Only a few technologies manage to have huge an impact in their respective industries. Blockchain, however, is a special case. The technology is a turning point that is impacting a wide range of industries, from finance to health and energy and now in marketing. And more coming.
Although the technology has not yet penetrated the marketing industry as it ought to be, it is clear. The marketing future is blockchain. Some search marketing professionals may choose to ignore the technology, but blockchain’s disruptive nature will triumph at the end of the day. This is inevitable.
Today, we explore blockchain in the search marketing sector. Why technology is needed and the ways it will be useful in the future of search marketing.
Making Trustworthy Ads
It’s hard to meet someone who loves advertisements. And there are pretty good reasons for that. Let’s start with the untrustworthiness. Consumers generally feel like they are being surveilled 24/7. Only a handful of consumers trust digital ads appearing on their screens, as interesting as they can be. And blockchain promises to change that. How?
By securing the ad supply chain and making the process trustworthy. Blockchain has the potential to connect ad vendors, publishers, and buyers. The transparency nature of the distributed ledger technology makes everything accessible to all parties, thus more secure marketing. That brings us to the next point.
Delivering Ad Transparency
To promote transparency and win skeptical consumers, blockchain can be beneficial. And that’s why giant companies like Unilever and IBM are teaming up on blockchain projects that will see them disclose their business footprint, open up ways to collect and utilize consumer data. The success of these endeavors will hopefully convince others to enlist for the better good of the advertising industry.
Changing Ad Payments
The facilitation of ad payment is another area that is set for an overhaul once blockchain technology is implemented. There is no doubt the ad market is getting bigger, and as space widens, more companies like Amino payments join the bandwagon. Blockchain powered ad buys will increase as a result. Along with the increase, blockchain powered solutions like smart contracts are going to take over ad business.
At the moment, only a fraction of the blockchain community is employing smart contracts. As for the search marketing sector, small contracts will find great use, and people will be thankful for blockchain.
Emerging New Ecosystems
Another inevitable fate as a result of blockchain is new ad ecosystems. Nascent companies like Adshares are working hard in the creation of blockchain based ad ecosystems. As the move towards blockchain friendly payments gets closer and closer, the more companies like Adshare increase and become mainstream.
New Blockchain Browsers
The introduction of blockchain browsers like Brave will fundamentally change the experience of the average consumer in huge proportions. The promise of privacy respecting experience comes at a time when we are have learned the hard way on the importance of internet privacy.
We might be heading in a strange marketing world but at least we are guaranteed of a few aspects that are important to us; privacy, trustworthiness, and transparency. For those ignorant of this growing space will have to watch on the sidelines, but if you want to be competitive in marketing in the future, you know what to do.