources that’ll help you evaluate your web performance:

• Pingdom Website Speed Test – https://tools.pingdom.com/
• Google Page Speed Insights – https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
• Google Mobile-Friendly Test – https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly?utm_source=wmc-blog&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=blog-nav

As we live in a mobile-first world, brands need to consider the above before building a digital media strategy. By improving your mobile load speed, you should hopefully see further engagement across site. Some web analytic metrics to look out for are repeat visitation, longer dwell time and a decreased bounce rate.

References:

Alex Shellhammer. (2016). The need for mobile speed: How mobile latency impacts publisher revenue. Google. Retrieved from: https://www.doubleclickbygoogle.com/articles/mobile-speed-matters/

Maile Ohye. (2010). You and site performance, sitting in a tree… Google. Retrieved from: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2010/05/you-and-site-performance-sitting-in.html

Angus Whitley. (2017). Life in the slow lane: Australia has slower internet than Kenya. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from: http://www.smh.com.au/business/innovation/life-in-the-slow-lane-australia-has-slower-internet-than-kenya-20171003-gytril.html

Philip Walton. (2018). Leveraging the performance metrics that most affect user experience. Google Developers. Retrieved from: https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/06/user-centric-performance-metrics

Wang and Phan. (2018). Using page speed in mobile search ranking. Google. Retrieved from: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/01/using-page-speed-in-mobile-search.html

The adoption of programmatic buying is still in its infancy with many people quite unsure of its definition. Google Trends shows that over the past 5 years Australia is ranked the 3^rd most popular region searching ‘programmatic’ terms. Even further, these ‘programmatic’ search terms in 2014 have moved from curiosity to doubling in 2015 and 2016. And so, it is fair to say that programmatic is a growing hot topic in Australia’s media industry.

Connexity predicts that 90% of all advertising will flow programmatically within a decade (Teich, 2015). Australia is also welcoming programmatic buying with open arms and willingly experimenting with their campaigns. A study conducted by AdRoll (2016) found that an outstanding 92% of Australian and NZ marketers are planning to keep or increase their programmatic advertising budgets in 2017. Hence programmatic buying is moving in a bright and progressive future.

There is great success in programmatic buying as 68% of marketers in Australia and NZ are spending up to half of their budgets in programmatic, while 70% of social media space is already purchased programmatically (AdRoll, 2016). With great success comes a hybrid approach, Hayek (2016) states that programmatic must customize their teams with self-serve (marketer’s control) and full-service (relies on agency of experts) to meet all potential ROI. A collaborative approach will allow marketers to have full control while utilizing agency expertise in programmatic.

One of the best ways to thrive in programmatic buying is to understand what the term means for your business and your client. It’s all about getting the strategy right for your client (Caroline, 2016). One of which could be leveraging programmatic tools like segmented audience targeting. Simply sharing detailed target audience insights with the creative agency will help the production team tailor their designs and bring relevance to each segment (Think with Google, 2016).

Overall, programmatic buying has grown drastically in Australia with much potential in the future. While programmatic buying is globally successful it needs to be approached according to individual client strategies in order to truly thrive.

References:

AdRoll. (2016). State of the industry 2016. AdRoll. Retrieved from: https://www.adroll.com/en-AU/assets/pdfs/guides-and-reports/AdRoll-State-of-the-Industry-ANZ.pdf

Caroline. (2016). Retargeter blog: Digital brand building: Getting the most out of programmatic buying. Retargeter. Retrieved from: https://blog.retargeter.com/strategy-2/brand-building-programmatic-buying

Hayek, T. (2016). There’s a third party for programmatic- the flexible digital marketer needs a flexible programmatic model. MarTech Advisor. Retrieved from: http://www.martechadvisor.com/articles/ads/theres-a-third-way-for-programmatic-the-flexible-digital-marketer-needs-a-flexible-programmatic-model/

Teich, C. (2015). Five predictions for the future of programmatic. MediaPost. Retrieved from: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/247898/five-predictions-for-the-future-of-programmatic.html?print

Think with Google. (2016). 3 ways to make the most of programmatic and data-driven creative. Google. Retrieved from: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/3-ways-make-most-programmatic-data-driven-creative.html

The idea of browsing the web without ads or popups may sound like a dream for many, but it has quickly turned into a nightmare for advertising agencies that are on the backburner of this increasing issue.

Whilst blocking ads or ‘ad blocking’ is not a new issue, it has become a growing concern as mainstream companies have created apps that are targeting larger demographics to utilise these services; making it easier for the not so ‘tech savvy’ consumers to use.

The term ‘ad blocking’, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), refers to software that users can download and install to prevent digital ads from appearing on computers and mobile devices. The problem with this is that although it may seem like a great idea- there is a catch. What many consumers do not realise is by using these ad blocking services, they may actually have to pay for the content that they currently receive for free- doesn’t sound so good now, does it?

In response to this increasing problem, the IAB has focused research towards finding a solution to control these services that may benefit all parties involved. Their findings suggest that more than half of web users do not properly understand online advertising and the many benefits they entail, such as allowing consumers to enjoy content and services at usually little or no cost.

You may then think why do people want to block ads in the first place? The main issue is that many internet users find them invasive. Many traditional forms of advertising usually allow some form of escape if they are not relevant to an individual’s interest. Online advertisements, however, do not usually give consumers this option as they can be abrupt and often interrupt ones online experience. IAB furthers this statement with research that suggests the primary motivation for blocking ads was because they ‘interrupt’ and ‘interfere’ with what people are doing.

In Australia, the IAB found that the use of ad-blocking software has already reached 10-15% of the adult population.Although the issue has not reached an epidemic, it is a growing concern that the digital advertising industry needs to take seriously.

Companies have created this software in the belief that blocking ads completely is the only solution for users to enjoy an interrupted, online browsing experience. However, blocking ads is clearly not the solution as it is only adding to the problem (no pun intended).

By providing leaner and better quality ads that are not so invasive, the internet will continue to be ad funded and users will still be able to freely browse the web without interruption. To find out more about Ad Blocking, visit https://www.iabaustralia.com.au