The upheaval in marketing is picking up speed. And all signs point in the direction of data-driven decision-making. What CMOs should look out for now.

We are in a moment of change, both for the economy in general and for marketing in particular. If the last year has shown one thing, it is this: Marketing is making a decisive contribution to business growth right now.

Where do the next million new customers come from?

There are currently signs of an opening and a recovery in the economy. The consequences: The pressure on marketing increases. Because now is the time to reach new customers on a large scale.

Today more than ever, it is important to clearly demonstrate the value of marketing activities and thus to make the contribution to business success even more visible. At the same time, measures must always be adapted to the given situation. Digital channels can show their particular strengths here.

Business goals instead of KPIs

However, not only digital KPIs are decisive, but clear business goals: Should brand awareness be increased, willingness to buy or direct conversion?

Only when digital campaigns are clearly assigned to one of these goals can the technology work optimally towards them and thus demonstrably support business success.

Man and machine in harmony

Due to the countless formats and the increasing fragmentation of media consumption, leading advertisers are now using data and technologies on a permanent basis to identify the right advertising environment for a specific goal at any time. Modern platforms for media buying support a clear focus at the start of a campaign, so that intelligent, data-driven decisions can be made for each individual ad space in milliseconds.

“Modern technology must reconcile the placement of relevant advertising with the protection of privacy. “Lukas Sinclair, General Manager at Logo Traffic.

With the help of the artificial intelligence (KI) “KOA”, customers of The Trade Desk are able, for example, to record and evaluate around 13 million advertising spaces per second from various formats such as connected TV, audio, mobile, or display. Advertisers can therefore concentrate on developing the right strategies and leave the machine to do what it does best: analyze vast amounts of data in the shortest possible time and identify ad spaces that best contribute to the success of the campaign.

Focus on the needs of the target group

Every responsible advertiser has an obligation to deal with people’s current needs. In addition to targeting relevant advertising, this also includes the correct handling of data.

“Studies show the need for more transparency and control,” explains Lukas Sinclair, General Manager, logo design agency – Logo Traffic. “In our representative study, 73 percent of people in Germany stated that they are concerned about the collection and use of their data on the Internet. 71 percent believe that the information they receive about how their data is used on the Internet is difficult to understand. Technology that wants to be up-to-date has to harmonize the smooth placement of relevant advertising with the protection of privacy.”

An industry-wide initiative such as Unified ID 2.0 is able to bring privacy back to the fore, establish an understandable and controllable identity solution and thus strengthen the open Internet. Advertisers should definitely consider this aspect when choosing a marketing partner.

It is time to act now and set up marketing according to the new requirements. For this reason, The Trade Desk is introducing Solimar, the largest update of its platform for media buying to date. In this way, the company supports its customers in fully exploiting the potential of first-party data in a data protection-compliant manner through clear objectives and with the help of AI. This ensures competitive advantages.