Big data is evidently transforming many industries. One such industry that has seen the maximum impact in terms of profitability is advertising. The communication between advertisers and consumers has changed drastically owing to the advancement in big data technologies. Big data helps advertisers to understand and optimise the demands of every single customer and convert them into prospective buyers.

Somewhere close to 30 years ago, advertising meant placing ads on TV, radio or the print media only. Now alongside, we have a proliferation of mobile, video, internet advertising which is considered the fastest growing formats in advertising today. With the shift to digital technologies, consumer habits have also evolved.

Through these evolved internet habits, advertisers are now enjoying more visibility and awareness of their brands which has provided for higher chances of revenue generation. The internet advertisers aim at conversions of viewers to buyers, for which companies are required to analyze trends and strategize on their campaigns.

Every click made on social media or browser is helping businesses understand the customer interests and behavior.  A digital footprint means more than gold to these businesses as it helps them generate insights as to which products sparked an interest and which products were given a miss.

How Customer Data is Used

Today, our every internet move is tracked. We generate tons of data every second through our Facebook page visits, videos watched, likes, comments, tweets, search history and so on that is captured in the databases. This data is analogous to insights on our interests, current needs or responses to certain products already purchased. Enterprises seek such data for higher customer acquisition and retention by targeted delivery of promotional content for their products and services.

This means, now there is a higher demand for data processing and storage tools like Hadoop that is at the core of the big data technologies. The only challenge is that not many companies yet have the setup or trained professionals to mine and manage such data.  These professionals should also be able to identify possible areas and audience for impact.

Enterprises need data to build a relationship with the customers- both current and prospective. The best companies can achieve this if they can anticipate or predict the customers' needs on the basis of their past interactions with the ads or websites.

Also, email platforms are being exploited where personalized recommendations and notifications are sent. A lot of companies also resort to retargeting and dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) depending on the past interaction.

As customers get more savvy and informed, they can detect irrelevant marketing strategies easily and hence, the advertisers need to display their content only after understanding what they want to buy. This can be achieved if they can harness big data and analytics tools to produce the best possible customer insights.

Big Data for Advertisers: From Marketing to Sales

Top players in the industry know the difference between big data and smart data. As data gets more ubiquitous, the data that may be relevant to your business strategies is something that needs to be spent understanding. Companies need to strategize so as to not create a negative user experience for their audience.

There are a lot of ways for further turning data into effective strategies. For eg., content marketing is one such way through which companies can ensure higher customer engagement. Once the user starts interacting with the targeted page, one can start giving them more information on business and product.  If someone has shown interest in a camera, the ad should direct him to some page where he can find further information about the company and the camera. This ensures better knowledge and user experience such that it motivates customers to eventually buy your product.

Growth of Adtech Companies

The word adtech is an all-encompassing term that refers to software and tools that help agencies keep a track of and analyze their online advertising campaigns. It has been around in the market for a few years but it was not until the boom of big data that the companies started realizing the importance of adtech.

As companies strategize, the key is to deliver the content at the right time to the right people so that their advertising money is not wasted. Adtechs are here to do that and there are no signs of it slowing down.

Adtech provide an automated connection between buyers and sellers according to different criteria during which the buyers can see the ads. This is called programmatic advertising and most of the ads seen today use algorithms to automatically show up in front of a relevant audience after analyzing data in real-time. YouAppi is one such company that drives the acquisition and conversion of the most profitable mobile customers with machine learning and predictive algorithms.

Summing up, it is evident that data-driven advertising remains the best marketing strategy and the possibilities for branding based is of paramount importance for advertisers. The only challenge remains is the ability to analyze the data available and use the technologies optimally such that they can monetize significantly on the digital footprints.