Allocating Ad Spend Appropriately with Analytics

Budget Wisely

2023 has brought continued annual growth to the ad tech industry, with digital ad spend increasing from roughly $165.5 billion in 2022 to $177.3 billion in 2023. Yet this growth is still accompanied by a wide fluctuation in advertising budgets. Many media buyers are contemplating how to designate their monthly and annual ad spend while considering the ever-increasing amount of foot traffic and competition in the digital advertising space.

In times of economic uncertainty, agencies feel the need to experiment with their ad spend – dividing budgets among the available media mix options for digital advertising. So, what is the wisest way to allocate this year’s advertising budget?

Divide and Conquer

Digital advertising spend is expected to reach the $200 billion mark in 2025, and media buyers are faced once again with the decision to divide the available budget among the various advertising platforms. With options ranging from display, native, and video, to programmatic audio and CTV advertising, decision paralysis can hinder the process of determining where to place ad spend.

Research has proven time and time again that running a combination of media types yields higher engagement levels and conversion rates.

• The combination of display, native, and video has the highest unique account reach at 93.05%
• Adding both native and video to display boosts display CTR by 15% on average
• Running display along with native and video registers a 32% decrease in cost per engagement (CPE)

Read more in AdDaptive’s Media Type Combinations Report.

Personalizing the media mix for each campaign to fit the brand and the target audience’s ad viewing preferences is the key to achieving overall campaign success and boosting future advertising budgets. And the ideal multi-channel combination of media types is ever-changing from one flight to the next, so both pre-campaign and post-campaign analysis are necessary to optimize the mix each time.

Audience Insights to Guide Your Decisions

Gain a better understanding of each target audience’s ad preferences with comprehensive reporting. At the end of each flight, reflect on account engagement levels across each media type before designing the next campaign. For example, if the target accounts are clicking through more display ads than video or native, shift ad spend accordingly. If programmatic audio reach is negligible, eliminate the channel from the media mix for the next campaign. If video completion rates are favorable, consider adding more videos to future flights. And if all goals are being reached across each media type, you’ve found the combination sweet spot for your particular campaign!

Your ad spend decisions – month over month, quarter over quarter, and year over year – should be supported by actionable insights to optimize future campaigns and ensure their success.

Partner with an Analytics Expert

Rely on AdDaptive’s analytics to determine the ideal, unique allocation of ad spend among a combination of media types for each campaign, leading to the highest level of engagement from your target audience. Actionable insights will help you find the ideal mix among display, native, video, programmatic audio, and CTV to reach the right audience at the right time. AdDaptive’s full suite of Audience Composition, Campaign Analytics, and Site Analytics reports provide the information needed to decide how to allocate ad spend appropriately to meet the goals of each campaign.

Learn more in our one-sheet: