July 2024: What's new in the world of digital

Welcome to the July edition, where we share the updates in the world of digital. 

What is it?: LinkedIn is set to globally launch its AI-driven ad campaign tool, Accelerate, by early autumn 2024. This tool aims to streamline the ad creation process significantly, cutting the time required from 15 hours to just 5 minutes. Advertisers stand to benefit from increased efficiency and potentially reduced costs per action—by up to 52%—compared to traditional campaign methods. Accelerate works by analysing a product's website, the company's LinkedIn page, and previous ad accounts to generate creative content and target relevant audiences. Initial reports from beta testing indicate positive outcomes, with some users experiencing increased lead form completions and reduced costs per lead.  

 

Why is it important?: Accelerate will greatly enhance time efficiency, allowing marketing teams to allocate their efforts more effectively by focusing on strategic tasks rather than repetitive ones. The cost reductions will help lower CPCs, benefiting especially small to medium-sized marketing companies. Improved campaign performance, such as higher lead form completion rates and lower costs per lead, is expected. 

 

What action should you take?: Stay informed about this development and prepare for the upcoming changes. Monitor the performance of your campaigns created with Accelerate and use the data to optimize your targeting, creative content, and overall strategy. This will be particularly beneficial for B2B marketing teams. Utilize the time and resources saved to focus on other strategic initiatives. Keep up with any updates or new features LinkedIn may introduce to further enhance performance or save time. 

 

What is it?: The recent partnership between Criteo and Microsoft Advertising is significant as it tackles the fragmentation in the rapidly growing retail media landscape. Retail media, which involves brands advertising directly on retailer websites and apps, is expected to exceed $150 billion in global ad spend by 2026. However, 93% of marketers identify market fragmentation as a major challenge. This collaboration aims to unify the buying experience for advertisers by integrating Criteo's network of 225 retailers with Microsoft Advertising's extensive client base of over 500,000 advertisers. The integration will simplify campaign management, enhance targeting, and improve campaign performance by offering a more cohesive platform for advertisers and retailers. Additionally, the partnership plans to leverage Microsoft Advertising's advancements in generative AI, including tools like the AI-powered Retail Media Creative Studio, to help advertisers create and optimize ad creatives more efficiently. This initiative is set to roll out in the second half of 2024 and could significantly impact the retail media advertising sector, potentially driving substantial growth and innovation. Overall, the partnership aims to provide scale, simplicity, and innovative solutions to the retail media ecosystem, benefiting both advertisers and retailers by creating a more streamlined and effective advertising environment. 

 

Why is it important?: This pact is crucial because it will create a more unified and streamlined approach to retail media. By combining Criteo’s expertise in commerce media with Microsoft’s extensive advertising network and technology, the partnership will enhance advertising solutions, offer better targeting, measurement, and optimization capabilities, and lead to more effective and efficient ad campaigns for retailers and brands. Microsoft’s reach will significantly benefit Criteo, through its search engine, Bing, and its various digital properties, enabling Criteo’s advertisers to scale to a much wider audience. Moreover, new strategic and innovative marketing methods are likely to emerge from this partnership, with both companies contributing their technological advancements and expertise, benefiting both retailers and consumers. 

 

What action should you take?: Stay informed about any new developments, features, or tools introduced as part of this partnership. Consider participating in any webinars or informational sessions hosted by Criteo or Microsoft to learn more about the implications of the pact. Be prepared to adopt new innovations that could offer a competitive edge, as new strategies and ideas will almost certainly arise from this collaboration. 

 

Discover more: Criteo and Microsoft Partnership 

What is it?: Instead of fully eliminating third-party cookies, Google is introducing a feature that gives users more control over their data and tracking preferences online. This change allows users to make more informed choices about their tracking and data collection practices, enhancing transparency and user empowerment. By offering users more control, Google aims to address privacy concerns while still supporting the functionality needed for personalized advertising. This decision could influence other browser developers and tech companies to adopt similar privacy measures, potentially leading to industry-wide changes. Google's actions are likely to shape future web standards and practices regarding privacy and tracking, affecting how the internet evolves in terms of user privacy and data security. 

 

Why is it important?: The digital advertising industry relies heavily on third-party cookies for tracking, targeting, and measuring ad performance. By retaining cookies but introducing user choice features, Google is compelling advertisers to adapt their strategies to align with these new privacy controls. This move reflects the growing concern over user privacy and data protection. Giving users more control over their data could potentially lead to a higher number of opt-outs, which may affect advertising strategies. Google's decision to address privacy and data protection is crucial for building user trust. As the most widely used web browser, changes in Chrome’s policies set industry standards. The four-year-long saga has created uncertainty and pressure, but this latest decision should offer a more stable future. 

 

What action should you take?: Advertisers and marketers will need to adjust to these new user choice features. This may involve revising how data is collected and used, focusing more on first-party data, and exploring alternative methods for user tracking and targeting that comply with the new privacy controls. Additionally, this shift could drive innovation in privacy-preserving technologies and solutions, enabling targeted advertising without compromising user privacy. 

 

This month's standout update comes from the world of Retail Media, with the collaboration between Criteo and Microsoft promising new opportunities for retailers to create secondary revenue streams. As retailer margins continue to be strangled and market competition intensifies, growing primary revenue streams becomes increasingly challenging. Retailers should, however, capitalize on the ongoing expansion of online audiences by monetizing their owned media assets such as websites, apps, and emails a strategic focus that should not be overlooked. 

 

For further information on any of the latest product updates or anything new that is on your mind, get in touch with our team of digital experts today.