Blockchain can fundamentally transform the digital marketing space in this regard—it provides the means for recording reconciled transactions on a decentralized ledger, thereby eliminating data duplication. This then serves as immutable proof of a transaction or event having taken place meaning that campaign success cannot be falsified after the fact. By employing smart contracts in the process of tracking and reconciling published ad campaigns, stakeholders can ensure that only impressions that have been verified according to parameters encoded in the contract are being paid for. Payments can also then be automatically distributed to relevant parties based on factors such as when and where an ad was shown, who saw this ad, and whether the viewer interacted with it.

The cost-efficiencies are clear here, but the prized benefit perhaps is the ability for blockchain to introduce the sorely needed end-to-end transparency to programmatic campaigns. This ensures that stakeholders are only paying for ads that have been served on platforms that are viewable, brand-safe, and fraud-free. Simultaneously, stakeholders have better insights on which to act, enabling them to optimize their campaigns in real time and ensuring that their marketing budgets are well-spent.

Fast-food chain KFC recently announced it is adopting blockchain for digital advertising and media buying in the Middle East. Colonel Sanders aims to improve advertising data transparency and reduce the risk of fraud and will be working with Omnicom marketing agency Hearts & Science MENA to roll out the solution.

A common problem is the low conversion rate. But a significant issue is that only a small percent (52%) of advertising clicks can be verified. That’s partly because there are so many intermediaries between the advertiser and the publisher. This lack of clarity about whether a particular campaign is working results in a waste of money. Meanwhile the challenges of tracking advertisements increase the risk of fraud. 

Leveraging blockchain, KFC aims to access real-time data from its ad campaigns. This improved transparency would enable the firm to increase brand visibility and monitor ad distribution. On the other hand, a shared database of advertising placement and delivery would reduce the risk of fraud in the digital ad supply chain. 

"Ad frauds have been on a high over the last few years. A 2019 report by Cheq, a cybersecurity firm, claims that ad fraud damages will touch $26 billion in 2020, $29 billion by 2021 and $32 billion the year after that.

Increased transparency in programmatic advertising is the only way to tackle these frauds. This is where blockchain and Ads.txt (an Interactive Advertising Bureau initiative - Authorized Digital Sellers), help. BlAdTech (Blockchain+AdTech) is based on the principle of decentralization. Blockchain in programmatic adtech has been able to tackle ad fraud by helping cut down the number of unnecessary middlemen, removing domain spoofing, verifying the legitimacy of publishers and allowing transactions using cryptocurrencies.

The ad reselling vendors or unnecessary middlemen are a big menace to the advertising industry. As a solution to this, preventing unauthorized reselling of ad inventory, publishers can now host ads.txt approved files on their servers, listing all the companies allowed to sell the publisher’s inventory. That said, these two pillars of cyber-hygiene in programmatic advertising are here to stay!"

As programmatic advertising reaches adulthood and the advertising process becomes ever more automated, it’s not possible to simply sit back and blindly trust the measurement and attribution data. Instead, incorporating emerging tech solutions from AI to blockchain will be paramount in waging the war against bot fraud.

 A decentralized ledger like blockchain can impact digital signage in many ways. First of all, it can help confirm impressions for digital signage advertisements. This kind of technology is already at work with the company VODXS.

On the customer level, DOOH advertisers can also incentivize customers to engage with campaigns through tokenization. For example, a campaign could encourage customers to take a picture of an advertisement and share it on their social media profiles in exchange for cryptocurrency, which can be delivered to an app.

• Blockchain Adoption Exempts Middlemen Involvement: It will end the role-play of the middlemen, Google, along with an increase in the profit margin and decrease in variable costs.
• Blockchain Ensures Trust And Transparency: Blockchain technology fosters transparency like no other medium as it gives them a sneak-peek into the production as well as supply chain pedagogy followed by the producer. 
• Blockchain Renders Public Accountability: The use of smart contracts that are easily accessible to one and all makes it work as a platform that is accountable to the public for its actions.
• Owners Get Paid By The Advertisers
• Blockchain Supports Brand Imaging

"In the pilot that EXChain completed for Unilever/ADK in Japan, we tested the hypothesis of blockchain can be applied in providing advertising transparency, i.e. gaining full visibility of campaign spending elements and participating stakeholders. The pilot found out that a simple two-layer supply chain tested in the pilot took out a compound intermediary fee of 36%, and the total projected campaign spending efficiency is approximately 51% only, i.e. 49% of every dollar spent went to the tech and supply vendors. "

When obstacles associated with a regulatory framework are left in the past, CMOs face a new kind of challenge -- learning how to combine profitability and privacy. So far, it’s largely been a one-way street. Websites collect user data and sell it to advertisers, who then use it for the purposes of advertising personalization.

Entrepreneurs, startups, publishers and advertisers should direct their efforts toward rewarding user attention in exchange for their data usage, which is especially important in regard to the General Data Protection Regulation.

A year-long pilot that uses blockchain to improve online advertising efficiency has yielded promising initial results, according to IBM CMO Michelle Peluso.

The project has already reduced pennies on the dollar of waste in the area of ad reconciliation and brought greater transparency to the complex gauntlet of intermediaries brand advertisers have to deal with, Peluso told VentureBeat in an interview this week. And there’s more to come, she said.

Reconciliation refers to the process advertisers use to ensure contracted agreements are actually delivered. Peluso estimated the average savings at 2 to 3 percentage points, though the company is still collecting results from its multiple brand partners.

Blockchain can help solve one of the advertising industry's biggest challenges: opaque advertising practices.  Publishers, advertisers, and ad tech vendors are exploring blockchain as a tool to boost transparency around ad practices, with the end goal of reducing fraud. Ad fraud is expected to cost the industry $44 billion by 2022, up from $19 billion this year, according to Juniper Research estimates. Through its function as a public database, blockchain can store information about a digital advertisement, like who has created it, while sharing it with everyone else on the network in a verifiable and immutable way. For digital advertising, that means ad impressions can be tracked along the supply chain, and advertisers can record where an ad is delivered. 

The greatest problem of the advertising market is that buy-side receives a very limited amount of information about purchased impressions. Sure, advertisers can track generally available metrics, such as clicks, views, performed actions. Nevertheless, this is only the tip of the iceberg, the real effectiveness of these depend on the quality of traffic, inspection of which is borderline impossible. Likewise, companies see only the total cost of services and stay largely unaware of potential hidden fees and margins.

Every year, the number of brands that no longer want to cope with this situation increase. Based on an immutable decentralized ledger, blockchain ad platforms become a new point of trust which enables complete audit for demand and supply partners on an event-level basis. Blockchain controls the integrity and chronology of transaction data placed in separate repositories. This is extremely important for combating ad fraud and protecting user data.

Gartner said blockchain for advertising holds tremendous promise, but must first overcome significant challenges with scalability, performance and adoption. Dozens of companies have used experimental blockchain platforms for advertising, but none have been able to demonstrate ongoing viability.