TikTok Turmoil, IAB Insights, & Kevel’s Latest, Greatest Update

Ad Tech Insights

TikTok of The Town: What The Potential Ban Means For Advertisers

The story: Just last month the House passed a bipartisan bill threatening to ban TikTok, unless its China-based owner, ByteDance , sells its stake within 165 days. While the ban still faces uncertainty in the Senate, many brands’ investment in TikTok feels shaky. Although Tinuiti brand partners have increased investments in TikTok by 10% to 15% in the last 2-3 years, and TikTok ad spend reached $1.2B in Q4 of 2023, brands are beginning to explore alternative platforms, like Meta ’s Reels and YouTube Shorts. The advertising agency, Collective Measures | Media & Analytics , already reports clients testing out identical ad units across Snap Inc. , Meta, and YouTube. 

Some view the potential ban opportunistically, with Tinuiti’s senior social innovation director, Jack Johnston , reporting that a TikTok sale could mean “increased inventory and opportunities” for media buying. While Johnston finds it unlikely a ban will take place, in the event it does, users leaving the platform and ad buyers pulling ad dollars from TikTok could mean “...CPMs become more efficient and auctions [become] less competitive.” 

The takeaway: The TikTok bill has led to industry-wide discussion around consumer privacy protections, including data accessibility and misuse across social media as a whole. While some brands continue to invest in TikTok, others are exploring alternatives, which could emerge as viable options if TikTok does become banned. The looming threat of a ban underscores the need for advertisers to be adaptable and the importance of diversifying ad spend.

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Extra Industry Insights

The IAB ’s 2024 edition of their annual “State of Data” report surveyed 500 advertising and data experts at brands, agencies, and publishers, and found the following:

• Over half of those surveyed anticipate challenges in tracking conversions, attributing conversions to campaign or channel performance, measuring ROI, and optimizing campaigns.
• Almost 50% of those surveyed expect to struggle with measuring reach.
• 90% of those surveyed are shifting their personalization tactics, ad spend, and the balance of their first- and third-party data strategies.
• 71% of brands, agencies, and publishers are planning to grow their first party data-sets -- a rate almost double the 41% from two years ago.
• 95% of ad and data decision-makers expect continued signal loss and/or privacy legislation in 2024 and beyond.

Kevel Catch Up

INTRODUCING: Kevel Retail Media Cloud™

Kevel has officially launched the Retail Media Cloud™, the ultimate SaaS solution which unifies Kevel’s ad serving, forecasting, audience building and self-serve capabilities, helping retail media publishers and networks differentiate themselves in the increasingly crowded retail media market. 

Check out the full press release and learn more about the Retail Media Cloud™ here. 

LIVE: Kevel x The MadTech Sketch by ExchangeWire 

Kevel and ExchangeWire teamed up in this edition of The MadTech Sketch which covers how businesses must adopt programmatic retail media (PRM) to compete with Amazon . PRM offers opportunities through real-time bidding (RTB) and transparency, overcoming the challenges brought on by fragmented retail media networks. 

View the full blog and collaboration here. 

Keep Learning

WATCH

The latest episode of the ADOTAT Show, with host Pesach Lattin ➡️ adotat , spills on all things retail media and measurement standards. This panel features industry experts, including Kevel's CEO & Founder, James Avery . 

READ

ADWEEK 's article "Data-Driven Digital Advertising Isn't Going Anywhere--It's Evolving" dissects cookie deprecation, and how targeting and measurement aren't going anywhere, though the mechanics will have to change. 

LISTEN

In this episode of The MadTech Podcast the team explores Walmart ’s plans for retail media, the increasing saturation of the TV/streaming landscape, Google ’s data driven deal with Reddit, Inc. , and our reliance on tech giants.