Contextual Advertising: The Advertising Industry’s Next Big Step |   11 Apr, 2022

Seeing laptop ads in the Science and Technology section of a newspaper or stumbling upon a shoe ad while watching a YouTube video about running tips, contextual advertising has always been relevant and impactful.

With Apple’s new iOS 14.5 privacy policy and Google Chrome’s pending ban on third-party cookies, all ad-tech companies are striving to find new ways to sell their ads without hindering users’ privacy.

As targeted and behavioral marketing becomes increasingly challenging, contextual advertisements have evolved as a solution that targets the correct audience with context-relevant ads while respecting their views on data privacy and personalization.

What are Contextual Ads?

The year 2024 will see the rise of contextual advertising. It is a powerful and effective method of reaching the target audience by displaying ads on a webpage that matches the ad’s content. At the same time, it ensures a seamless ad experience for both advertisers and viewers. 

Let’s understand contextual ads better with some examples:

• If you’re reading a movie review site, you could see ads that say things like “purchase movie tickets” or “join up for a movie streaming service.”
• Before watching a YouTube video lesson on “how to cut your own hair”, you view an ad for “shampoo”.

Here, instead of using consumer data, Keywords, Topic Targeting, and AI Technology are used to scan the website on which the visitor currently is. Then, ads that are relevant to the page’s context are displayed. 

Also read: The Role of Context in Advertising

Advertisers’ Future is Contextual

Contextual advertising is surely the future of advertisers. According to a research study, contextually relevant ads create 43% higher neural engagement and 2.2 times better ad recall.

Where on the one hand, consumers are pleased to find their personal data better protected, on the other hand, they also expect to see ads that match their interests and are relevant to their online experience. This is where the magic of contextual targeting comes into play. 

By reaching target audiences with relevant ads, brands satiate their need to find an alternative to target the correct audience at the correct time and place with personalized ads in the cookieless world.

Moreover, unlike behavioral marketing, contextual ad targeting does not need third-party cookies to deliver relevant ad experiences to the user. It is the best fix for advertisers when privacy is a major concern, and they still want to have a phenomenal impact on users.

Benefits of Contextual Advertising

1. Meets your Budget

Unlike conventional methods of advertising, contextual advertising is cost-effective and does not hurt the pockets of the advertisers. They are charged only for the ads that are clicked and not for ads that are displayed on the site.

2. Reaching Targeted Audience

Fulfilling its main motive by reaching the targeted audience, contextual ad targeting is the best method to boost sales for a product. This happens because ads are posted after proper research on keywords, keyword phrases, and the use of AI tech.

3. Ability to Engage with Customers

When the people visiting the websites find ads relevant to the information, it boosts the brand awareness of the product. This engages more audiences and thus increases the revenue of the company by increasing its sales.

4. User Privacy is Not Compromised

The best feature of contextual advertising is that it does not require any 3rd party cookies to offer relevant ads. This plays a major role in meeting compliance requirements like CCPA and GDPR. 

Silverpush’s Contextual Advertising Solution

With third-party cookies being phased out, engaging with customers has never been more essential. Silverpush’s flagship contextual ads targeting solution Mirrors helps in context-relevant video-level ad targeting using human-enhanced AI technology. During the process, content-aligned ad placement, brand safety, and tailored brand compatibility are all guaranteed, along with reaching the largest possible audience.