Online advertising is rapidly gaining momentum. In the UK, Australia, Canada and many other countries, the main stream of investments is already entering the digital sphere. In 2018, they are expected to account for more than 26% of total advertising spending (compared to 24.3% in 2015).
And according to experts’ estimates, in the U.S. in 2018, the turnover of advertising on the Web will exceed its TV-analogue by 4 billion dollars. Of course, online advertising is a global trend. A trend with good prospects.
And it should be actively woven into its long-term marketing strategy here and now. In just a few years, all the vacant leadership positions will be hopelessly occupied.
Digital in Russia: Integration and Transformation
In our country, digital has not yet been able to outpace television advertising. But let’s look at the situation from the other side. Internet advertising is the only industry that manages not only to maintain stability of its position, but also to demonstrate growth in the conditions of the crisis. At the same time, other marketing channels show a clear decline.
Note that the above trend is based only on the trends of contextual advertising as the main supplier of statistical information. But there is also a search engine promotion, the budget for which is on average up to 25% of the context. Now let’s look at the very nature of the behavior of Russian Internet marketing.
Internet marketing in Russia is undoubtedly developing. But it grows gradually, without absorbing and even not replacing other channels. You can observe an interesting process of interpenetration. The traditional advertising industry does not give up – it is carefully entering the technological evolution, inventing new formats. Thus, print media are increasingly beginning to run their Internet portals in parallel.
Advertising media is changing – its delivery is changing. It is becoming natural (native) – addressed to the audience in the context of the site and user interests. And although today this process of amazing transformation has only just begun, it is already obvious that it will only deepen further. After all, after some 5-10 years, the current generation growing up and living in the networks will become solvent.
Even the drop in attention to television cannot be considered so unambiguously. The user’s interest has simply switched from traditional TV to online format. But over time, it is not the Internet that will throw off the blue screen from the podium, and the latter will become the first. With this transformation, television will get all the benefits of the online segment.
In particular, it will have at its disposal such important marketing bonuses as targeting (division of the audience by sex, age, geography, etc.) and personalization of advertising. And video advertising, actively gaining momentum, – the first harbinger of future changes. Global brands successfully use YouTube with its billions of people for targeted displays.
Let’s sum up. The Internet does not seek to take a share of traditional media channels (TV, print, radio). It allows them to integrate seamlessly into their structure, enabling them to evolve and meet new user needs. Understanding the current situation and prospects of Internet marketing in Russia allows us to define a competent strategy for our business.
Performance marketing era
Above, we have determined that today the Russian Internet advertising market is a little bit behind the global one. On the other hand, it shows stable growth of positions. That’s why it is important for companies that are focused on making profit in the long run to know and understand the laws and mechanisms of digital existence and master them in their field of activity.
At the same time, it is a mistake to believe that Internet media have become more active right now. This channel has shown its marginality before. It is simply that under the conditions of the crisis, its value and prospects have been rethought. In 2008-2009, for example, there was a similar surge of interest in the Internet segment. And today the situation is, we can say, repeating itself.
It turns out that it is the extreme (crisis) times for the domestic economy that to some extent compensate for the technological lag of the Russian advertising market by accelerating the transition to digital-format. And all because the latter allows you to see:
- The return on each invested ruble,
- how and how rationally the budget is spent,
- opportunities to build a sales funnel.
The performance concept is not based on the increased attention to certain types of advertising. It implies a focus on the general trend towards savings, which consists in the constant assessment of different marketing channels and detailed analysis of income and costs to find and choose the most effective way to invest in advertising.
It is the Internet that provides the greatest number of tools for the implementation of performance marketing, which gives it a significant advantage among its competitors – other advertising channels. But also in the digital segment there is something to work on. Previously, the advertiser could place a banner and not monitor its effectiveness (and he, in fact, did not give anything). Now the situation has changed dramatically.
Speaking of the impact of the economic crisis on the Internet marketing market in Russia, it is necessary to take into account its dual impact. On the one hand, it provokes Internet advertising to develop, on the other hand, it inserts objective sticks into its wheels. After all, in order to meet the needs of business and perform, you need appropriate competence. And so far, there is an acute shortage of narrow specialists:
- web analytics,
- Internet marketers,
- digital strategies.
These are all those people who are able to competently and technically collect and analyze large amounts of data, use this information to improve the effectiveness of online advertising, find and implement promising marketing solutions for business, taking into account its specifics. Therefore, the future is up to those agencies, which will be able to accumulate the necessary staff faster than their competitors.