Brand owners are coming out fighting to combat the threat of economic slowdown with nearly three quarters planning to increase their tech budgets this year, with data-driven marketing grabbing the lion’s share of spend.
So says a new survey conducted by customer data platform company Lytics, which reveals 58% of firms will invest in new software and tools to improve their data strategy, and 56% plan to update their data infrastructure.
The Lytics 2023 Digital Ad Spending Report, conducted in conjunction with Sapio Research, also found that 43% companies say they will invest in privacy and compliance initiatives in 2023, with nearly 30% seeking to limit their third-party cookie usage and 31% investing in first-party data collection and use.
Interestingly, fears over an increase in data legislation are minimal; only 8% of survey respondents cite GDPR as one the biggest external threats to their business.
In fact, it is the increasing number of channels, followed by the unpredictability of world events, the growing complexity of audience behaviour and staff recruitment/retention that are keeping marketers awake at night.
But, despite widespread predictions of marketing budget cuts, 85% of marketers also said they will increase their adspend in 2023, with 65% dedicating more money to search advertising.
Marketers also plan to double down on “owned channels”, with 58% saying they will spend more on email marketing and improving their websites in 2023.
But they are not planning to simply throw money at the problem; 88% of the marketers said they will work with their ad partners to negotiate ad pricing and terms in 2023.
Lytics president Jascha Kaykas-Wolff said: “Market leaders are making investments to better use their customer data in 2023 while deepening their media investments to the channels that are proven to deliver the greatest ROI.
“We expect to see performance-based tactics to reap the bulk of increases in early 2023, while other channels will see lower growth.”
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