Connected TV advertising is all the rage as more and more dollars flow from linear TV to content streamed via smartphones, tablets, and other devices straight into viewers’ homes.

Programmatic advertising is a widely-used and fast-growing segment of digital marketing that uses automated tools and real-time bidding to purchase ad space online. Services like Google Marketing Platform, The Trade Desk, MediaMath, and more all allow advertisers to target and segment users based on specific demographics and behavior, and display ads to them across a range of content inventories.

The time has come to prepare for the final end of third-party cookies and start executing your strategies. Pivoting towards contextual advertising means you will be prepared for the cookieless future to come.

Imagine after finishing a long day that you're sitting down to stream the latest episode of the top gritty true-crime thriller of the moment. As soon as the killer commits another grisly act of violence, a commercial cuts in showing that bright and bubbly ad for diapers from this morning’s client.

Retail media is exploding. In 2023, it’s become the second-fastest growing digital advertising channel, outpaced only by CTV. There’s simply more inventory, meaning brands and retail media alike have unprecedented opportunities. And the timing couldn’t be better; wise brands and advertisers are preparing for a cookieless future.

Where and when ads appear—and what content they appear next to—has long been a concern for digital marketers. But that concern is growing in urgency. New channels and increasingly complex digital platforms have made it tricky to keep track of all of the different contexts in which ads can appear, creating risks to brand suitability and reputations. Ad adjacency, therefore, has emerged as a serious consideration for advertisements in 2023.

This will prove to be a dynamic year for digital advertising, with the deprecation of third-party cookies looming, new privacy regulations on the table and legacy behavioral targeting tactics falling by the wayside. Advertisers need new strategies to reach and engage their target audiences cost-effectively and efficiently without failing to comply with user privacy guidelines or annoying consumers.

Cookies (especially third-party cookies) have long been the backbone of digital marketing efforts: behavioral targeting. However, the end of the cookie is near—and so, too, may be the end of behavioral targeting’s reign as digital advertising’s go-to for reaching target audiences.

With programmatic inventories shrinking, and costs rising, understanding how connected TV advertising works will help you maximize your return on investment from this growing medium.