Top 3 Changes Driving Marketing in 2018: Key Takeaways from 2018 AdExchanger Industry Preview

If this year’s Ad Exchanger Industry Preview is any indication, 2018 will be a watershed year for digital advertising. Throughout the conference, speakers highlighted the need to move away from business as usual and start applying innovations that were only theories in previous years.Here are the top three takeaways from the event:Personalized marketing performs better. Call it “personal marketing,” “experience marketing,” or “intelligent marketing,” in 2018 marketers will be re-focusing their attention on directly engaging individual customers through meaningful experiences. A recent Salesforce study supports this shift - it showed that 61% of consumers were more likely to buy from companies delivering custom content. Case in point: Johnson & Johnson’s CMO said they see 2-3X return for personal marketing vs. a mass spray and pray approach. Our own native channel, which delivers ads targeted to likely buyers based on past purchase behavior, averages a 7% click through rate vs. the industry standard 0.8%. (Click here to learn more about Cardlytics’ native bank channel advertising). Trust remains an issue. Fraud, questionable data sources and unexplained fees continue to plague the industry. According to a CMO Council study, 72% of marketers surveyed said they had concerns about safety and controls with their digital ad placements. Also troubling, panelists pointed out that mobile fraud could be a big problem in 2018 since it is almost impossible to detect. Thankfully, our bank partnerships give Cardlytics a trusted source of data with clear permissions. Our own ad channel is fraud-free (even in mobile!).The industry will set new standards to measure performance. Both marketers and publishers have a stake in showing how ad campaigns impact real-world sales. Publishers discussed how they want more sustainable ad standards: fewer ads that they hope will be relevant to consumers and boost performance. But, as you can imagine, fewer ads and better performance will likely come with a price premium which they’ll have to justify. At the same time, panelists discussed how outdated proxies and inconsistent analytics are particularly problematic for marketers under pressure to demonstrate how spend improves their bottom line. If we stick with outdated metrics like CTR and online conversions, we’re missing most of digital’s impact (and opportunity). Remember, 92% of sales still take place at brick and mortar locations. Cardlytics Measurement connects the dots between digital media and actual sales – both online and in-store. Marketers and publishers can use our unbiased reports to prove the real value of their ad campaigns.Contact us to learn more if you’re interested in working with Cardlytics to reach likely buyers within our own native bank channel, or to measure the success of your digital campaigns.