Despite popular belief, the advertising industry is, in fact, not broken.
Need proof? Digital advertising revenue in the U.S. reached $15 billion in Q3 2015, making it the single highest quarter on record according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
And it's not just dollars being traded; advertisers are swapping outdated strategies for better opportunities to engage consumers and guide them through the brand and buying journey. What's more, they are leveraging the myriad channels and technologies available to support their initiatives - one of which is programmatic, and it's quickly becoming the norm in advertising.
In this month's feature of Website Magazine, readers will discover how programmatic is capturing the attention (and dollars) of today's enterprises and is increasingly being used for greater measurement and accountability in the industry. Programmatic is, of course, not the only advertising trend as of late. Advertisers and publishers are becoming increasingly aware of the potential of native ads, and many technology companies are positioning themselves to capitalize on the trend, some of which we explore starting on page 24 of this issue, among other advertising resources and ideas.
As the 100th issue of Website Magazine, the March 2016 edition pays homage to some of the fundamentals of what it takes to succeed online such as a reliable and fast infrastructure (check out six ways to speed up your site), a solid customer acquisition and retention strategy (discover three ways to keep customers longer) and a commitment to continuous analysis and optimization (find a simplified look at structured data). A lot has changed since the first issue of this publication, of course, but 100 issues later, those principles remain regardless of how or where they are implemented today.
Just one of the many evolutions of the Web is in the form of mobile's popularity and importance - a subject well-covered in this issue by our editors and industry contributors as well as on the 'Net on our Mobile World channel (wsm.co/mobilematters16).
As always, we encourage you to read through this issue packed with takeaways for all professionals across all verticals and then join us on the Web, where we publish information daily that matters to your online success.
Best Web Wishes,
Peter Prestipino
Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com
