Programmatic Advertising in 2021, and what can we expect for 2022?

Internet advertising, and especially its Programmatic offshoot, is currently at a crossroads, where, in tandem with the crystallization of industry standards and regulations, we are facing the issues of global and local economic fluctuations. This makes it a challenge for almost all industry players – Advertisers, Publishers, Technology Partners – to develop an effective strategy. Fascinating times, for sure… but challenging all the same.

2021’s Programmatic Big Event

Was there an event that influenced the entire industry across the board? Yes, such an event was the postponement of the “cookie apocalypse”, i.e. the postponement by Google of the date from which Chrome will no longer transfer data to third parties (third-party data). Initially, the end of cookies was set for 2021, so preparations for the cookieless world consumed the resources of the entire industry in the early part of the year.

The announcement of the postponement of the transition in June had a colossal impact on further actions on the part of Publishers, Advertisers, and Technology Providers, and we began to observe that many companies began to treat this horizon prospect as an opportunity to focus on more local and singular challenges.

The most important trends in 2021, the prospects for 2022

In 2021, even more than in previous years, we could see the growing importance of measuring revenues from Programmatic sources. This was not only in the context of single ad impressions or page views, but it also related to the entire user session and even the revenue generated by the user over the course of an entire month. As a result of this trend, Publishers focused on maximizing revenues put more emphasis on user experience – i.e. the most widely understood UX – and those indicators that may affect traffic acquisition.

Activities that have a positive impact not only on the Publisher’s revenues but also on the comfort of consuming content by the end-user are becoming popular. This is a positive and desirable trend that shows that the market is maturing; and that both Publishers and Advertisers have an increased sense of agency and responsibility.

From the perspective of technological solutions and formats, Connected TV is being seen as the next big thing. However, 2022 is unlikely to see a step forward in this matter, at least in our local market, but the subject of CTV will gain traction. Technology providers will have growing importance and will support both Publishers and Advertisers in terms of helping them to effectively manage their Programmatic budgets, but also in terms of further preparations for what will be a cookieless world.

What did the pandemic change in the Programmatic industry in 2021?

The Internet Advertising industry and its rapidly growing Programmatic branch belong to a market segment that flourished during the pandemic. After 2020, when we found ourselves having to adjust to the new reality, there came the calmer, and more predictable 2021, which saw no such fluctuations or the sudden freezing of budgets, as had happened in the spring of 2020. We could also see that the parts of budgets transferred e.g. from outdoor to Programmatic channels, remained with these same channels for longer.

For the highly technological Programmatic branch, based largely on agile and automated solutions, the pandemic was indeed a test. But we were not checking at the time whether the monetization models developed under standard conditions would adapt to the new realities. Instead, we checked how quickly this adaptation would happen – and from the perspective of this past year and a half, we can confidently say that Programmatic has passed the test with flying colors.

The challenges for 2022

Even This year, both Advertisers and Publishers will reap the rewards in terms of how they reacted to Google’s announcement to postpone its departure from third-party cookies. Changes in the ecosystem are on the way, so if last year’s work on alternatives to cookies was postponed in favor of more immediate challenges – 2022 will see a refocusing and a redoubling of efforts.

There will be challenges ahead, whether it involves measuring the effectiveness of advertisements by buyers, retargeting options, or indeed the setting of caps on displayed ads. Collecting and monetizing first-party data will also prove to be a daunting task.

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Karol Jurga
Head of Business
publishers@yieldbird.com