As smart mobile tech puts the power back in the hands of the consumer, an old expression has evolved to become ‘context is king’.

So says ResponsiveAds co-founder and chief executive Matt Snyder in an innovative advertising solutions blog for INMA.

And he says the opportunity for local publishers to use contextual ads is enormous. He quotes a GumGum report that 61 per cent of US ad publishers use the medium, while 24 per cent of advertisers are looking to expand budgets in this area.

“The contextual ‘how, when, where, and what’ content we consume and communicate has become as important as the actual content being delivered,” he says. “Effectively, context is everything. Context is king.”

According to Global Industry Analysts, there have been strong gains in contextual advertising. Although 41 per cent is location-based, in-page ads are still showing growth of US$200 billion worldwide in 2022 with forecasts of US$335.1 billion by 2026.

Targeting consumers with personalisation techniques “will become the holy grail of relevancy and engagement”, with the core building block of context as the foundation of a data strategy for publishers, but must be based on observing privacy requirements for both regulated and consumer-driven strategies.

He says the path can be formed from the three pillars of data strategies and targeting, plus the key input and customisation by the consumer.

With the depreciation of the cookie ahead, almost two-thirds of app developers are looking for new ways to target users without an identifier for advertisers (IDFA), cookies, or data privacy issues, according to research from advertising tech company Bango.

Snyder says a key theme during the transition for local publishers will be their ability to understand and embrace context more than ever with the right platforms and systems put into place.

The status quo of context for advertising has been to match page content with the same themes as the advertisement. Google AdSense was one of the earliest forms of contextual engines. With the evolution of first party collection, ad servers now see opportunities with geotargeting and granular local location targeting (such as geofencing) and targeting based on device and platform, date and time, and even language.

“As location-based targeting takes off with the growth and acceleration of mobile, this strategy is very familiar for local publishers. And many have already clearly embraced a local content and advertising strategy.

“Programmatic back-fill of local ads continues to be better and cross-device matching for context has also become a mainstream enabler.”

Weather content is very important to a local media company’s content strategy, and could be used as a condition for dynamic ad creative.

“It is all in the messaging and how that content is presented,” he says. What makes the context to weather so interesting and important is the messaging and creation of the content itself.

One example is this coffee ad and the deliciousness of different types of preparation methods and designs for the context of introducing a coffee brand or even a local coffee shop campaign.

“Contextual advertising is the future for the cookie-less web,” he says. “It can be a great differentiator for local publishers as part of a clear next-generation ad strategy.

“Next-generation in-page content insertion and weather offer so many unique integrated possibilities for innovation and attention-grabbing creativity for your consumers that your partner brands may love as well.”