What does blockchain have to do with online marketing? Quite a lot, it turns out. Because if the industry is criticized, then mostly for lack of transparency, alleged fraud by bots or lack of proof of delivery.
Let’s start with a self-test: Can you explain in one sentence what a blockchain is? No? No wonder, because unlike many buzzwords in recent years, blockchain is not just a cute new marketing tool. It is a complex principle that enables business exchanges between people, companies or technological systems and makes them transparent at all times; When and where was a service provided or a transaction made? It’s all in the blockchain, and thus visible to everyone, everywhere.
Blockchain will end the fraudulent intransparency in online advertising
Online marketing and advertising is often (justly) criticized for lack of transparency, alleged fraud by non-human traffic or lack of evidence, when and where advertising materials were actually delivered and seen. All of these problems could be solved by the use of blockchain. It fundamentally changes the rules of the game. In the future, advertising can be handled decentrally, i.e. away from large platforms. Prices are always visible, and the cost of line items as well. Intransparency as a business model has had its day.
Nearly 50 percent of all ad traffic is being generated by bots. Brands are paying huge amounts of money to reach potential customers — but this doesn’t give them any guarantee that those ads will increase sales.
Future forecast: 5 changes in online marketing that will happen due to blockchain
If we apply blockchain to the online industry as well as to finance, industry or the public sector, then the following developments will take place:
- More direct business between advertisers and publishers. Why? A trading desk as a mediator will be superfluous. Of the long value chain that many service providers participate in, there is not much left except an ad server. Smart contracts are closed, which have their effect exactly when a predefined event occurs (for example, a website called by certain users).
- The efficiency of online advertising will increase. How? Advertising material is only booked, delivered and billed if an identified user calls up a page and this is stored in the blockchain.
- Advertising materials only appear where they are wanted. How? Advertisers can deposit in the advertising blockchain which environments and pages are desired and which are not. The topic of ad safety is a thing of the past.
- Expensive auditing processes become superfluous. Why? If you want to know how your money was spent, just look in the blockchain. Incidentally, this is not only online, but also for classic advertising — provided that it is booked and paid on a blockchain basis, for example with Bitcoin.
- Advertising no longer annoys the users. Why? In the blockchain it is deposited which kind of advertisement someone considers useful and acceptable. So an opt-in system that makes hard opt-outs like ad blockers unnecessary.
Who gets the thing up and running now? It will be several years before the current commercial-intermediary advertising system is largely replaced by a blockchain-based one. We say the sooner the better!