The ad tech industry has experienced its fair share of changes over the past few years, including an increased focus on privacy and a subsequent shift towards server-side conversion tracking. As a result, the ad tech market is beginning to overlap with cloud technology, leading to inevitable convergence between the two. In this blog, we explore what this convergence entails and what it could mean for the future of the industry.
Public Cloud and Ad Tech: The New Reality
Until recently, the public cloud and the tech market existed in relatively independent existences. However, ecosystem-wide changes in the ad tech industry have brought about a convergence between the two. Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) on Safari and Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency framework are just two examples of how privacy-related technological advancements have impacted the industry.
As serverside conversions become more prevalent, someone needs to manage, connect, and run them. But this is something that advertisers are not going to do themselves. Instead, the industry is turning towards cloud technology to provide the necessary infrastructure for server-side conversions.
However, what remains unclear is how much ad tech will get eaten up by cloud platforms. With AWS offering cloud solutions specifically for advertising and marketing, the number of queries per second is no longer sufficient for ad tech companies to distinguish themselves. Instead, they will need to find new ways to differentiate themselves and integrate further into the bigger infrastructure platforms that are being developed on AWS, GCP, and Azure.
Brands’ Message to Ad Tech
Brands have a message for ad tech point solutions, and it is this: you can no longer exist in your own self-serving silo. Instead, you must integrate into the big infrastructure picture that we are building on cloud platforms. As a result, ad tech companies will have to look beyond increasing their queries per second and focus on finding new ways to differentiate themselves.
For instance, image recognition is no longer a specialized service but something that cloud platforms like AWS can quickly offer as a feature. This is just one example of how cloud platforms could begin to eat into the services that ad tech companies typically offer. With this in mind, ad tech companies must find ways to remain relevant in the ever-changing industry landscape.
The Impact on the Future of Ad Tech
The convergence of ad tech and cloud technology is an inevitable trend that’s set to have a massive impact on the industry. Ad tech firms must find ways to differentiate themselves from cloud platforms and offer better solutions to brands looking to integrate their services into the bigger infrastructure picture.
The integration of ad tech into the cloud platforms is set to offer brands a seamless experience, with everything from server-side conversions to image recognition coming together in one place. Ad tech companies that have already started integrating into public cloud platforms are offering a glimpse of the future for the industry, paving the way for further integration and change.
Conclusion
The ad tech industry is experiencing a period of flux as cloud platforms and ad tech converge. With server-side conversions more prevalent than ever before, brands are looking to public cloud platforms to provide the necessary infrastructure. But as cloud platforms begin to offer more ad tech-related features, the industry is set to change further. Ad tech companies must find new ways to differentiate themselves to remain relevant and integrate into the bigger infrastructure picture being built on platforms like AWS, GCP, and Azure. The future of ad tech is set to be an exciting one, with the convergence trend acting as a catalyst for change.
