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There’s a gobsmacking amount of data in advertising. Fully utilizing and activating this wealth of data, however, remains a challenge for many advertisers.
Understanding (and acting upon) emerging data trends is critical for advertisers seeking to maintain their competitive edge. Whether you’re working in-house or at an agency, this article outlines four pressing advertising data trends discussed in an AW360 podcast episode that you need to know.
We'll also explore how implementing these trends can help you optimize your strategies, improve client outcomes, and drive success across multiple channels.
First-party data is your value differentiator
"Regardless of [Google's recent decision to keep Chrome cookies], 25% of browsers are already cookieless," said Taren King, Director of Product for Intuit SMB Media Labs. "I still firmly believe that if you do not think critically around alternatives, you will still be left behind."
First-party data has moved front-and-center in targeting conversations as cookies are being phased out around the web. The core challenge in targeting without first-party data is maintaining a consistent identity for prospects across different publishers. This is especially true when "marketing to people before they've been on our website or taken action, and before they become our customer," explains co-founder, President and Chief Product Officer at Fluency, Eric Mayhew.
First-party data is a goldmine for advertisers. This data, collected directly from your audience, offers unparalleled insights into consumer behavior and preferences, enabling personalized experiences that resonate with target audiences.
But like any gold rush, there can be a lot of chaos and confusion. The reality is that even though ad agencies have a wealth of first-party data, very few utilize it in their strategies or use it in advanced targeting efforts. As Mayhew stated on the AW360 podcast, "There's nothing more frustrating than putting the energy and effort into collecting good data and not finding a way to actually activate on it."
Automation tools, like Fluency, can sync up all your data sources—including primary data sets—into one centralized system. When you can access and use data from a single source, it’s possible to build refined audiences and hyper-specific strategies that make the most of your unique value sets. Better yet, automation also makes it easier to activate and launch these strategies at scale.
First-party data can also play a pivotal role in prospecting by identifying common attributes within audiences to expand targeting beyond those who have already taken action. Mayhew emphasizes the importance of continuous testing at a large scale: "You need to look at the trends that come back and then make any adjustments that you have. You'll get it dialed in."
AI can provide recommendations for ongoing testing initiatives, like new keywords or copy that expands upon your best-performing ads. You can then utilize automation to put these optimizations into practice without roadblocks.
With ongoing audience testing and refinement, valuable first-party-data-driven insights can open up immense targeting opportunities across comprehensive multi-channel strategies.
Use multi-channel data to align strategies and goals
Many agencies set up their teams to mirror the way teams access data. In most cases, this means assigning specific people to manage specific channels. This historical way of working—looking at data in siloed “channel” buckets—isolates your team’s work. They can only use data available within a given platform, even though a campaign launches on multiple channels.
King and Mayhew argue that only using data on the platform where it's available is a “disconnect” in having a truly data-powered strategy.
“We've all seen the classic funnel: things go into the top and they come out at the bottom,” continued Mayhew. “If that's the case, step one of your most upper funnel ultimately feeds step two in your funnel process.”
If your second step isn’t tuned to receive the output of the first step, “then you're really missing an amazing opportunity to make your advertising work as a machine,” said Mayhew.
In order to activate multi-channel strategies, you must integrate data from various platforms. This is the only way to gain a holistic view of your audience and ensure consistent messaging and branding across all touchpoints.
Mayhew emphasizes that one of the most powerful ways to use data across your advertising is to “align all of your campaign strategies—independent of where they're executing—against common goals.”
Most advertisers are not currently set up to do this successfully with their data, though. Data lives in different systems that aren’t interoperable. If you somehow find time in your day to export and combine data sources, the consequential analysis is so time-consuming and complex that it’s hard to derive any true value or insight.
Operating systems like Fluency enable advertisers to look holistically at both their goals and multi-channel data. Fluency taps directly into source data, both from publishers and first-party sources. This makes it possible to see (and activate) big-picture, overarching strategies.
