Updates

How technology advancements are allowing digital advertising to thrive

Posted on 24-05-22 by Jack Woolsey

By Chloe Marshall, Resourcer at Clear Edge Technology

Advertising is arguably one of the most integral parts of selling a product or service, it allows business/individuals to raise awareness and attract new customers by increasing website traffic, keeping your business in mind, and allowing consumers to stay up to date on the product/service. In 2021, digital advertising accounted for 64.4% of total adverts.

Digital advertising heavily resides within mobile applications or social media websites, with 49% of internet users stating they are likely to find products that interest them from brands they see advertised on social media, demonstrating its effectiveness.

What makes an effective advertisement?

There are many techniques and tactics that can be followed when creating an effective advertisement campaign – ranging from what to include, to where to advertise and who to advertise to.

What to include in your advertisement?

•  Branding – the consistency of colours, fonts and images within adverts that are used to represent the brand on a wider basis e.g. product packaging, logos. This will allow your brand to be memorable and create colour associations.
• Visuals/Content – this can range from using easy on the eye, appealing, friendly colours/imagery to shocking and surprising imagery – anything that will encourage the user to look and feel, creating an emotional association.

And equally as important where to advertise and who to advertise to?

• Targeted Audience – ensuring that the audience who receive/observe the advertisement are the desired individuals/groups e.g. advertising football boots on a football highlight YouTube video.
• Placement – an advert should appear in a timely manner when the audience will engage the most e.g. in a video/television show when it will feel like a natural continuation.

As digital advertising becomes more and more prominent, technological advancements can allow for digital advertisements to become more effective.

How is technology improving digital advertising?

Targeted Audience

• Cookies allows personalisation of websites when visiting. They can be used to show relevant advertisements on web pages/applications, allowing you to avoid advertising to the wrong audiences and instead to people who might be interested in your brand based in previous browsing history.

• UX Research combined with AI, big data analytics and machine learning algorithms can allow the presentation of relevant content based on the way you have interacted with the technology medium before.
• Modern Ad Tech can also use AI to allow for advertising in the relevant media. Quite frequently mobile gaming applications will be advertised on other mobile gaming applications, websites to purchase stocks will be advertised on finance blogs etc.

Placement

• AI Technology can be used to calculate when to place adverts/advert breaks within online videos to make the advertisements feel like a natural continuation of whatever the consumer is watching.
• New plug ins and apps such as Unity Ads and Qt digital advertising for Qt Creator provide analytics tools allowing you the insight of how to place your adverts effectively within games/apps/websites.

Branding/Visuals/Content

• Software such as Unreal Engine and Maxons Cinema4D has allowed for visually appealing designs of adverts that we can interact with in new and exciting ways such as 3D billboards.

The use of technology continues to grow each year, with more and more adverts appearing online/within technology and as things such AI and machine learning intelligence grows this will only continue. The technology available for designers also continues to grow, allowing for more lifelike and 3D animations creating more engaging adverts.