Paid Media Trends in 2020

By now, it is no shock that 2020 has thrown businesses for a loop. A variety of industries are adapting, re-prioritizing, and shifting their strategies. As discovered in the Setup Covid Marketing Survey, certain industries like Real Estate and Retail are experiencing positive change, while others such as Hospitality and Healthcare are seeing adverse effects. 

Given the change in consumer behavior and increase in digital marketing adaptation, we reached out to some paid media experts to understand how marketers are best utilizing paid media at this time and what trends are arising. 

Digital is the leader in media 

“In general, digital continues to be the leader in all placed media.”

— JT Hroncich | Managing Director | Capitol Media Solutions

JT Hroncich, Managing Director at Capitol Media Solutions, cited several digital channels that are seeing success since the beginning of the pandemic. “We have seen paid social media (Facebook/LinkedIn/YouTube, etc.) continue to perform at high levels, coinciding with Covid-19,” he shares. 

This does not mean that traditional media is not experiencing it’s fair share of success. In fact, traditional channels like television have been performing extraordinarily well since the pandemic and have led to new campaigns, strategies, and reporting tactics. JT added, “Due to Covid-19, Broadcast TV, Cable TV and OTT/Digital TV have all seen record levels of viewership. A lot of our campaigns either increased their TV/OTT spend or launched new campaigns due to these high levels of viewership.”

Programmatic campaign growth

“We expect to see continued growth of all things programmatic – DOOH, audio, podcast, TV – leading to a more integrated programmatic approach. And yes, we expect this to be long term and much more measurable,” Melissa Nordin, Media Director at Blue Sky Agency stated.

She then continued to break down what makes a successful programmatic campaign:

1. A strong set-up with “solid strategic parameters (particularly a deep knowledge of our target)”

2. Understanding of past performances

3. Full agreement around KPIs/define what success looks like

4. Continually monitor the performance

5. Shift inventory to successful avenues

Data driven targeting + reporting is becoming more robust

“We’ve gone from reporting impressions and views to actual conversion – even foot traffic attribution for our retail clients. Finally—an answer to ‘how do I know my TV buy is working?’”

— Melissa Nordin | Media Director | Blue Sky Agency

As processes become more connected, reporting is improving. “The growth in programmatic and multiple channels/tactics working collectively through a programmatic platform, will lead to greater measurability and the ability to optimize across multiple tactics – which we expect to lead to increased performance/conversions,” added Nordin. 

Connected TV (CTV) is growing 

“The most noticeable change and most applicable to our clients is the acceleration in adoption of Connected TV. [Blue Sky was an] early-adopter in the OTT/CTV space and it’s been an important part of our media mix for a number of our clients. We expected growth and adoption to continue, but the trajectory changed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” shared Nordin. 

She continued, “In a similar vein, we’ve been excited to see the landscape of CTV change to work in tandem with our programmatic efforts.”

“We absolutely expect that based on the adoption of CTV and the increased sophistication of providers in both data and reporting capabilities, we will continue to see greater conversion – particularly when it’s working in tandem with lower funnel tactics like programmatic.”

— Melissa Nordin | Media Director | Blue Sky Agency

Leads respond best to engaging + relevant content

This may be a no-brainer to marketers, but, in a world where everyone is advertising digitally and consumers are more than likely burnt out from the constant influx of information, Nordin and Hroncich both emphasized the importance of unique content that is relevant to the consumer.

“To increase conversion rates, you must give the user a reason to engage at high levels to reach campaign KPI goals.”

— JT Hroncich | Managing Director | Capitol Media Solutions

Nordin provided the following example: “We work with a large community hospital, obviously on the front lines battling the pandemic. We have seen significant increases in engagement with our COVID specific content running with local publishers – and what this has been telling us (really confirming what we knew all along) is the power in aligning messages with relevant content. As COVID is dominating the headlines, and Atlantans are gravitating to local news sites, we are providing useful content that they want to engage with.”

She continued to explain what works best for her agency’s client in terms of strategy: “We are having significant success supporting key service lines AND generating leads with an endemic partnership. By providing useful and relevant content in a place where our potential patients are actively seeking information to assist in healthcare decision making, we are seeing our best performance (outside of paid search). We are pleased that our engagement rates are over double the benchmarks provided to us.”

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While marketers are shifting their priorities and leveraging new paid media tactics to adapt to a post-covid world, it is important to keep 3 things in mind: 

1. As the consumer’s preferences and behavior changes, capitalize on reporting. 

2. Be nimble and adapt based on data to survive. 

3. Analyze what is currently working (e.g., CTV) and use it as a jumping off point for future marketing campaigns.

To read more about the marketing industry and paid media, check out this article by Melissa Nordin.