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The Intelligent Future of Search – key takeaways from #dmexco2016

Earlier today, Rik van der Kooi took to the stage at dmexco with Townsend Feehan, CEO of the IAB Europe.  Together, as part of the Bing presence at the event, they discussed the search advertising industry in front of an audience of European digital marketing leaders. 



Topics ranged from why search and search advertising is so critical for the digital economy today to what search intelligence will contribute to its future and how marketers and businesses can prepare.
The key points of note were:
 
The online world would be a scary place if it weren’t for search
  • Search and search advertising make a consumer’s online experience more relevant and personal by deciphering the signals of intent and delivering the information or service to meet a specific need better than any other digital medium.
A search $ is never wasted.
  • For marketers, search is the primary source of understanding consumer intent. Search advertising is also the number one area of digital advertising investment (eMarketer predict paid search will represent 52% of digital adspend in 2016) because not only does the intelligence inform business decisions and strategy that lead to providing the service consumers want in the right place at the right moment, but search also provides higher levels of attribution and increases the amplification engagement opportunities over time.
Search has moved intelligent thinking far outside the box
  • Search will continue to permeate more devices and services than ever before, becoming smarter and more important as a source of consumer understanding, analytics and real-time engagement.
People want to be able to converse with technology in a human way
  • People expect technology to be a natural part of their lives, for it to be constantly accessible and helpful but not intrusive.  Voice search usage is expected to accelerate within the next few years and more than 3 billion people use chat technology every day. Microsoft, with technologies such as Bing, Cortana and Skype, is leading the evolution towards Conversations as a Platform, where people can interact with services and devices with a common human language in real-time.  The opportunities for relevant and personal connections between brands and consumers in this environment will change the game of digital engagement.
Marketers in search should focus on creating awesome experiences for consumers
  • Marketers need to start thinking about the different environments that will be speech enabled for their audiences – what actions do they take when, and how should they start preparing for a world where consumers will interact with many services through voice.  This will involve an architectural framework and integration of CRM and other systems into the experience.