Programmatic advertising is undoubtedly a trend of advertising operation mode, but it still faces a lot of uncertainty in the future. There are two core problems: one is the advertising black box, that is, not transparent, the result is traffic cheating, traffic fraud; Second, infringement of user privacy. Blockchain technology could be the answer to programmatic advertising.
Although the application of blockchain is still in the early stage of exploration, we can still welcome its bright future. Authenticity, transparency and security are the key to realize efficient programmatic advertising. The characteristics of blockchain technology, such as decentralization, open autonomy, non-tampering and anonymity, are expected to solve the above-mentioned problems of programmatic advertising.
Blockchain as a distributed database, there is no centralized hardware or management organization; All its nodes have equal rights and obligations. The distributed and decentralized nature of blockchain can identify and trace the history of cheating on a website or application. This function makes the tampering behavior cannot be recognized by the whole network, so as to effectively avoid the cheating behavior of advertising and ensure the authenticity of traffic and data. At the same time, it also makes the credit problems caused by the fraud of the central node strangled in the cradle.
The most attractive feature of blockchain is the degree of transparency it offers. Because the whole trading system is open, the system information is also highly transparent. In addition to the private information of the parties to the transaction being encrypted, the blockchain's data is open to all; Anyone can query blockchain data and open related applications through a public interface. Information transparency can not only solve traffic fraud, but also reduce the complexity of third-party data monitoring and simplify the delivery process.
Blockchain also helps to strengthen and enhance the advantages of programmatic advertising precision positioning and precision marketing. Due to the cryptic and immutable nature of blockchain, on each chain, users have their own ownership files that are precisely described. Based on the ownership file, advertisers can directly build user profiles, reducing trial and error costs. Through the blockchain smart trading platform, advertisers can also get higher returns by targeting the users who are most willing to spend.
The benefits of blockchain are obvious, but there are still some problems when applied to programmatic advertising.
First, technical issues. Blockchain is about to enter the 3.0 stage. Technological development in the field of programmatic advertising is still in the basic stage and needs to be upgraded iteratively. Blockchain guarantees transparency, but transparency also means no privacy. In the blockchain public chain, every participant has access to a complete backup of data, and all transaction data will be made public. It is easy for users or competitors to know the assets, data and even trade secrets of a business organization.
Second, security. One feature of blockchain is that data cannot be tampered with, but only if the private key is secure. Once the private key is lost, the account is deactivated. At least for now, people believe in the "absolute security" of blockchain. Many experts are positive about its encryption method, believing that the 256-bit hash algorithm used by blockchain cannot be reverse-cracked according to existing technology. But I think it's probably only a matter of time before the encryption is breached.
Third, programmatic advertising lacks industry standards and regulation, which will also affect the application of blockchain. The decentralized and autonomous nature of blockchain has diluted the concept of state regulation. But all innovations must meet national regulatory requirements. Current advertising industry regulation of the new technology, and regulatory delays, threaten to destroy blockchain.
Fourth, the lack of mass participation is the bottleneck of the application of blockchain in programmatic advertising. The concept of blockchain was first proposed in 2008, and many people thought it could do anything. Up to the beginning of 3.0, the actual development is slow. The drawbacks of programmatic advertising have been with us since its appearance. Why did we only bring blockchain into our orbit in recent years? In addition to the lack of technology and talent, the most important thing is the lack of mass participation.
The theoretical community has laid out the red carpet for the fusion of programmatic advertising and blockchain, but the environment for the theory to become a reality is still immature.
First, blockchain is still new to the public. In the future, we should not only do well in technology, but also do well in community, and finally complete the whole ecology.
Second, the autonomy of users brought by blockchain restricts the free flow of traffic to a certain extent. However, the so-called decentralization of blockchain, in the construction of the platform, it is still possible for enterprises to centralize the possession of blockchain technology resources.
Third, blockchain data cannot be tampered with, but information source data can still be faked.
In short, from the current practice and theory, blockchain is indeed conducive to the development of disintermediated programmatic purchase mode, it describes an open, transparent and efficient operation blueprint for programmatic advertising. But it remains to be seen whether it will achieve the desired results.