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In recent news, research shows that consumers are fatigued by the growing use of marketing automation, Gen Z’s social media consumption is forecasted to dip and reports of overspending for digital ads in the last quarter. Meanwhile, the best strategies for cleaning ‘dirty’ consumer data are explored and Instagram Australia announced their new creative and ad tools within their platform.
Have marketers lost the art of communication?
Consumers are fatigued by the growing use of marketing automation; an industry study reveals.
Beyond the algorithm whitepaper by information, data and market measurement firm Nielsen and independent agency Archibald Williams states that while today’s ads may be timelier, and more targeted and tailored than ever before (thanks to investment into CRM systems), that’s not enough to stand out since every brand is making use of the same data and targeting approach as anyone can pop a variable field into an EDM.
Automation, as it stands, is unable to truly take the human within our consumers into consideration, and that means, by relying on a pre-planned communications matrix, we’re missing valuable opportunities to understand why our consumers are disengaging.
Research reveals more than $74m is wasted on digital media ad spend
In the months of July through to September 2022, also known as Q3, the Next&Co report revealed e-commerce brands wasted the most digital ad spend, coming at $20.2 million, out of more than $74 million in media wastage in total.
For the report, Next&Co audited 32 companies with annual digital ad budgets of between $500,000 to $21 million across a mix of ASX-listed, multinational, national and SME companies. Across digital media channels, the most digital ad Q3 spend was wasted on Google at $33 million, followed by Facebook ($31 million), LinkedIn ($6.7 million) and Bing ($2.9 million).
Instagram Australia launches new Ad tools in feed, profile, stories, and more
Instagram Australia has announced a new range of ad surfaces and creative tools to give brands an easier way to create, tell their story, and grow their business ranging from music in reels to ads on the explore page.
The photo- and video-sharing app says that the new changes will offer “even more” opportunities for in-platform brand discoverability whilst not appearing incongruous with the rest of a user’s feed.
Introducing a variety of new features and formats, some changes will start off with Music optimisations for Reels ads, Explore home and profile feed will feature ads, new AI-powered multi-advertiser ads as well as Instagram will be testing a monetisation opportunity that allows creators to earn extra income from ads displayed in the profile feeds.
Is ‘Dirty Customer Data’ holding you back?
Consumers provide vast amounts of data that could be used by brands to unlock exceptional, personalised experiences. However, in today’s fragmented omnichannel landscape, most of this data can be seen as ‘dirty’ and out-of-date, incomplete, incorrect or duplicated. This means many companies are missing out on amazing opportunities before they’re even aware of them.
But the act of constantly trying to ‘clean’ data takes the focus off the things that truly matter – teamwork, productivity, employee satisfaction, customer service and the bottom line to name a few. In fact, according to a recent study from Validity, 44 per cent of respondents estimated their company loses more than 10 per cent of their annual revenue due to poor quality CRM data.
The companies surveyed reported they lose customers, blow new business deals and delay revenue-driving initiatives like marketing and brand awareness campaigns – all because of subpar data.
Gen Z social media consumption forecast to dip 0.5%
The World Advertising Research Center (WARC) finds that Generation Z is the most digital generation to date, spending two-thirds (67.7%) of total media time with digital channels, higher than any other age group.
Yet growth in total global social usage levelled off in 2017, and is even forecast to dip slightly (-0.5%) year-on-year in 2022.
The study, WARC Global Ad Trends: Finding Gen Z focuses on consumers aged 16 or older and found that while these individuals spend huge amounts of time on digital media, in total consumption terms Gen Z lags behind.