Blockchain Digital Marketing in 2023? What Will Happen?

There was so much buzz surrounding blockchain technology during the pandemic, but will there be any effects beyond cryptocurrency and the ever-changing tech industries? 

The tech itself has existed for years, but in recent years especially, the blockchain buzz has moved beyond the realm of finance and crypto traders.

Blockchain champions are starting to push other practical applications for the tech, even within the digital marketing industry. 

Experts seem to believe that the transparent nature of blockchain technologies can reduce ad fraud and protect privacy, especially as more people begin to speak out against alleged data breaches, censorship, and consumer data tampering by tech giants like Google and others.

But first… what is blockchain?

Simply put, a blockchain is a database. It records information and displays it on a ledger for all to see. For now, the main data being stored on a blockchain is cryptocurrency transactions but the same formula can be applied to essentially any kind of data. 

Blockchain experts tend to promote its two main strengths that sets it apart from other modes of storing data.

Transparency

Different from a standard database or ledger, many independent parties hold copies of the blockchain and all its information. They will cross-check the information with each other to ensure accurate data. 

It is decentralized – any average person can check more than one database to verify a record or transaction, and all information is stored on a public ledger.

Permanence

Whatever information on it cannot be changed after it has been entered.

A new data item or transaction must be entered into the ledger if a mistake is made, to correct the previous one. 

Both items of data exist and are visible on all copies of the ledger.

What Does Blockchain Marketing Mean?

Now, here’s where digital marketing comes in.

“Digital marketing blockchain” sounds a bit strange, but the term was coined a few years ago – it refers to the use of blockchain technology in digital marketing campaigns.

Even though it is not as popular (yet), it is speculated that blockchain may affect digital marketing significantly in the future. 

Why? Because there is a growing percentage of the population who prefer privacy from the prying eyes of big tech and governments.

This can be seen with the growing popularity of fully private search browsers like Brave, which was first developed in 2016 and has so far had 50 million downloads.

Blockchain’s secure, private, and decentralized nature could create more secure relationships between brands and their customers, allowing them to design more targeted advertisements without needing to share so much data with so many middlemen.

Some of the uses of blockchain in digital marketing:

Keyword tracking

Figuring out why some keywords rank is difficult enough. Device and location affect search results too, making keyword tracking even more tedious for marketers. 

If blockchain were integrated into search, data about keyword rankings can be stored more transparently. Marketers would be able to optimize their campaigns for more accurate leads during the digital marketing process

With blockchain, individual page rankings could be stored; meanwhile, location and device usage data could be shown along with the ranking position.

Marketers could use all this information to understand what actions they need to take to do better in areas and on devices where they’re not doing well. 

However, since Google monopolizes much of the search engine market, raking in 83% of global desktop web traffic, whether they would allow a decentralized database is up for debate. 

A potential solution for ad fraud in online advertising

In digital advertising, we know that, at times, there can be click fraud in advertising. Customer data and ad metrics can also be manipulated.

Blockchain can be applied to determine if a user actually saw an ad, instead of depending on speculated views or impression figures. The information can be stored and cross-checked by multiple parties.

Then, digital advertising agency can use this information and only pay for valid online ads that were viewed by a person.

This may be used to save on ad spending and reduce budget leakages. 

So far, it is still too early to see the use for blockchain technology in digital marketing. Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

Better transparency for consumers

Nothing attracts Gen-z and millennial customers more than transparency and social causes

Brands could use blockchain as a marketing tactic in itself to promote data or operations transparency, especially for businesses with a clear supply chain process. Meanwhile, marketers can potentially use these factors as a selling point in the future. 

For example, if a chocolate company utilizes blockchain, customers would be able to check the company’s blockchain to find out about their supply of cacao beans and how much farmers get paid. They could track the entire supply chain if the brand chooses to apply blockchain to its supply chain management.

Blockchain’s immutability also guarantees trustworthy data for customers. 

Advertisers and publishers seem happy with the status quo

For the time being, the influence of blockchain on digital marketing may be hard to predict. 

There are also environmental concerns surrounding blockchain which may slow down its adoption across industries beyond finance and big tech.

Even though it seems unlikely, so did many other technological concepts in the past. Who knows? As people learn more about blockchain, we may find that there could be more use for the technology than we once thought. 

Primal is a digital marketing agency based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We provide end to end digital marketing services such as SEO services,  SEM services, and others. Contact us today.