Brands are reinventing performance marketing for a flattened funnel
Susan Wu , Senior Director, Marketing Research, PubMatic
Amid the growing complexity of the digital advertising ecosystem, today’s leading brands are leaning into programmatic’s ability to power a more holistic customer-centric model — one in which brand and performance budgets and strategies are converging. But what does that mean regarding media budgets, partner selections and technology investments? A new State of the Industry report, sponsored by PubMatic, took a deep dive into how marketers are refining their performance marketing strategies in the face of unprecedented addressability challenges and shifts in consumer behavior. Impressively, 82% of brands surveyed are no longer thinking about the marketing funnel as the traditional linear model that has long been espoused within the industry — and that has big implications for the future of media.
Marketers are expanding performance campaigns across the open web
As performance marketers expand their campaigns across the open web, they are finding greater flexibility, control and quality in their media opportunities, leading to improved ROI compared to walled gardens. Overall, performance budgets are spent on the open web over walled gardens — 37% versus 31%, respectively. At the same time, the research also found that the lines between performance and branding budgets are blurring, suggesting performance efforts — particularly on the open web — might be even more well-funded than these figures indicate.
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As brands build their performance marketing mix on the open web specifically, they are prioritizing connected TV and OTT as their leading channels, along with contextual targeting as their primary strategy. This finding again emphasizes the continued shift of what have traditionally been thought of as branding channels into the realm of performance marketing.
The reasons for the expansion of performance marketing on the open web are many: In addition to the rich creative opportunities available, the open web is also a source of significant innovation right now as it relates to privacy-first, ID-agnostic targeting. At the same time, the open web enables brands to lessen their dependence on walled-garden platforms and their associated risks. On the open web, brands can stand out with high-quality, relevant content, while simultaneously supporting premium publishers and outlets.