“When you have set up good, clean data and consistency in goals, data can become this hub that the spokes all come off of, independent of where you're executing,” said Mayhew. “You will have different strategies in your upper funnel channels versus your lower funnel channels…but they should be all reinforcing that same goal.”
Cleanrooms are a must for making your data more impactful
Data cleanrooms have emerged as a powerful tool for advertisers seeking to maximize their data’s impact. If the concept of cleanrooms is new to you, take note: they will play a leading role across the MarTech spectrum in the very near future.
Cleanrooms are secure environments that allow multiple parties to collaborate on data without compromising privacy or security. Many tech vendors that marketing companies already use, like Adobe and Snowflake, offer cleanroom solutions. By pooling data in a cleanroom, ad teams and their partners can both gain deeper insights into consumer behavior and preferences.
In essence, cleanrooms empower advertisers to make data-driven decisions with confidence. Advertisers can enrich their first-party data with external datasets to get a more comprehensive view of the audience. This enhanced understanding allows for more accurate targeting and personalization, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates.
King outlines how Intuit SMB Media uses cleanrooms on an AW360 podcast episode. As a media network that “does not have owned and operated inventory,” King’s team needed a way to validate the value of new and emerging channels for clients.
“If you're running multi-channel and you can't tell whether Channel A, B, or C drove the biggest impact for you, then it's kind of a waste of money,” said King. “You're just throwing your money wherever and have your own personal bias on what you think is driving the impact for you.”
King and his team use channel-hosted cleanrooms to help their clients “understand if there's an overlap from data.” By collaborating with channel partners in cleanrooms, King's teams gain enhanced attribution insights while maintaining a strong commitment to customer data privacy.
King cautions that there’s still some normalizing that needs to be done in the cleanroom industry, particularly around pricing. Even so, he emphasizes that advertising leaders need to start looking at cleanroom use cases in their organization.
“They’re just going to continue to come up, especially in enterprise organizations,” said King. “If you're not thinking about your organization's point of view on cleanrooms, then you're already behind the curve, in my opinion. You should really start to think critically on it.”
Automation is your secret time-saving tool
As already discussed throughout this article, automation has transformed the advertising landscape by offering agencies a powerful tool to streamline processes and save time. Automation not only increases efficiency but also reduces the risk of human error. By automating repetitive tasks, you can focus on strategic initiatives that drive business growth.
With automation, you can optimize campaign management across entire workflows, from ad creation to building on-demand customer reports. Automated workflows ensure that campaigns are executed seamlessly, freeing up valuable resources for more high-value activities. This increased efficiency allows your agency to scale their operations without compromising quality.
“Look for your largest time consumers, because that will unlock your human resources for other things and other creativity,” said Mayhew. “[Automation is] no different than everything else we're doing in this space right now. AI has that same promise, right? Same promise, different tactic."
Moreover, automation enables real-time data analysis, which is practically unheard of on most Ad Ops teams. Using automation in this way gives you actionable data insights at your fingertips.
"With AI coming into the picture, a lot of data analysis can be done in a matter of hours versus months,” added King. “You can start to manipulate data in ways that used to take tons of resources."
Becoming “data agile” means teams can respond quickly to market changes or act on optimizations for better results. Automation empowers you to deliver exceptional value to clients while maximizing your bottom line—and even expand your offerings.
What’s next for advertising data trends
These are just a few of the macro trends we’re seeing in the advertising industry as we look out at the horizon. Some of the best-performing agencies and in-house teams are already putting them into practice.
Keeping these trends in mind as you build out your teams, tech stack, and goals for 2025 will be crucial for your competitive advantage. In addition to bolstering your team’s capabilities, becoming more data-powered positions you as a trusted and innovative partner for your customers. By adopting a data-driven approach, you can deliver personalized experiences that resonate with audiences while also driving higher engagement and conversions.
To explore specific use cases or examples of integrating these trends into your advertising strategy, tune into the AW360 podcast episode “Data demystified: How to create a data-powered advertising strategy” featuring Eric Mayhew and Taren King.
