3 Trends in Advertising Technology by 2020

To say that advertising technology is saturated is an understatement. There are at least 100 companies competing for in the category of email optimization, sales automation, data warehousing, visualization, social publishing, and DAM to name a few. Companies that want to stand out will start investing resources towards the three trends we have identified below:

1. Pay Per Sale Model
Last month our CEO shared how marketers should optimize for voice-based search. The success of Amazon Echo and Google Home means that impressions and clicks have no place in any advertising plays, rather it would be "listens" and commands that would have to be measured. Your brand would have to take the word of the voice-based ad network to inform you whether the ad or recommendation was heard and how many times the recipient responded with a voice command that started the transaction process. The biggest shift will come with the latter, as advertisers will reward platforms for contributing to a sale, instead of for the cost of acquisition. So when you ask Google Assistant to order a romantic gift, 800Flower would pay Google the cost of the transaction. If I say "remind me to go for a run at 5:00 pm tomorrow" it could confirm it and then ask if I would like to book a Careem in advance. Convenience for me, sale for Careem. Google has made it clear that in a voice-driven word, transactional rewards will trump top three text ads. Success will come from the buy-in and involvement of the platform (Google, Amazon, Microsoft), the client (or advertiser), and the payment processor.

2. Artificial Intelligence
My counterparts in the MENA region have written extensively on how artificial intelligence aids customer retention and it's potential to aid location-based search marketing.

3. Cross Platform Browsing
Verified profiles on Snapchat and Instagram can share links and swipe up options with their followers that open within the app. This means no more opening a new window in the browser. Cutting down the experiential load means that impulse buys are much closer than before. Over time, your phone will store all the necessary information that is needed for Souq to process your transaction. We will be able to from ad to buying mode in one click.