2022: Ad market keeps growing faster-than-expected

According to GroupM’s latest figures digital advertising will account for 64.4% of total ad spend this year; but worryingly it’s big tech that is benefitting most with 80-90% of that (outside of China) going to the parents of Google, Facebook and Amazon.  The latter of those also appears to be well positioned for the growth in ecommerce-driven retail media which Zenith estimates will grow 47% this year to $77bn globally; with social, CTV and video other key drivers.

In market terms, GroupM forecast the UK to grow faster than all other major international markets, recovering from a 2.6% decline in 2020 to grow 35.7% for 2021 with a modest 7.3% growth predicted for 2022.  Comparatively, the US – the world’s largest ad market – is poised to grow 22.7% this year.

For 2022, Warc suggests online video and social media will lead with 77% and 68% of marketers, respectively, expecting to increase investments in 2022.

In their predictions for 2022 AdAge suggests CTV will benefit from programmatic features, identity solutions will drive support for open access to data, and the continued growth in political ad spend.

By having the right data protection and privacy controls in place, it’s possible to show consumers the value exchange between advertising and content, allowing buyers and sellers to achieve the outcomes they’re looking for. In 2022, partnerships and industry collaboration will be key in supporting an open internet that gives everyone a fair shot.

Mike Welch, AdAge

Meanwhile, in its latest report MiQ highlights the latest programmatic trends to watch for as marketers build their strategies for 2022.  For instance; programmatic will account for 90% of spend by 2025 in Australia & New Zealand, with CTV and video spend and related services (e.g. analytics) key drivers for 2022 and beyond e.g. 80% of advertisers looking to boost CTV investments.

First party data takes centre stage for relationship building in 2022

As marketers & publishers look to 2022, ad deal conversations are increasingly focused upon first party data capabilities. According to Digiday, topics in these conversations include which clean rooms to use for executing second party data deals, which identifiers to use, and how publishers are defining their first party segments.  Given that both publishers & advertisers are now investing in first party data, 2022 will be a key year for testing exactly how things will work when third party cookies are deprecated within Chrome in 2023.  

For instance, Digital Trends Media Group is an example given where they’ve gone from 5m hashed email addresses to more than 55m within a year in order to bolster their pitch to brands.  However, costs such as using different clean room tech and identifiers for different clients could have a big impact on profits, so proving the CPMs justify it will be critical.  

In an interview with David Temkin – with Google director of product management for ads privacy & user trust – The Drum delved into all things privacy, which will also have a huge impact on publisher-advertiser-user relationships in 2022 & beyond.  As well as maintaining that the Privacy Sandbox will win out – despite not having data to prove its effectiveness quite yet – Temkin also mentioned first party data as playing a key role, the idea that FLoC is a proposal – a concept – that will evolve with “other birds”, whilst also delving into whether new areas such as the metaverse, crypto and NFTs could impact advertising.

Cookie compliance falling short?

According to findings from Ebiquity/Usercentric – highlighted by Digiday – the vast majority of websites attracting top-tier advertisers place trackers on people’s devices before receiving consent.  Further to that, 70% of third-party marketing cookies transferred user data outside the European Union.  Note that Ebiquity and Usercentric both stand to benefit from any alarm in such areas, though it does still highlight the need for more transparency.  As a result, the report suggests that advertisers are conducting audits of their spend to consolidate their spending into those publishers working with ad tech vendors that can assure them they have EU-based data centers.

Other interesting reads

Gaming ads continue to level up

With over 3.2bn gamers globally gaming app publishers are looking to serve the 81% of media buyers that are increasing in-game advertising in 2022.  Gaming subscriptions are growing too with the likes of Netflix investing in gaming services – all contributing to the growing potential of gaming CPMs.

Platforms’ FLoC-like approach to App Tracking Transparency

Reported in the FT the likes of Facebook and Snap have been allowed to continue sharing user-level information from iPhones on the proviso that it is anonymous and aggregated rather than linked to individual IDs.  Meanwhile; latest reports from Sensor Tower show record app stores spend of $133bn in 2021 with 143.6bn new app installs with TikTok & Douyin leading the way for revenue outside of gaming apps.

Archant launches first in a series of news apps

Some innovation-led publishers like UK-based local news provider Archant are launching their own apps.  The Pink ‘Un+ is the first in a series of new apps that will enable Archant’s various communities to access exclusively-created content delivered in multiple formats.

Criteo planning to buy IPONWEB

Very recently announced but already covered in some detail – in yet another sign that the pace of consolidation across ad-tech and mar-tech isn’t slowing Criteo plan to buy IPONWEB. Where partners can combine reach and unique inventory/demand with complimentary technology, there are significant opportunities for merger and acquisitions.

---