It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Ad World!

Factors Influencing Ad Monetisation And Sustainable Revenue For Brands

There are innumerable ways that brands can connect with consumers in a hyper-digital world, but an ad is always going to be the bedrock of communication. Ergo, monetisation of advertising across touchpoints is a puzzle that brands must solve to generate sustainable revenue and stay relevant in a world where the consumer can switch screens in less than 2 seconds. I believe that a brand’s holy grail is engagement and monetisation should be the result of a sustained relationship with an audience. There are many factors that determine the success of a brand and the revenue that follows and there is no “one size fits all”.

 “Every trackable interaction creates a data-point, and every data-point tells a piece of the customer’s story.” – Paul Roetzer, Founder & CEO of PR20/20

Consumers have a digital fingerprint from various purchases and the holy grail of marketers is to be able to target a consumer with the right message at the right time and to create memorability and brand affinity. The brands that stay relevant to the consumer are those that are able to tailor and deliver the ads while walking the fine line of connecting with, but not interrupting this consumer experience.

Take for example the recent ad by Facebook of Pooja Dairy.  It wasn’t about monetisation, acquisition of a customer, or getting app downloads. The ~ 7-minute ad played on emotion and let’s be honest, we all felt a wee bit weepy! Coupled with the pandemic we are living in, the ad went straight to the vulnerable softie inside us and we shared the ad with friends and family. In fact, that’s how I got the ad, from my most trusted friends and pre endorsed by my first circle, as a YouTube video.  You see the full circle here? The social media ecosystem is connected. People create brands, we build them up in our collective mindset, we love, like, and reshare the content we feel strongly about. This ad film actually may have blunted any negative feelings I had about social media Goliaths.  So, we must realise that it is imperative for a brand to make the connection between content, data, and understanding the audience. Monetisation will follow once this foundation is set.

Here is my cheat sheet to parameters that drive ad monetisation:

1. All advertising is content : Moving away from traditional ad formats and cookie cutter ad copy is essential to creating memorable customer experiences. Trying different ad format types coupled with a deep understanding of your audience and where they interact with your brand is essential in driving purchases.
2. Building trust is a continuous exercise : How audience data is stored and shared with other companies  comes back to build audience trust in a brand’s interaction and the viral effect of encouraging future engagement. Advertising on trusted sites where publishers guarantee a brand safe environment will give brands greater sustainability and revenue growth.
3. Regulatory Landscape is Crucial to Monetisation :  Data protection,  user consent and content rights are ways that brands can ensure an unparalleled customer experience. Creating brand hooks that hinge heavily on these aspects demand that you understand the impact on brand perception due to regulations surrounding your brand activity. This is an expensive mistake to make if you go all in without taking into consideration the effects of change in policy.
4. Contextual Advertising builds Loyalty : Engaging with your audience at a time and space that is complementary to your content results in converting intent into actual purchases. Including publishers who are investing in understanding their first party data and making it available for you, as an advertiser to leverage, is of paramount importance. 
5. Everything is digital, Everything is linear, everything is converging: Be screen aware. There is a special experience that each type of screen brings to a consumer. Today with addressable TV, cloud TV, and mobile phones all vying for the same slice of the advertiser pie, the ability to have differentiated messaging and stellar experiences based on the device type is a reality and key to conversion.
6. Convenience is everything : Publications, affiliations & online shopping is colliding.
   • If you get this trio right in your campaigns, all your ads become one click purchases!
   • Most publications today have included being registered affiliates to major ecommerce platforms (such as Flipkart) as a focused line of revenue. This helps them serve up your ads to the right audience and drive last mile sales.
7. Measure, Measure & Course Correct – Audience Intel is Everything! : Apart from de rigueur metrics like impressions, views and clicks, pay close attention to brand affinity, viewability &  reach within prescribed target audiences. This is why you must invest in a strong analytics platform that empowers understanding of your target audience and keeps them loyal to your brand.

Remember, “Amazing things will happen when you listen to the consumer”, says Jonathan Midenhall, CMO of Airbnb, and the only way to do this is to have enough data to listen to your consumers and engage them with contextual and relevant communication.