BLOCKCHAIN ADVERTISING

Blockchain Advertising is an online activity within the realm of digital marketing that aims to create increasingly reliable, high-quality, and lucrative online advertising campaigns for users through the use of blockchain technology.

The field of web advertising is fully immersed in digital innovation, generating increasingly specialized professional roles. If this topic fascinates you and you wish to delve deeper, the blockchain marketing course is the ideal path to acquire the necessary skills in this field.

In this article, starting from an understanding of the current issues plaguing ads nowadays, I will explain the advantages of blockchain technology in the service of digital advertising and its practical applications.

What is Blockchain Advertising?

Blockchain Advertising is an application of blockchain technology to online ads. Digital advertising currently occupies over 70% of the entire global advertising industry: the main actors, companies, and consumers have flocked to the web and have become active agents of its evolution and progress.

For several years now, many businesses have discovered its enormous benefits for brands and have started investing in advertising that some agencies solely create by leveraging the immense potential of Blockchain.

Therefore, it is necessary to understand first of all what Blockchain is and what major innovations it brings to the world of the web in order to fully grasp its usefulness in the development of Ads.

This new blockchain technology is transforming the entire business landscape, thanks to some significant strengths such as:

• Decentralization of information, which is not stored on a single server but within a large database distributed across different nodes of the chain;
• Absence of intermediation, in favor of a consensus-based approach;
• Complete traceability of operations;
• Enhanced data and transaction security, thanks to the implementation of advanced encryption systems and innovative contractual forms.

Issues in Advertising and Solutions of Blockchain Ads

Blockchain Advertising provides real solutions to the trust and security issues faced by users and businesses in relation to online advertising. Digital ads has achieved tremendous success and has given rise to new and influential figures in digital marketing. Publishers and advertisers have emerged as professionals dedicated to enhancing corporate credibility with advertisers and capturing the attention of new and existing customers to foster loyalty.

However, as they are currently structured, ads are not without challenges. Companies and users consistently express their concerns and doubts. Firstly, there is a lack of transparency among intermediaries. Consumers increasingly lack trust in sharing their private data with third parties due to the lack of clarity regarding its usage and storage.
On the other hand, companies rely on Programmatic Advertising to produce content that can target users’ specific interests. This advertising supply chain involves third-party platforms (e.g., Google) that create ads, collect user information, and make the match. However, brands are increasingly concerned about the lack of transparency in digital advertising processes, as they find their advertising campaigns on websites that are considered unsuitable and, therefore, undesirable.

Current Fraud Numbers

Blockchain Advertising aims to address another major concern for businesses: click fraud, the risk of fraud resulting from the use of bots that manipulate view and click data, causing significant financial damage.

The widespread fear among businesses and the evident distrust of users, which Blockchain Advertising seeks to overcome, have not arisen out of thin air. In recent history, there have been numerous international scandals that have exposed illegalities in the handling of user data.

Among these scandals was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where it was revealed that a British consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, had acquired information and personal data from approximately 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge or consent, for the purpose of political propaganda.

Statistics further help to grasp the magnitude of Ad Fraud. In 2020, the Statista Research Department estimated losses due to fraud at a sum close to $35 billion. Considering that Digital Advertising generated over $330 billion in that year, fraud accounted for approximately 10% of it. Juniper Research predicts that advertisers will suffer losses of at least $44 billion throughout 2022. It is a staggering figure that compels all digital marketing stakeholders to seek remedies.

4 Best Applications of Blockchain Advertising

Blockchain Ads enhances Digital Advertising. Together, they form a highly important combination for the future development of digital marketing. The introduction of this innovative blockchain technology brings such significant advantages to ads that it promises revolutionary scenarios for online advertising.

The evolution of Blockchain impacts every single aspect of the exchange between companies, advertisers, publishers, and end consumers. It simplifies the procedures of the advertising supply chain and overcomes many of the problems I mentioned earlier.

But what are these advantages in concrete terms? How do they improve ads? And how is blockchain used in marketing and web advertising?

Transparency of Operations

The blockchain technology aims to ensure what is known as media transparency, which refers to transparency in advertising operations, with the clear purpose of preventing fraud and creating a sense of certainty for users. Being a decentralized database, every operation in Blockchain Advertising is recorded on distributed ledgers located on nodes that can only be accessed by the involved parties.

Blockchain Advertising leverages two tools introduced by the new distributed technology: encrypted keys and smart contracts.

Encrypted keys ensure encryption (protection) and immediate traceability (unambiguity) of each step in the advertising process.

The Smart Contract Advertising, on the other hand, regulates the purchase, sale, and distribution of advertising spaces according to criteria established by the parties and translated into computer language, which is activated only when the specified conditions are met.

Transaction and Data Security

The encryption introduced by blockchain technology is the tool through which security can be improved both in transactions and data storage. As mentioned earlier, numerous scandals and the staggering number of Ad Fraud cases have increased the level of audience mistrust, with more users being wary of granting consent due to concerns about the violation of personal information.

In this regard, the blockchain allows consumers to input private data into the network and ensure that it reaches only the company they wish to communicate with. Without intermediaries and without storing the data in a single server that cannot be accessed once the information is shared.

In addition to ensuring transparent processes based on clear and respected rules, Blockchain Advertising addresses the protection of user data registered and stored in individual nodes of the chain.

The trust between brands and customers is a crucial value in the world of online advertising, and it is on this aspect, specifically on building and strengthening the trust relationship between companies and customers (both existing and potential), that it focuses.

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Accuracy of statistics

The accuracy of statistics can be seen as an improvement brought about by Blockchain Advertising, which is a result of the two aspects we discussed earlier: security and transparency.

When looking at Analytics data and checking the number of views and clicks, there is no guarantee that behind those figures there are always physical users who have performed those actions. They could also be bots that manipulate the results of advertising campaigns and provide an inaccurate picture of the effectiveness of investments, resulting in loss of money and incorrect interventions on ads and web pages.

The increase in data protection threshold and transparency in the advertising supply chain together ensure that analytical statistics are accurate and more representative of reality. This allows the user to feel more secure and, as a result, more inclined to provide information and engage in Digital Advertising processes.

Audience Targeting

Another advantage of Blockchain Advertising, stemming from all the benefits I have already shown you, is better audience targeting. The renewed trust between companies and consumers, guaranteed by blockchain technology, allows for the introduction of additional sharing tools between companies and customers.
User engagement, literally the involvement of the user, is a set of solutions that allow the user to be rewarded for accessing advertising content, providing certain statistical information to companies in return. This way, companies can avoid the specter of fraud and manipulated data.

Thanks to the new cryptographic advertising platform that protects user information and enables a more transparent exchange between individuals and companies, it will be much easier to create targeted advertising content without wasting financial resources. This can be achieved by relying on reliable data collections that respect consumer privacy.
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Conclusions on Blockchain Advertising

At the end of this journey into the new frontier of Blockchain Advertising and the many advantages it brings to the ads industry, I hope to have provided you with interesting insights and valuable clarifications on the subject.

Everything, as you may have guessed, is still in development, and only a few companies have fully embraced the evolution of blockchain technology applied to Advertising.

But one thing is certain, and I can confirm it to you: it’s a new field where there is and will be a lot to do, both as users and as web marketing professionals. In fact, numerous professional roles related to Blockchain and its platforms are emerging.

Therefore, if I managed to pique your interest and you wish to delve deeper into the subject and explore the professional opportunities it offers, I invite you to discover the educational offerings of Blockchain School, the first Specialized High School for Blockchain in Italy.