Internet users will see more and more digital advertising . The trend is clear: like Netflix and Disney+ they will offer subscriptions with ads. in their native apps. will show more content from third-party accounts. For this reason, companies now have a new challenge: to make a more effective Ad arrive so as not to tire consumers.
The Study of media and device consumption among Mexican Internet users 2021 , prepared by , showed that attention to advertising has increased significantly compared to previous years. Only 7% of those surveyed answered that they never pay attention to internet advertising, while 62% answered that they sometimes do.
These data, added to the changes in the platforms, can represent an area of opportunity for companies seeking to advertise on the Internet.
The transformation of digital advertising
“ Advertising is not bad (…) it is an exchange of value that exists on the internet”, mentions Sebastián Yoffe, managing director at the firm for LATAM and US Hispanics. On the Internet, unless paid for, content is essentially free and is part of the democratization of information.
Guille Álvarez, general director for Latin America in Hispanic countries, exemplifies: “we use most of the platforms, apps or websites for free. Applications like Spotify have the option of free and paid form without ads. It is the users who decide if they are willing to pay for each service they use”.
However it was not always so. Yoffe explains that digital advertising has undergone important changes over the last decade and one of them is that it has become more user centric .
For example, in the past, when a company like Nike wanted to advertise their new sneakers, they would reach their audience by advertising on a sports site. But that a user is interested in sports does not mean that he is interested in other topics, such as finances. “Taste-based advertising is showing a Nike ad on a finance site. That is the first change (…) what prevails are our interests instead of the environment”, he mentions.
The second relevant change, according to Yoffe, is the pandemic. “The pandemic had a very strong change in the digitization of business and that attracted many new advertisers because there were many new consumers. And that will bring, in the coming years, a lot of development”.
Álvarez mentions that another milestone that digital advertising has had in recent years is the iOS 14 updates and the search for a more cookieless internet.
Privacy: an issue that worries users
“Today we are in transition. In the past, a lot of personal data was collected, some of which were sensitive and others not so behaviorally sensitive, but today there is technology that allows a segmentation model without invading the user’s privacy”, Álvarez mentioned.
The scope that cookies have had on the Internet is an issue that has concerned users, because among the information that these files can collect are email addresses and passwords, IP address, the browser in use, as well as the pages that have been previously visited.
Technological companies begin to focus on the relevance of maintaining this personal data; so much so that this tool for 2024 and , which puts more barriers to apps that seek to obtain personal information from users.
For this reason, Álvarez mentions that now the most effective way to segment the audience is through their behavior and not through their sensitive data. “Segment by behavioral groups and you can add more layers. For example, users who are interested in bicycles, but not just any bicycle but steel ones”.
How to make advertising more effective?
The greatest advantage of digital advertising is the possibility of segmentation in terms of tastes and preferences and, based on that, more relevant ads can be made for users. “If it’s not related to your tastes and preferences, it’s going to bother you,” Yaffe said.
This is something that advertisers should take into account. Although users are increasingly exposed to advertising, unlike other traditional media such as television, Internet advertising is less intrusive because the user can skip or close it. If it doesn’t care about the first three seconds, it will ignore it.
“There is a kind of saturation of impacts. That is why the great challenge that brands have is to put the user at the center, understand the user first and give them messages that are relevant”, Álvarez shared.
The IAB study mentioned that the main reasons why consumers see advertising on the Internet is because they find out about promotions and discounts (45%), they offer information that interests them (43%) and because they find advertising attractive (43%). ).
Álvarez shared that another need for advertisers is to be relevant and think of a message that helps the user . “If you are not going to communicate something or help him, the message will have a low acceptance”.
Another common mistake advertisers make is not thinking about specific content for each channel. It is likely that a user has more than one social network and on each platform it is different, so it is expected to see different content. “As much as you are talking to the same person, as a brand, when we want to communicate, we have to assume a different role and tone. Adapting the message to the context is key”, shares Álvarez.
Álvarez concludes that for brands to be relevant in their messages, they have to evaluate the correct metrics . “Before, brands made drastic decisions without data and they could be wrong. It is important to have the correct equipment and technology to have true data, well extracted, and make decisions on that.”
