AdTechs continue to play a crucial role in the digital marketing sector, driven by technological advancements and changes in consumer expectations. In 2024, specifically, the universe of AdTechs has been the stage for two central debates: the discontinuation of cookies and the ubiquitous use of Artificial Intelligence. AND, it seems that, they promise to maintain their leadership this year, together with other challenges.
In the context of cookies, if they raise societal concerns about user privacy, they are also essential for ad personalization, providing a more relevant experience for the consumer. With browsers eliminating, gradually, the support for third-party cookies, it is up to AdTechs to focus on alternative solutions for tracking and personalization, for example.
The use of Artificial Intelligence tools aimed at online and offline campaigns has begun to revolutionize the way AdTechs can deliver results for their clients. The AI, especially in its generative aspect, already changes the landscape of the sector. With an initial focus on reducing operational costs, the tools become even more accessible and dominant in 2025 for the personalization and optimization of ads, helping companies to offer more efficient and targeted campaigns
Hybrid monetization, strategy that combines different formats to increase revenue, must gain space beyond the universe of applications – and the AI here will also be your engine. After all, the approach that allows combining ads and purchases on the same platform, tends to be adopted by various segments and the use of AI can project scenarios and assist in the development of more efficient strategies. Furthermore, the AdTech platforms that help companies diversify their revenue sources will stand out, since more advertisers should explore their own inventories.
In the macro scenario, with extremely optimized advertising budgets, the preference for direct value metrics, as CPA (Cost per acquisition), ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend) and LTV (Customer Lifetime Value), will continue to grow, and here again AI helps in assembling reports and dashboards for monitoring results.
AI-based AdTech platforms help to automatically adjust investments in real time, directing more resources to channels or campaigns that are performing better. In this case, indicators associated with "vanity metrics", such as CPM (Cost per thousand impressions) and CPC (Cost per click), will lose relevance, as advertisers seek more assertive returns on their investments.
The world without cookies
Even with the overwhelming rise of AIs, the main goal for 2025 will be to find solutions that harmonize and balance the dichotomy of privacy and personalization, meeting the expectations of consumers and the needs of advertisers. Parallely, in a constantly evolving advertising market, companies will need to demonstrate agility and diversify their monetization strategies.
Parallel to this, retail mediaretail mediaalso stands out as one of the highlights of digital marketing this year. In the face of the scarcity of advertising inventories, the modality emerges as an interesting solution, especially for small and medium retailers who will be able to explore their own advertising spaces more easily. Furthermore, the use of primary data in these channels, without the need to share information with third parties, can you simplify the privacy-related issues.
With that, retailers are transforming their digital channels into secondary sources of revenue and valuing the information ecosystem, offering relevant advertising content that helps strengthen the relationship with consumers. In this bias, with consumers increasingly inclined to make purchases via apps instead of browsers, apps are consolidating as a strategic channel for AdTechs.
Not by chance, tools offered by streaming platforms already allow merchants to reach app audiences without the need to create an app from scratch, expanding the possibilities of acquiring new users. Furthermore, the applications, especially in the gaming sector, they should become a significant source of advertising inventory, combining ads with in-app purchases.
AND, as advertising budgets migrate even more rapidly from broadcast TV to digital, creativity in exploring new inventories and creating interesting ads is the big "X" of the issue today. The challenge for AdTech companies is significant, but there is an open path to countless opportunities.
Finally, one of the major challenges in the sector remains rethinking the approach to advertising, that are often seen as irrelevant or intrusive. To capture the consumer's attention, it is essential that advertising brings added value instead of being just a source of annoyance for a potential customer.
Jessé Benedito is the Lead Partnerships Manager at Yango Ads Space in Brazil
