Halloween is tomorrow! But with zombifying market saturation and boogeyman ad blockers, digital advertisers may feel like every day is Halloween. 

Some of the tools that feel like they are taking a bit out of digital advertising are actually making the industry more efficient. Here are some advertising realities that may make you shake in your boots, along with ways to shape your brand to survive and thrive.

Budget-sucking Influencer Fraud

For years now, brands have turned to influencers to help spread the word about their products and services by connecting with actual audiences, but influencer fraud is costing companies $1.3 billion annually. A recent study found that 30% of influencers’ followers are dormant, and between 20% and 78% are fake. 

Ways that brands can combat these terrifying budget blood-suckers are to use third-party verification standard or certification systems to ensure transparency, to put clauses in contracts that penalize influencers for fraud, and to change the ways companies gauge influencer success to focus on quality over quantity.

Attack of the Over-saturated Zombies

An overload of voices can spook advertisers and alienate customers. Audiences don’t respond to the old-school styles of ad saturation anymore. For millennial audiences to buy into a brand, they want ads to be tailored to their interests. They prefer relationships and connection to repetition. 

With bombardment from digital and traditional channels, it’s going to take some extra work to keep audiences from feeling like zombies. Thankfully, a data-driven approach using tools like automation and machine learning now makes it possible for advertisers to send the right message to the right audience at the right moment.

It is challenging to stand out in a digital crowd — and it’s time consuming to find effective ways to raise a brand’s profile in the cackle of so many internet voices without losing its identity and integrity. But thoughtful targeting is just the thing to keep audiences from feeling like the undead, allowing them to engage with the brand in a genuine way.

Ad Blockers, the Internet Boogeymen

Ad blockers create a sharp barrier between brands and audiences, striking advertisers right in the heart of their campaigns.

There’s no need to panic, though. The rise of content blockers has actually brought together advertisers to create a more consumer-friendly digital advertising experience through the Coalition for Better Ads. To survive, brands have to remarket and evolve their campaigns to better target audiences through techniques like native advertising and by focusing on interactions instead of impressions. 

To avoid blockers, make sure ads aren’t the kind that Google Chrome, or other web browsers, want to shut down. Tone down the audio on ads, and ensure that they can be dismissed after a reasonable amount of time. Most importantly, though, use the proliferation of technology available to advertisers today to carefully target your ads to the appropriate audience. Once audiences are seeing ads that actually appeal to them, the need for ad blockers vanishes.

Shapeshifting Compliance Spectres

When advertisers use social sites to spread the word about products and services, other issues outside of ad blocking can arise. Mainly, brands should be vigilant in staying compliant with posting and advertising policies on digital platforms

The rules of compliance for advertising on the web can change often and vary based on industry, location, and platform. Following these parameters is imperative to maintaining the ability to reach a huge online audience. Companies can keep their social media activity legitimate by hiring a compliance officer, creating a clear social media policy for all employees who post online, and archiving posts. 

Want to learn more about navigating the sometimes ghoulish waters of digital advertising? Shoot us an email at info@taptica.com and have a spook-tacular Halloween.