2020 is an exciting year with continued growing investment in the programmatic advertising space. Millions of apps, sites and endless formats from which to choose from. The fragmentation of media and digital touchpoints have arguably made marketers’ jobs increasingly harder. At Advant Technology we help brands and agencies navigate the complex world of programmatic through expert knowledge of ad tech platforms.
The trends we’re exploring this year include:
Artificial Intelligence
Undoubtedly one of the hottest topics in programmatic advertising right now. We’ve seen massive uplifts of up to 40% in performance campaigns optimising towards metrics including cost per acquisition, cost per view and effective cost per click. You can explore our dedicated post here.
AI has been helping analyse the thousands of data points available to improve optimisation beyond what a human can achieve.
5G
This fascinating technology will enable a more connected world. Speeds that can surpass 100giagabits per second is 100 times faster than 4G technology. This will enable advertisers to deliver a richer advertising experience. High-speed 5g means less buffering time for rich media and heavy high-quality video files thereby improving the user experience and potentially encouraging more advertising revenue, clearly then a huge opportunity.
Digital Audio Ads
The world’s first radio station was KDKA launched in Pittsburgh in 1920. Radio’s come a long way since then playing a huge role in how we receive our news, listen to music and more, fast forward 100 years and the US will be spending more time listening to digital audio than radio according to emarketer.
Contextual Advertising
In a post-GDPR and CCPA apocalypse, world audience data activation has many challenges. Contextual advertising technology does not use cookies or customer data and is, therefore, having a resurgence. Contextual ads use keyword and semantic technology to understand the context of the page and thus allow advertisers to deliver ads that are more relevant.
Ben Myers
Ben Myers, CEO of Advant Technology.
Programmatic advertising expert and all round digital strategist.
Globe trotter, food fanatic, cocktail maker, car crazy, that's Ben.
London born n bread, it was here where he gritted his teeth in the advertising world starting at Videojug.com and then moving onto Teads where he drove sales, publisher growth and ad operations.
A regular speaker at trade events around the globe.
Passionate about helping brands achieve their goals through digital advertising.
Advant Technology — LinkedIn Ads for Enterprise Technology
Which markets change your campaign, and how
A working companion to the multi-market playbook.
Explore what actually differs between the UK, US, DACH
and APAC — or answer four questions to see whether your
account list needs one campaign structure or several.
United Kingdom
UK
Message-based formats
Available
Outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland exclusion since Brexit,
so Conversation Ads (successor to Message Ads) are not
caught by the EU restriction that applies to Germany.
Governing regime
UK GDPR.
Standard UK GDPR employee-data handling applies;
no equivalent to Germany's works-council
co-determination layer.
Decision culture
Closer to US pace.
Single decision-maker with committee sign-off is common;
buying-group validation is typically faster than DACH.
Localization
English-native.
No localisation tax on creative or landing pages
for UK-only targeting.
United States
US
Message-based formats
Available
Conversation Ads run without the
EU/EEA/Switzerland restriction.
Governing regime
CCPA / CPRA.
California's B2B and employee-data exemptions expired
1 Jan 2023 (AB 25 / AB 1355 / AB 1281 not renewed).
Business-contact data in ABM lists touching California
residents is now in scope.
Decision culture
Fast-moving, champion-led.
Often an internal champion drives the process with
executive sign-off, rather than slower group consensus.
Localization
English-native.
Tone and proof points differ from UK
(ROI framing, case-study style) but no language barrier.
Germany-led DACH
DACH
Message-based formats
Unavailable in EU/EEA/CH
Following a Nov 2021 CJEU ruling that native inbox
advertising needs direct-marketing consent under the
ePrivacy framework, LinkedIn stopped EU-targeted
Message/Conversation Ads (new campaigns blocked
15 Dec 2021, existing ones suspended 10 Jan 2022).
Governing regime
GDPR + BDSG.
Germany's Federal Data Protection Act adds works-council
(Betriebsrat) co-determination rights over some
employee-data processing. A works agreement cannot itself
legitimate otherwise-inadmissible processing
(German court ruling reported Jan 2025).
Decision culture
Consensus-driven.
Formal sign-off and longer internal validation typically
precede commercial conversations — plan reporting
windows accordingly.
Localization
German materially outperforms English.
True below enterprise-only accounts; enterprise buying
groups are more English-tolerant, but mid-market is not.
Singapore-led APAC
APAC
Message-based formats
Confirm in Campaign Manager
Singapore sits outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland exclusion,
so formats are presumed available — but coverage isn't
centrally documented by geography, so verify before
planning.
Governing regime
PDPA (Singapore).
A distinct consent-and-purpose-limitation regime,
not equivalent to GDPR. Treat as its own compliance
track, not a GDPR analogue.
Decision culture
Not representative of wider APAC.
Singapore is English-language and Western-business-norm-adjacent;
this does not extend to Japan, Korea or Greater China
buying culture.
Localization
English viable — for Singapore only.
Do not treat English-only creative as a proxy for the
rest of APAC if the account list extends beyond
Singapore/Hong Kong hubs.
Decision-culture notes are directional, not universal —
treat as a planning prior, not a rule for every account.
Is the target account list evaluated by one centralised,
cross-border buying committee, or by in-market/regional
committees?
Does the plan rely on message-based formats
(Conversation Ads) in any EU/EEA/Switzerland market?
Does language localisation materially change conversion
quality in at least one target market (e.g. DACH below
enterprise, or APAC beyond Singapore/Hong Kong)?
Is your target-account list in every market comfortably
above LinkedIn's practical minimum audience size
(commonly cited around 300)?
Recommendation
Answer the questions above
Select one answer for each question to see
the recommendation.
Recommendation
A unified structure fits your answers
Your account list is centrally decided, doesn't depend
on a restricted message format, and localisation isn't
a material factor — the exception case for a single,
unified campaign structure.
None of the market-splitting triggers apply —
re-check this if your account list or market mix changes.
Recommendation
Split by market: separate campaign groups,
budgets and thresholds
At least one structural factor makes a shared
template unreliable across your markets.
Regional buying committees mean each market is a
separate decision unit — a shared campaign group
would blend distinct audiences.
A message-format plan cannot run as one structure
if it includes an EU/EEA/Switzerland market —
Conversation Ads aren't available there, so at
minimum that market needs a different format mix.
Where localisation changes conversion quality,
a shared budget and qualification threshold will
misread the localised market's real performance.
At least one market may sit below the practical
minimum audience size — consider folding that
market into a regional structure rather than giving
it a standalone campaign group.
Check each market's target-account list against
LinkedIn's minimum audience guidance before finalising
how many standalone campaign groups to build.
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