Everytime someone mentions Blockchain or smart contracts, the thoughts that cross our mind come attached with words like cryptocurrency, digital ledger, disruption, and decentralized, amongst others. And the industries that most of us could imagine getting affected by the two disruptive technologies are the orthodox ones – real estate, hospitality, finance, etc.
But while we were assuming that smart contracts and blockchain would have no possible interference or role in the more modern day industries like marketing and retail, the technologies created the groundwork for impacting them in the time staring right at us from not too far. And there is not even a single party – marketer, advertisers, viewers, and buyers who would remain unaffected by them.
The time to come is all set to be more transparent and decentralized for digital marketers.
In this article, we will look into the different ways smart contract and blockchain, the two most disruptive technologies of the present time, could and probably would impact one of our most innovative domains, digital marketing, and advertising.
Let’s begin.
Ways Smart Contract and Blockchain Would Impact Digital Marketing
- Improved Influencer Accountability
When you contact an influencer to promote your brand on Instagram or write an article on your product on their blog, they decide the associated cost and the time they would take in finishing the job. There is no legislative party to look over it if they did the job well or even at all.
With the help of smart contracts, you can lay down the exact obligation that everyone involved need to follow before the payment would be processed. For example, suppose you asked your influencer to make three tweets, and they made just one, your smart contract won’t release any payment to them.
- Elimination of Middlemen
Ad networks like Google collect user data and sell it to other advertisers for a sum of money. They make use of cookies to track user data from their internet activity. Now, with the help of blockchain, publishers can collect their own data without involving any of the middlemen.
According to a Forrester analyst, if a publisher removes the middlemen, their CPM would increase from $1 to $5.
While businesses will be able to save a hefty amount that they otherwise pay to the middlemen, users would be able to keep a check on which information related to their internet activity gets floated on the internet.
- Better Targeting of Audience
Earlier, as marketers, we used to rely on more than one sources to get information on users’ buying habits. But now with blockchain, advertisers will get the freedom of creating buyers’ demographics by getting the necessary information straight from the buyer themselves.
The technology will gather all the information that the users wish to share about their buying pattern and get them to the advertisers.
- Trustworthy Ad Buys
The online problem with online advertising is the lack of knowledge related to the fact that it is absolutely difficult to know whether the people who clicked on the ads were genuine buyers or paid clickers. However, since blockchain is transparent, advertisers can easily make out if the clicks that they are getting, even coming from the population they are targeting or not.
This way, the ad buys would prove itself to be of value to money.
- Efficient Affiliate Marketing
Over time, affiliate marketing has become a very important part of the digital marketing process. Whether you are trying to sell a product or are looking to increase the number of visitors on your website, affiliate marketing always comes in handy.
But, there have made incidents where the affiliate marketers pooled in their family members or friends just to perform an action for some brand, without having any intention to become long-term customers. However, with Blockchain it has become impossible to pull any sort of fraud in the system. The technology help brands track down where the users came in from and how genuine they are.
- Ad Verification and Auditing
Many times, it so happens that you see a banner advertisement on the Facebook listing price of the product as N, but when you visit the site, the number is shown as X. The identification and rectification of issues such as these are the tasks done by the Ad verifiers, whom the networks pay heavily to. However, blockchain helps ensure that the actual information is exactly same as what shown in an advertisement.
It reduces the heavy cost that is associated with the ad auditing process.
- Easier Management of Advertisement Inventory
Ad inventory, as we all know is the space that advertisers have for ad selling. It can be calculated on the monthly basis. The information that goes into the whole ad inventory management cycle – the number of space, length of the advertisement, maintaining records of which day is assigned to which brand, the amount that has to be charged space placement wise, etc. – are way too much to handle manually. By using smart contracts and blockchain, brands can not just manage the inventory better but also get payments from advertisers on time.
- Greater Transparency
In the present time, the biggest blind spots and fraud cases related to digital marketing emerge because of the lack of transparency. As brand spending money on advertisement, there is no way to track the actual number of clicks and impressions other than to rely on Google or other such ad networks, as companies promoting their products on some online medium, there are always cases of unfair pricing and wrong ad placement compared to what was promised.
But, with a smart contract in place and the decentralization power of blockchain, the benefits of both advertisers and the users remain fulfilled.
While it will take much more time before the internet opens itself to the inclusion of blockchain and smart contract in its digital marketing setup, the path has definitely been paved for greater transparency and much value and cost efficiency.
The time to come in online marketing belongs to the two disruptive technologies, it all boils down to how prepared you are.
Author Bio:- Being in the writing business for several years now, Tripti Rai is presently focussing on unfolding the elements that make mobile devices interesting. Currently associated with Appinventiv as a Content Manager, she is keeping herself well read with how lives are/ about to change in the wake of world entering the Mobile Era and how to prepare the world for the race. When not writing, you can find her slurping chocolate shake in a stray dog’s company.
