The Future of Programmatic Media in 2023

Top 3 Trends To Watch In 2023

Co-leading Google Canada’s programmatic business with Jeremy Freedman, we often get asked what we think the future holds for programmatic media in 2023. Here is our view of what we believe to be the top 3 trends to watch next year.

The Year of CTV: If you’ve been in the industry as long as us, you’ll remember 2011 as the year of mobile. Then again in 2012. In fact, there were five consecutive years of mobile. That’s where we are today with Connected TV. 2023 will be the year of Connected TV, but it's unlikely to be the last. Expect to see more brands planning for the living room but reaching their audiences through digital channels.

The launch of ad-supported tiers from the previously subscription-only players (you know who we’re talking about) will help accelerate this, possibly more from the buzz it creates than the amount of new inventory available. Traditional TV buyers will partner even more closely with digital planners and their programmatic teams to find their customers regardless of how they access content on their TV.

Privacy: Over the past few years, we have seen a shift in the way users feel about their privacy on the web. This, coupled with regulation introduced at regional and national levels around the world, has pushed the industry to evolve towards more privacy focused advertising capabilities.

With Chrome’s 3P cookie deprecation delayed to 2024, we predict 2023 will be fertile ground for agencies, marketers and tech partners to experiment with new methodologies (like Google’s PAIR) and accelerate down the runway to the new normal. We’re excited to build a more privacy forward ecosystem together!

Breaking Down Barriers: We still scratch our heads when we hear people talking about ‘traditional’ vs ‘digital’ media. When we listen to music, we don’t think of it in these terms depending on if we’re listening to the radio, a CD (still got a couple in the car) or a streaming service. The songs are identical whichever one you choose. And yet reaching that listener is spread across different planners and buyers, with different targets, tools and measurement.

In 2023 we will start to see some of these barriers come down, with teams aligning on how to reach users to drive business results across all channels.

Do you see the common thread here? In all cases, consumers are way ahead of the advertising industry in both their behaviours and their expectations… We’re just playing catch up.

We’re not sure if this list is our predictions, or our wish list. It’s probably a bit of both. Either way, we look forward to partnering with agencies and brands to move the market forward!

Written by Ben Wise, Head of Programmatic Media at Google. Originally posted on LinkedIn.