Digital Advertising in 2015

• by jakeaull

Recently I was lucky enough to moderate a Panel Discussion for Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association on digital advertising looking forward for 2015: “Predictions for Paid: Search Engine Advertising in 2015.” There were questions raised to panelists representing PPC and overall paid placement content roles for Atlanta prominent agencies and corporate. This seems an especially awesome year due to all the different channels, (i.e., growth in Yahoo! and other channels), media (i.e., growth in video, YouTube, Big Roll, etc.), content approaches (i.e., “sponsored” ads), hardware (i.e., growth in mobile and “wearables”), data (i.e., “Big Data”) and vehicles for purchasing and placement (i.e., “programmatic”).

With all these growing options, technologies and categories, there was certainly much to discuss. However I attempt to recapitulate my take-aways from it all here. Worth noting that once again, for us marketers, it all comes back to basic marketing principles and approaches (should we be surprised?). Doubtless there were some other take-aways as well, but here we go:

1. Don’t get lost in the latest technologies and trends for marketing – they aren’t fully developed yet, so they likely aren’t the most reliable outlooks on, and connections to, your customers.
2. Don’t forget to plan – previous example included. There’s plenty of room to fail, so be sure to think, research and plan in your marketing approaches and media.
3. Customize, customize, customize. There’s no one data point that’s a 100% fit for your brand and audience when it comes to paid, or new, media. You have to think on a custom scale, plan with customization, customize and test your advertising.
4. It all depends. That’s the bad news regarding the “new, potential best solution” for you. The good news is that it all depends on traditional marketing principles of research, trial, targeting and audience connections.
5. There are some “reliable” trending growths – like mobile, video and sponsored content in social.

To see the slide deck, some data points and sources from the presentation, you can access here.