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When it comes to making a purchase, let alone returning to a brand for another purchase, the transactions we make are no longer solely influenced by price. Folks are looking for something bigger and more meaningful than a product. They demand moral and ethical action behind the intent of the product or service. In fact, 7 in 10 consumers believe they can vote with their bank accounts and look to support brands that are good citizens, according to the new Amazon Ads 2023 Higher Impact report.
Similarly, a recent study found that a whopping 80 percent of consumers say they need to be able to trust a brand to consider it, and the Higher Impact report found the same number say that they are more likely to purchase products or services from brands whose values align with their own. It’s clear that brands have a mandate from consumers to lead with their values, to contribute as good citizens, and ensure they reach audiences in brand-safe environments.
But building brand trust in an online world can feel like a herculean task. Now, more than ever, brands need to create trustworthy marketing moments as channels, devices, and formats proliferate. With the potential of a cookie-less future, resolving ad addressability gaps and diversifying signals can ensure the respect of consumer privacy preferences while still serving up relevant content and maintaining trust. “Brand trust is something that’s earned over time with consistency, relevancy, transparency, and effective messaging. It can be extremely nuanced and multifaceted” says Kelly MacLean, vice president Amazon DSP, at Amazon Ads. “And as technological advances continue and consumer expectations evolve, brands will need to work to maintain the trust they’ve built by keeping their values at the forefront of decision making.”
It’s not a surprise to learn that advertisers are re-prioritizing trust factors alongside performance in investment decisions. “Maintaining trust with customers should always be a priority for brands, and as more and more emphasis is placed on this priority, brands will need to raise the bar on how trust is demonstrated and communicated to customers,” says MacLean. “With more focus around advances in machine-learning and other capabilities, consumers need to be educated on the value that these solutions drive and how they are responsibly being leveraged.” According to a recent trust in advertising report, advertisers are focusing to ensure every impression counts against primary audiences and that the content environments they appear in are safe and free from disinformation to protect their brand. That report also found that 72 percent of advertisers agree that corporate responsibility and brand values play a more prominent role in marketing decisions in 2023 than they did just last year; a statistic that reinforces how critical it is to be able to achieve brand trust with customers and with advertising solutions. But the challenge is connecting ad spend, brand values, and addressability together to continue earning trust with consumers and to authentically connect with them for generations to come.
So how can brands ensure safety, lead with their values, and connect with consumers? Many experts believe that path lies in utilizing marketing channels that operate within stringent safeguards for advertising. All businesses—small and large alike—should be able to tell their brand story safely and securely while effectively reaching audiences that align with their brand values. But reaching the right audience with your message has become increasingly challenging for marketers today with ad identifiers and third-party cookies fading away. “To continue reaching both current and prospective customers with the right messaging—while also hitting their campaign goals—advertisers need to make sure their audience-building strategies are durable in times of change and rooted in a foundation that prioritizes both agility and consumer trust” says Kelly MacLean of Amazon Ads.
Fortunately, there is good news. Advances in generative AI are helping advertisers to overcome these challenges, and when this technology is paired with first-party insights these become powerful signals that help advertisers to reach addressable audiences. As an example, Amazon Ads aggregates a breadth of first-party shopping, browsing, and streaming signals that enable advertisers to understand more about their customers’ interests. These signals can then provide additional interests-based segments to add to campaigns, while machine-learning capabilities can help extend reach in ways that go beyond traditional look-alikes.
Beyond first-party signals, tactics like modeling and contextual advertising are becoming more popular. These approaches do not rely on ad identifiers, and with generative AI, which Amazon Ads employs, audience-building models are continuously learning and improving. By their nature, those models are factoring in all sorts of changes, like new streaming channel or device usage, evolving shopping trends, and more. In recent tests, Amazon Ads observed that robust strategies like contextual targeting drive better consideration rates (+29%) and return on ad spend (+27%), compared to traditional cookie-based strategies. “Thanks to more signals and better feedback, we’ve increased average return on ad spend across U.S. Amazon DSP campaigns by over a third.1 These results also extend to TV where we’ve seen a 32% lift in consideration from Streaming TV campaigns that activated our first-party audiences as measured by visits to Amazon Store detail page views. And beyond helping brands address their customers, brands need greater control and transparency into how and where they reach customers so that they can aim to maximize spend,” says MacLean.
As the world of always-on connectivity continues to shape the world we live in, new challenges will arise for those online—no matter which side of an advertisement you’re on. Trends will come and go. Values will shift. New channels will come into being. But one thing that will continue to serve as a touchstone is the staying power of our connection to our values, and the ability to move forward together with them.
This story was produced by WIRED Brand Lab for Amazon Ads.
1 Internal Amazon, US, Jan – Dec 2022, 140K campaigns across industries
