It’s not a radical concept that advertising could be doing more to work smarter, not harder.

It has guided most (if not all) of the incredible tech advancements we have seen over the last decade, making our lives as marketers easier and delivering better results for our clients.

But with the ongoing phase-out of third-party cookies and marketing teams experiencing tighter budgets, the notion of working more efficiently has transformed from an exciting prospect to a growing challenge, as we are increasingly expected to do more but with less. 

For the team at GroupM the solution to this challenge is simple; fewer, better ads. 

Group M Nexus global head of marketing science Phil Tolliday looks at how publishers, brands and advertisers could be doing more with less in adland – and how tech makes it possible.

Before you grab your pitchforks and accuse me of inciting the end of the advertising industry, hear me out. Our meaning of ‘fewer, better ads’ goes well beyond just the surface level. 

Fewer, better ads, is more than just an outcome – it’s a guiding principle, informing our strategy end-to-end, from planning to execution and measurement.

In practice, this means we can adopt better efficiencies, through improved data insights and targeting, drive better business outcomes for our clients, and ultimately create a better ad experience for consumers.

This is how our ideology of fewer, better ads plays out in practice, and the various technologies that are helping make this a reality.

Fail to plan, plan to fail

Some marketers might feel apprehensive about planning fewer ads, but this doesn’t have to equal lesser results. This principle plays out by taking a step back and re-evaluating which channels and strategies will deliver the best results for brands, and not just having a mindset that having more ads will get more (or better) results.

We saw this recently with a client who wanted to put 100% of their audio ad spend into linear radio, despite many reports and anecdotal evidence showing that total audio listenership is fragmenting across both linear and digital audio, with the latter experiencing impressive growth. 

We needed a tool that could show us (and justify to clients) that a hybrid approach to audio ad planning could warrant the same, if not better, results with no additional spend. Such a tool didn’t exist yet – so we made one! 

Codenamed ‘Sonic’, the tool is the brainchild of a team of GroupM employees who submitted the idea to our internal innovation competition and won investment to make their concept into an MVP. An end-to-end planning tool that bridges the gap between radio and digital planning, it has already helped clients achieve more with their audio ad buys. 

This tool showed that if my client dedicated just 29% of their original audio budget to digital, they could drive a 4.6% gain in incremental reach, with no additional spend required. If they wanted to achieve that same level of reach with only linear radio ad spend, they would have needed to spend 13.2% more than their original budget allocation.

Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free

Sign up here to get the latest marketing campaigns sent straight to your inbox each morning

A tool like this is helping brands navigate and plan better against an increasingly complex audio ad space, and is just one example. The same learnings and principles about fewer, better ads in the planning and strategy stage can be applied to other channels and mediums.

But the key is having these learnings and scaling them across other clients and campaigns.     

Retiring the broad brush

We’re entering the era of less data. Without the cookie, advertisers will need to rely on other data sources to bridge the gap. But rather than returning to a broad brush approach, advertisers can rely on effective audience segmentation and optimisation using first-party data augmented by AI. 

Recent studies indicate that 87% of marketers saw positive impacts on campaign efficacy and ROI when harnessing AI.

Our AI-based optimisation tool has been driving results for our clients since 2015, enabling more precise audience segmentation and targeting using multiple data sets for real-time decision-making. It applies custom‑fit algorithms that amplify marketing intelligence and optimise campaign performance toward our client’s individual business goals. 

Additionally, the AI integrates a human intelligence layer, where our experts collaborate with AI to drive innovative applications before they are directly productionised. This synergy ensures that our solutions are both cutting-edge and meticulously tailored to meet clients’ unique needs.

Another area we’re honing in on to provide advertisers with the same impact as cookie-based strategies is contextual advertising.

When compiled by modern AI, predictions based on a small number of users’ first-party data, and some data from partnerships, can create audience cohorts – estimated groups with similar behaviours. By segmenting users into these cohorts we can better serve them the ads they will engage with, while respecting user privacy, and reduce the need for a scattergun strategy – serving up fewer, better ads.

Measure for measure

Better is a subjective term; but here we refer to ads that actually work. That is to say, they shift sales, or improve brand recall, or essentially can achieve the desired outcome of a given campaign. Easy to define, often hard to measure. 

Impactful metrics for advertising are constantly changing, but we’re aiming to pioneer and quantify attention as a key metric.

Collaborating with industry leaders like Adelaide, known for their expertise in attention-based media quality measurement, we’re developing custom algorithms. These algorithms will enable advertisers to correlate their advertising efforts with outcomes such as footfall or sales. 

What’s exciting about attention as a metric is its cross-channel capabilities. Originally a video-based concept, we’re now expanding its usage into digital out-of-home and display. 

Tracking attention over time will provide advertisers with a greater understanding of brand cut-through too, rather than just a performance marketing metric. 

If brands can understand what is most effective, they can work out where to lean in more and where to cut costs, even as part of previously costly brand-building strategies.

And while all of this is great for us and our industry, we can’t forget the people on the other side of those ads – consumers. Adopting a fewer, better ads strategy mutually benefits audiences, as well. 

By prioritising relevance, advertisers can foster deeper connections with their audiences, and establish better affinity with brands. And for marketers, leveraging the latest tech empowers us to gain deeper insights into consumer behaviour, optimising ad campaigns, reducing costs, and ensuring greater outcomes for businesses.