The advertising industry is in the midst of the most transformative period of growth and change since the introduction of smartphones in 2007 dovetailed with the widespread growth of social media.
Those technologies allowed advertisers to target ad buys in unprecedented ways. Consumers have found the effect to be useful and convenient, but also jarring and disruptive to their digital experiences. More recently, privacy concerns have caused Apple and Google to announce they plan to change the iOS and Android operating platforms to severely limit the ways advertisers can target and reach consumers.
What should advertisers do now? Is this the end of a golden era, or the beginning of something even better?
When Apple first proposed changes to the Identification for Advertisers (IDFA), which allows advertisers to track consumer activity across apps, Facebook and Instagram owner Meta faced plummeting share prices based on an anticipated loss of $10 billion in advertising revenue this year alone. Advertisers that have benefited from the returns highly targeted advertising can bring don’t want to return to a world where most of their ad spend reaches generalized audiences and only a small percentage of impressions result in a sale.
This is why it’s time to focus on marketing programs that directly lead to measurable sales. Performance-based models like the Ibotta Performance Network (IPN) make it possible for advertisers to drive consumers through the entire funnel – awareness, interest, evaluation and consideration as well as sale – while only paying for results. IPN is the first digital network that coordinates the delivery of cash back offers across multiple large third-party sites, including social media networks and recipe hubs, to meet consumers where they are.
IPN connects directly with people who are fully committed to buying a particular product, locking them into a brand decision with a cash back reward incentive. The IPN reaches consumers several ways:
- Membership-driven in-app or on browser-based platforms like Ibotta and Ibotta.com
- Retailers and their networks, enabling closed-loop loyalty programs
- A wide range of publishers, including retailers, that continues to expand
The IPN delivers what consumers want: the best value and a delightful, seamless, and intuitive experience. It also delivers what advertisers and retailers want:
- Guaranteed ROI – pay-per-sale versus impressions or clicks
- Turnkey experience – making it easy to place promotions across the entire network
- Consumer loyalty – immediate rewards for shopping with partnering retailers
- Coordinated delivery and digital stacking prevention across the network
Ibotta makes the whole process seamless for advertisers by handling setup, cashout, payments, reporting and analytics, and fraud prevention.
Most importantly, our program deepens the engagement consumers have with the retailers and brands they love, which is especially important with inflation on the rise.
