The Audience illusion
In the ever-expanding illusion of the digital marketing environment, the reliance on second and third-party data has been a common practice for over a decade. I’m excited about the end of third party data, often sold and misused with huge gaps in its tracking and categorization. Can we enhance the experience by limiting our offerings and working only with context and user intention base advertising?
After more than 15 years working as a Digital Strategist I´ve seen how many CRMs, DMPs, DSPs, and ad platforms encourage users and companies to exploit their campaign capabilities by using the data offered in their interfaces as well as the advantages of using 3rd party cookies from the campaigns you’ve run before.
The results are, 99% of the times, at best, mediocre. Very low CRs, CTRs, very high frequency of impact, building saturation around the users navigation habits. Without mentioning the poor content creation and the need for immediate results.
Intention based is key, work on building the best alternative to what the user is already looking for. Contextual is the opportunity to create and develop great ads in a manner that gets the user attention in a, let’s say, more comfortable place. E.g. I’m a true fan of skateboarding, if I’m browsing through a sports related site I definitely don’t mind watching a cool video ad from a skate deck brand. An experience that is currently totally ruined, most of the times.
I was recently reading about the lengths of data buying, it’s exploitation with advertising purposes and the immense industry built around it and I just can’t believe how big this “lie” has grown to become. Companies selling platforms, services, solutions and resources as if it is the next best thing, when it actually the only thing that truly generates is more spend and invasive ads, motivating users to discard them quickly and to download a navigation ad blocker.
When facing a new project I always take a step back and go back to the basics, focusing on user experience, on building content creatively, thinking in the long term, on how we want the user to remember the brand, lower the anxiety for results on the very next day, because if things are done consciously and working alongside team members of a similar mindset, results will not only arrive but will remain consistent, building stronger foundations for that brand, with no need to spend millions in trash advertising. Ending up with 1st party data (users/clients) that are actually motivated to have an exchange with the brand.
