With so many changes happening right now in paid media space, it can be daunting to think about where we might be in the next 12 months, let alone 3-5 years down the road. With Google’s Performance Max campaigns looking to take over the show, or Facebook’s done-for-you campaign type on the horizon, where the space is heading has been a hot topic here at Avenue, so we thought we’d get the thoughts of 3 of our top paid media experts on the subject:
Alex – Paid Media Manager
The past few years have been quite a rollercoaster for paid media. As advertisers, we’ve had to adapt to a multitude of changes including consumer purchasing behaviours and increasing competition for brands online. Arguably, the greatest change in 2021 was Apple’s rollout of iOS 14.
With an estimated 95% of iOS users opting out of tracking, our ability to target new and remarket to existing customers has become a lot more complex. Now more than ever, ad creatives are easily the most important lever we can pull when it comes to optimising paid social campaigns.
Going forward, I believe the role of the media buyer will be very heavily focused on understanding which creatives work with each audience, with less input needed on selecting the right targeting, audiences or campaign types. A good media buyer will be able to liaise with creative and content teams to brief them on the right formats and structures needed to consistently turn out high-performance ad creatives.
Nicky – Paid Media Manager
The game is that everyone is overtly aware of advertising and actively trying to avoid it, as advertisers continue to try and find creative and innovative ways to market their products and services, all while advertising platforms are forcing advertisers to relinquish control and trust their infamous algorithm.
Everyone who’s been involved in paid media over the last few years can all see that most platforms have moved on from leaning towards automation to all but demanding its use. From automated bidding strategies, Smart Shopping, and Responsive Search Ads, right through to Performance Max.
With Google and Facebook removing large elements of our control, our work will shift toward the things we can control such as the creative side, as well as our knowledge of the consumer psychology for our brands.
Something that we have seen internally that has been becoming more prominent for a while is that paid alone isn’t going to be sufficient to entice enough customers to elicit growth. Paid must be paired with a fully rounded marketing plan that work in tandem to educate, delight, and inspire a reaction from their target audiences.
Louis – Head of Paid Media
Over my 8 years or so working across paid media accounts I’ve seen a lot of changes happen across Google and Facebook. When it comes to brand new campaign types I typically prefer to let them bed in before testing myself. A good example would be Google Smart Shopping which got off to a rocky start 2 years ago but now features frequently across our accounts. As such, we’ve held off on testing Performance Max in Q4 but will certainly look to test it down the line.
I also tend to be dubious of any claim from the platforms that a single campaign can be run across all placements and devices, without the ability to control copy or creatives for each placement, such as Performance Max. A lot of our clients have strict brand guidelines and contracts with retailers which dictates what they can / can’t bid on and what they can say. Google’s one-size-fits-all approach to this seems to be misaligned to their larger advertiser’s interests, but I’m interested to see how it pans out.
We’d love to get your thoughts on the upcoming changes and where you see paid advertising going in the future.
