Amir Chitayat recently published a blog on Natie.com on the future of digital media buying. In it, he examines the state of constant flux in which today’s marketers operate; change happens almost daily, and reaching their audience is a never-ending challenge. Despite this, there are three industry macro trends coming into focus that should endure in coming years.

He focuses on three key predictions:

Algorithms are table stakes & creativity wins

Today, media buyers hold lots of conversations about CBO, cost-cap bidding strategies, etc. They will soon be changing the subject as machine-learning algorithms automate these tasks. Just look how easy Google and Facebook are making it for software to handle bids, audience segmentation, and testing. What they cannot do is think of a novel idea, tell a joke, or empathize with people. The creativity margin is where differentiation and competitive edge will be fought for in coming years.

Transactions go digital

Total advertising spend in 2020 declined by 3.9% due to COVID-19. What’s less obvious is that non-digital media buying is increasingly taking place through digital channels. The way we buy ads now on Google and Facebook will soon be the norm for most of the TV ads we watch, radio ads we hear (on podcasts and Spotify), and billboards we see.

Google, Amazon, & Facebook dominate

Google, Facebook, and Amazon won’t be the only games in town, but they’ll be the biggest for the foreseeable future. Platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit simply don’t deliver the same direct-response performance. As the big three continue to dominate, they’ll gather even more data to improve optimization, making ads more efficient and attracting yet more ad spend.

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