Know how AI is helping contextual advertisers optimize campaigns

The digital advertising landscape has seen significant shifts over the last couple of years. With data privacy becoming a top concern for consumers, brands and advertisers have turned to contextual advertising to continue serving their target audience with relevant ads. With the imminent phasing out of third-party cookies by top browsers by the end of the year, there is a renewed focus on data and data analytics to help enhance brand contextual targeting. Reports estimate the global digital marketing analytics market was worth US$ 4.2 Bn in 2021 and is expected to reach US$ 27.2 Bn by 2031.

AI has emerged as a key tool to examine large and complex data sets, more commonly known as "big data," to unearth hidden patterns, unknown correlations, and other insights to enhance decision-making capabilities.

When it comes to contextual advertising, AI can analyze and make sense of large volumes of a variety of data beyond just keyword and page type, such as website traffic, website content, phrases, media channel and more to deliver an accurate representation of the individual visiting a web page and their behavior or response in real time. This allows publishers to serve ads that match the website and stand the best chance of getting a positive response from the reader. This allows brands and advertisers to optimize their campaigns and deliver more personalized and pleasant experiences for the target audience.

AI also enhances the user experience by creating contextually relevant ads. Brands are able to deliver ads that are more attractive, enjoyable and yield a higher rate of response from users. Once created , brands can also track the performance of advertising campaigns in real time and make changes based on performance.

AI and contextual targeting perfectly fit together to yield positive results in various areas. Discovering the myriad ways context can work for a reader coming to a website is one of AI’s most impactful roles in contextual advertising. For example, knowing the multiple keywords a mainstream or a niche consumer can use when looking for a website that relates to your product or service is paramount for ad efficiency. These keywords also change based on demographic, regional nuances and other factors. For instance, a reader visiting a website for recipes can be targeted by companies supplying ingredients for the dish and even by a travel company specializing in food tours and experiences related to the type of cuisine.

AI also allows brands to test different ad formats, targeting strategies, and messaging to see what works best in terms of getting a positive response from the consumer and is critical in studying the outcome and making recommendations once a campaign has gone live. This becomes especially important when an ad campaign is rolled out globally, and the context changes from a language standpoint and culturally from one country to the other.

Through the use of AI, brands are able to optimize ad placement on their pages by analyzing content across text, image or video. AI is able to detect the optimal position to ensure an ad is received in the best possible way. AI also helps blend ads into images, video or displays allowing advertisers to seamlessly integrate messages into the existing content of a page, resulting in higher impact and return on investment.

AI and contextual analytics can also unearth consumer behavior and responses to allow businesses to create experiences that can boost business. Numerous food delivery applications today can correlate first-party data (with factors like time of the day, week, weather, etc.) to either give users recommendations of dishes and restaurants to simplify users' decision-making process or push advertisements and offers at appropriate times. This analysis is being continuously refined to become (sometimes) eerily predictable regarding customer behavior.

Research shows that contextual advertising boosts consumer interest by 32%. With AI integration into the mix, this percentage can only get higher. AI is already showing results in increasing the effectiveness of campaigns, reducing costs by targeting the right audience, and delivering the right message in a suitable format. The explosion of data across the media landscape will only help fine-tune the accuracy and impact of contextual advertising further.

Get in touch with us today to understand how you can leverage AI in your contextual advertising journey.