THE HIGHLIGHTS
Why context, not content, is king in advertising
Sponsored by taboola
If marketers want to create digital campaigns that resonate with the right consumers, then context – be it ad placement, targeting or creative – is crucial.
When Facebook went dark in October 2021, marketers around the world panicked; understandably, too. Advertisers spend around two-thirds (65%) of their digital budgets on just two channels: Facebook and Google. In fact, during the six hours that the former was unavailable, it was estimated the social media platform lost some $79m (£60m) in advertising revenue.
The scale of that loss - and the panic that ensued – is illustrative of how marketers remain too reliant on a few familiar channels when it comes to distributing their campaigns, pointed out Dan Ginns, UK advertising sales director at Taboola, during a Festival of Marketing session.
jazmin quaynor
Not only does it leave marketing teams exposed to sudden outages but, as Ginns pointed out, the current duopoly of spend on search and social simply doesn’t reflect how people split their time online – with 61% of browsing taking place outside of these channels. A quarter of time online is spent on the open web, for example.
Marketing teams need to diversify and think more strategically about the when, where and how of their campaigns. In short, they need to look more closely at context.
“The average attention span is now eight seconds,” added Ginns. “There are thousands of marketers and thousands of messages trying to reach consumers in this space of time, so you have to get it right.
“You have to be cognisant of what's going through their mind at the time they receive your message.” For example, he said, “your attention is twice as high if you're on a high-quality content site looking at your favourite content compared to a transactional site like Rightmove or Trainline. It's best not to bother people on a mission.”
Placement of an advertisement can make a significant difference too. Putting an ad after an article, which will be seen when the user is looking for the next thing to do, can make them more receptive. “Your interest has been fulfilled and your cognitive load is low; we call this the ‘moment of next’,” said Ginns.
Conversely, an ad that interrupts content or delays its start can create annoyance and distraction. Research commissioned by Taboola found that placements in ‘moments of next’ elicited +25% emotional response compared to pre-roll on YouTube, and +25% attention.
Taboola's Stacey Delaney on the mistake of ignoring context
WATCH NOW
Click here to watch the session on demand at the Festival of Marketing
Context through targeting
The need to take into account the context of an advertising message also goes far beyond placement, pointed out Stacey Delaney, regional director for northern Europe at Taboola. It’s just as relevant on the topic of targeting.
“Targeting is top-of-mind for most marketers,” she said. “For many years, marketers have relied on demographic data - age, gender, location, socioeconomic status, using that as a proxy to determine interests. This can be a little reductive. But what's the alternative?
“Well, one is to use readership data. This looks at what people are reading, what types of content are they consuming online, and infers interests based on that instead.”
In so doing, it avoids the generalisations of demographic data and opts instead for inferences based on actual behaviour, namely what someone is spending their time looking at. “If someone is reading an article about the ‘Top 10 organic cat food brands’, you can infer they're probably interested in cat food. It doesn't really matter how old or what gender or how much they earn, it's more about the interest they're showing. It's using the principle of 'you are what you read',” Delaney argued.
This approach also captures interests that will never be reflected in the demographic data entered online when setting up a social media profile, she added. “What you aren't going to put into your profile is that you're tired because you've just had a baby, or that your sister is getting married and you're busy being the maid of honour. Instead, though, you would read articles on those things. It's a moment in time. You're in a specific mindset and you express that through the readership data you create.”
It resonates with target customers too. According to research by AudienceProject, 37% of UK consumers said the placement of ads in a contextually relevant environment gave them a positive perception of the brand and made them more likely to buy from them. Plus, with an end to third-party cookies, this type of contextual targeting is set to see a resurgence.
Using data and insights can also help you leverage context, said Ginns. That includes regularly monitoring trends across your target audience, to reflect back the angles and topics they’re engaged with, but also taking account of what has and hasn’t worked in the past.
Ginns pointed towards Taboola Trends, a free tool where advertisers can find, “a repository of all the campaigns we’ve run, what creatives work, what headlines work for advertisers, what's going to generate higher click-through and engagement”. Using a contextual tool like this allows marketers “to understand what lens a customer is going to look through when they encounter your message”.
Whether it be placement, targeting or fundamental decisions around what your next campaign is going to look and sound like, “overlooking context for a marketer is a big no-no”, summed up Delaney. “That's why context, not content, is king in advertising.” ■
BACK TO toP
WATCH NOW
Click here to watch the session on demand at the Festival of Marketing