Both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) companies alike are investing more of their advertising budgets into the digital space, taking advantage of a communication channel that is seeing more and more attention from consumers. At the same time, they are also spending less money on conventional advertising media, a new report from eMarketer found.
Using data from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, eMarketer notes that B2C digital ad spending was up 11.1 percent for product-based firms and 10.6 percent for service-based organizations in 2013. B2B digital ad spending wasn’t up quite as much, but for service and product-based companies, budgets still increased by 9.9 and 9.5 percent, respectively. Digital, in the context of this survey, counted a variety of different advertising mediums, from social media to display advertising.
At the same time, B2C spending from product-based firms was the only category in which traditional ad spending was up. It marked declines in 2013 across the other three sectors – B2C services, B2B services and B2B products.
Optimism for display advertising seems to be swelling, with more companies investing in the medium to engage prospective and existing customers alike. This is likely due to better results stemming from smarter targeting tools and the ease of executing campaigns via real-time bidding.
A separate study from Adform found that consumer engagement with display units rose 14 percent during the summer of 2013 when compared to the same time in 2012. The firm noted this was a result of the increased usage of real-time bidding, with RTB spending up 92 percent during the same time frame. Mobile refinements have also helped improve the attractiveness of display advertising, with mobile RTB spending increasing by 67 percent in the summer of 2013.
As digital and display advertising technology continues to improve, it’s pivotal that brands consider all of their options in regards to advertising channels. While many companies use conventional Web-based platforms, the number of options they have at their disposal continues to grow. Now, businesses can use everything from video to social to mobile to email advertising.
Ultimately, companies should look to engage consumers with display ads on the channel that makes the most sense. For instance, young people dominate social media, so social ads may be the best way to reach them. Conversely, older prospects may use their email more frequently, so that might be the better avenue to engage that demographic.
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