As the advertising landscape continues to shift with the impending deprecation of third-party cookies, marketers are increasingly turning to contextual advertising as a way to effectively reach their target audiences.

Contextual advertising, which involves placing ads in relevant content environments, has been around for a long time but is gaining new importance in the current climate.

In this video interview with Beet.TV, Parvati Vaish, SVP, Consulting, CSA at Havas Media Network, By aligning ads with relevant content, marketers can capture their audience’s attention when they are in a receptive mindset.

Contextual Insights Key to Effective Advertising

“Context is a core component of what a meaningful experience consists of because we know that when we get the context right, we are capturing our audience in a mindset where they have that mental availability for the message that’s being put out there,” Vaish tells Beet.TV editorial director Lisa Granatstein.

To leverage contextual advertising effectively, marketers need to focus on several key areas throughout the planning, activation, and measurement stages.

Planning with context

In the planning stage, it’s important to select the right placements, partners, and channels where the target audience is likely to be in a receptive mindset, Vaish Thinks.

This can involve using attention data and past visitation behavior to quantify the relevance and meaningfulness of different contexts for the audience.

Contextual considerations for activation

During activation, the focus shifts to ensuring that the messaging and creative are aligned with the context in which they will be seen.

“A lot of what we talk about and look at is the content that goes within that context,” says Vaish. “When we run a creative that is visually misaligned to the context that it’s in, it doesn’t resonate, and we actually see lower engagement.”

Measurement and optimization

Measurement is also critical for understanding whether the chosen contexts are resonating with the audience and driving the desired outcomes. This can involve looking at metrics like engagement and conversion rates to assess the effectiveness of different contextual placements and optimize accordingly.

Vaish is asking questions like: “Are we in the right placements with the right publishers? Is the message that we want to deliver aligned with where the audience is seeing the message? And then how can we start optimizing that?”

Bringing Media and Creative Closer Together

Looking ahead, Vaish is excited about the potential for media and creative to come together more closely, especially as cookies go away and marketers need to be more thoughtful about the organic experiences they are creating for their audiences.

“I think where a lot of times the industry falls flat is it’s created this artificial silo between media and creative, and really they go absolutely hand in hand, and that is where you deliver the biggest impact,” she says.

“Personally, that is where I’m really excited to see the industry lean on more, and I’m seeing more and more of our clients talk about this, especially as generative AI is so much at the forefront, and now content can be created a lot faster.”