Preparing for COVID-19’s Long-Term Impacts on Programmatic Media

As we navigate the global pandemic together, the state of online behavior continues to evolve, leaving long lasting effects on the world of digital marketing. That’s why our team put together these updates on what we’re seeing, and what you need to know about, notable trends and performance metrics in programmatic media, to help marketers like you prepare for the long-term impacts of this data.

What You Need to Know Now

Shifts in Consumer Behavior

• Older generations that might not have previously shopped online are now forced to shift their purchases to e-commerce.
• Consumers are prioritizing product availability over their previous preferred brands. As many as 44% of consumers in recent weeks have bought a product from a new brand because they couldn’t find what they wanted in the store.
• 75% of consumers are broadening their media options with streaming subscriptions and connected TV devices (Nielsen).

 

Increased Digital Media Consumption

• Over the past 4 weeks, work-from-home routines have predictably had a significant impact on digital media consumption. The number of minutes the average person spent streaming TV and movies has jumped 36%, and YouTube has observed 10x as much watchtime on their platform.
• ComScore also reported 23.4% growth for site visits for News outlets the week of March 9-15.
• For retailers, ComScore also reported site visits on Amazon, Walmart and Target are at their highest in 2020.

 

What Rise is Seeing

Display and Native Ads

• In a B2B client focused on programmatic display, the average site visit rate has increased by 1163% from February to April.
• In a healthcare client’s Native efforts, the average site visit rate has increased by 62% from February to April.

 

Connected TV (CTV)

• CPM has decreased across all Rise CTV clients. Given that, and the channel’s remarkable opportunity for precise audience targeting, we strongly encourage brands to consider CTV as part of their media strategy for impacting business metrics.
• In a Rise CPG client’s CTV efforts, average site visit rate has increased by 448% from February to April with all other factors held consistent.

 

Taking Action

Don’t Fall Further Behind

Brands that increase spending during a recession achieve market share gains averaging 1.6 percentage points during the first two years of a recovery. Conversely, Kantar warns that a six-month absence from TV advertising will result in an estimated 39% reduction in total brand communication awareness.

The data behind increased media consumption and associated inventory is optimistic, and should be viewed as an opportunity for all brands. Before you adjust your media strategy, please reach out to Rise. Our award-winning team can help you find the quick wins for your business bottom line.

Increased Inventory + Higher Win Rate

With the trend of increased online behavior from various audiences comes an increased availability to reach consumers with important brand messaging. According to The Trade Desk, these increases are showing up across most programmatic channels.

Rise data from the last 2 months shows that the win rate has increased across all clients running Display and Native. This combination of factors means we are winning inventory more frequently, which in turn will allow us to further decrease our bids and decrease CPMs. If your team is shifting around budget to maximize spend right now, programmatic should be considered for these reasons.

Tactics Today Fuel Strategy Later

There are strategic, long-term advantages to remaining live now. Audiences and creative that perform well during this period can inform where to take your strategy in the future. For instance, If first-party data collection is possible for your brand, audiences that interact with you today will propose unique opportunities for remarketing in the future.

While these changes in behavior represent the current state of consumerism, it’s likely that these trends will continue to take place even after the period of social distancing is complete. Consider how many users were skeptical about online ordering before this, or have learned to love working out at home and will continue to search for at-home fitness equipment. These added online users and increase in time spent online is a long-lasting increase in your availability to reach your customers.

We know that these unique circumstances may have derailed your media strategy, even resulting in more modest investments. And we know that a total absence from media can be anxiety-inducing. With this CPM and performance data, we hope marketers are considering these programmatic channels as opportunities to reach their same audience at home at an efficient rate. Please reach out to Rise if you’re interested in learning about the media strategies that can help your business today. We’re an extension of our clients’ teams, and we want to see you succeed.