Why contextual targeting is the future of digital advertising
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2024 10:19 am
The web is a very different place now than it was 30 years ago when I first went online.
Google hadn’t been founded, Mark Zuckerberg was only 10, and Digital Display Ads (or “banner ads” as we called them back then) had only just been invented.
To place an ad, you’d contact the website directly, negotiate a deal, and send them the ad file.
The first known banner ad was placed on Hotwired.com by AT&T in October 1994. They paid US$30,000 for a three-month placement and achieved a staggering 44 per cent click-through rate!
As demand for online advertising increased, algorithms were developed to match ads with relevant website content. Unfortunately, the technology was limited, often leading to unfortunate placements.
Fast forward to today, and our every online move is tracked, sometimes resulting in irrelevant ads following us around. Simultaneously, the web has become more concentrated. Walled gardens dominate, and users often confine their interaction with the internet to a handful of apps on their phones.
This concentration of control has eroded what the jamaica mobile phone numbers database internet was designed for. As author Cory Doctorow observes, platforms often shift over time, prioritising their interests over users and advertisers. He coined the term ‘enshittification’ to describe this shift.
The prioritisation of engagement over accuracy on social media, algorithms amplifying divisive content, and data monetisation at the cost of privacy are all examples of this trend.
As marketers, we are caught in this dynamic, relying on platforms while increasingly losing control over our audience access and data.
The ‘enshittification’ of platforms leads to less control, increases costs, and limits the ability to reach the right audiences.
As marketers, we need to find customers, but platforms increasingly control that access. If Meta shut down Facebook tomorrow, many of us would lose years of work and our primary means of reaching customers.
On top of this, the impending death of third-party cookies takes away our ability to retarget with ads.
With that in mind, how do we reach those with potential interest in our products?
Google hadn’t been founded, Mark Zuckerberg was only 10, and Digital Display Ads (or “banner ads” as we called them back then) had only just been invented.
To place an ad, you’d contact the website directly, negotiate a deal, and send them the ad file.
The first known banner ad was placed on Hotwired.com by AT&T in October 1994. They paid US$30,000 for a three-month placement and achieved a staggering 44 per cent click-through rate!
As demand for online advertising increased, algorithms were developed to match ads with relevant website content. Unfortunately, the technology was limited, often leading to unfortunate placements.
Fast forward to today, and our every online move is tracked, sometimes resulting in irrelevant ads following us around. Simultaneously, the web has become more concentrated. Walled gardens dominate, and users often confine their interaction with the internet to a handful of apps on their phones.
This concentration of control has eroded what the jamaica mobile phone numbers database internet was designed for. As author Cory Doctorow observes, platforms often shift over time, prioritising their interests over users and advertisers. He coined the term ‘enshittification’ to describe this shift.
The prioritisation of engagement over accuracy on social media, algorithms amplifying divisive content, and data monetisation at the cost of privacy are all examples of this trend.
As marketers, we are caught in this dynamic, relying on platforms while increasingly losing control over our audience access and data.
The ‘enshittification’ of platforms leads to less control, increases costs, and limits the ability to reach the right audiences.
As marketers, we need to find customers, but platforms increasingly control that access. If Meta shut down Facebook tomorrow, many of us would lose years of work and our primary means of reaching customers.
On top of this, the impending death of third-party cookies takes away our ability to retarget with ads.
With that in mind, how do we reach those with potential interest in our products?