Publishers Ramp-up User Experience to Boost Ad Revenue in 2023: What to Expect?

Amidst concerns over the looming recession and uncertainty, both publishers and advertisers are facing a rapidly challenging ad landscape. The economy’s turn has only made the rocky relationship between Big Tech and advertisers worse.

Big Tech’s advertising outlook was already reeling from widespread privacy changes like Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency policy. Meta said the changes could cost it as much as $10 billion in 2022, and its failure to create a reliable replacement has caused advertisers to flee the platform.

Insider Intelligence Slashed Global 2022 Ad Spend Forecast by Nearly 6%. Layoffs, spending cuts, and reduced forecasts are a sign that the ad industry is preparing for the worst. One in five marketers have cut their spending, according to Advertiser Perceptions.

In the face of shrinking ad dollars the ad tech industry is looking for ways to turn the tide and demonstrate growth in the coming year.

This has brought about a major upheaval in ad publisher platforms as many are turning to optimize the user experience to compete and capture attention.

In light of this transformation, publishers are making rapid enhancements in the following areas:

With a user-centric approach, publishers and advertisers are embracing new technologies and streamlining processes to focus on brand safety and quality. If publishers continue to improve their ad stack and embrace the positive trends in the industry, the hope is that ad revenue will continue to grow.

There are a number of issues that confront digital media. But all hope is not lost. While projections may indicate a slowdown in overall media spending, publishers remain upbeat about the future. With a renewed focus on improving user experience, perhaps the ad tech industry can indeed move ahead with optimism.

Current challenges aside, the holiday season has hit record sales. This can possibly signal growth into the future. While advertising is shaking, it’s still standing steadily. Now that publishers have aptly identified ways to diversify their revenue streams and are putting money behind areas that have the most revenue potential.

As for marketers, the future is still ripe with opportunities in programmatic ad tech. With the demise of third-party cookies, they can still tap into contextual targeting. There’s no need to panic and cut down media spend as long as companies have a long-term marketing strategy to allocate their budget in the right places. And, that includes DOOH, OTT, and CTV which have shown resilience despite downturns in overall ad spend. In addition, first-party data activation should be a high priority.

Besides, with a continued customer-centric focus, all stakeholders including publishers, advertisers, tech vendors, and marketers can join forces to push digital advertising in the right direction. With greater collaboration and by putting customers ahead of ad campaigns, it’s possible to generate win-win outcomes.