Connecting all publishers and advertisers effectively and efficiently is a huge problem the advertising world has been facing since the very beginning, and it is resurfacing once again. The issue is very much similar to that of 2004 and Web 2.0. Yet the day back in the early 2000s was saved by intermediaries, who created an altogether different market with lots of loopholes for frauds and wasteful fees. This led to lesser funds for publishers and advertisers. Now, Brave Ads, a Web 3.0 ad network, is moving steadily toward an ambitious plan of connecting publishers and advertisers directly, without any middlemen. Brave Ads plans to address the efficacy issues with its BAT or Basic Attention Token and Brave Browser. BAT, or Basic Attention Token, was released by Brendan Eich, co-founder of Mozilla. BAT is essentially an Ethereum-driven utility token built on Brave Browser’s foundations, a privacy-focused browser. The token is developed to assist digital advertising firms and publishing agencies in gaining easier and better access to various attention-based services and meeting the requirements of general users for a customized and safe Internet environment.

According to experts of Eminent Digital Marketing, BAT or Basic Attention Token Program is ready to transform the future of digital marketing in several ways. BAT, in layman words, can be explained as a blockchain-powered digital advertising agency that removes all sorts of mediators. It aims to place absolute control in the hands of advertisers, publishers, and users. With the current trends taking the central position, it is time to introduce new technologies into the digital marketing industry and disrupt its operations. There are way too many middlemen whose only aim is to sell off users’ browser history and personal information when it comes to any digital marketing strategy. Powered by blockchain technology, BAT is turning the tide toward marketers and advertisers. According to Daniel Newman of Forbes, companies can actually ‘buy’ the real audience attention by utilizing such’ micro currencies’, not just the imprints. “And they’ll be able to prove they’ve gotten that attention before the currency is exchanged.” Through this change, users have complete control over their personal information, while digital marketers receive the benefits of a more affordable and targeted audience to drive their marketing strategies. Now, let’s look at the different issues related to digital marketing and how BAT is all geared up to address these challenges, thus transforming the future of digital marketing as we know it.

Current Challenges in the Digital Marketing Industry

The issues in today’s digital marketing industry are quite apparent. Users are being served ads related to their online activity on the Internet traced through their browsing history. Have you ever thought about why you see ads related to hotel searches or for a specific car after searching relevant information about it? This isn’t just another Internet thing but a major issue. Moreover, hackers can easily serve users with fake advertisements and deals that look real in every way. Because of this, users are vulnerable to different malicious ransomware, software and other online security threats. Also, there’s the issue of selling users’ personal information, which is further exploited for massive profits. These profits rarely reach the rightful owners, i.e. advertisers.

Similar to the issues of users, the problems advertisers are facing are complex in nature. According to the current stats, over 600 million users have ad-blocker programs, which immediately negate all efforts, not to mention the money, of advertisers. The utilization of such ad-blocking programs has witnessed a staggering increase of 30 percent in recent years. This trend is making it very difficult for businesses and brands to target their audience with ads. The middlemen involved are harvesting the benefits while advertisers are struggling hard to meet the ROI targets of different digital marketing campaigns. But the solution is on its way in the form of BAT. The BAT program will allow digital marketers and users to interact more efficiently while developing a hyper-personalized advertising user experience advantageous to both parties.

To connect publishers and advertisers on Web 2.0, various intermediaries such as DSPs, SSPs and numerous exchanges have made the market reach its saturation point. Above all, in a market where there is no real connection between supply and demand, risks and efficiencies are always on the rise, which includes:

• Oligopoly risk: In regards to digital marketing, Facebook and Google hold 73% of the entire market and 99% of the overall growth.
• Fraud: Every year, billions of funds are lost to ad fraud.
• Reduced profits: As compared to the traditional newspaper ads, the fee charged was around 15% which has increased over 70% currently. This is happening due to several tech layers, which makes it easy to overcharge clients.
• Vendor risk: These ads usually run on blind timings, which are not just painfully slow but are also under the influence of various trends.
• Bad UX experience: With unique ad tech scripts that load on a specific website, the page load time becomes excessively slow, reducing the overall quality of user experience.
• Almost zero alternatives: Though the paywall system works well, it is almost impossible to access different subscription services and pay for them simultaneously.

Now Brave Ads is attempting to solve all these problems with a private, secured, open-sourced and decentralized browser along with BATs, each of which imitates the most valuable commodity of current times: a user’s unique and real attention.

How BAT or Basic Attention Token Works?

Similar to the other digital coins, advertisers and marketers can easily purchase BATs with physical money. Then, they can send these BATs directly to the selected publisher. For instance, IKEA sends the purchased BATs to the LA Times’ wallet via Brave Browser. Now, whenever a user from Brave browser visits the website of LA Times and selects to see the IKEA ad, they receive a piece of BAT which was earlier paid to the LA Times in return for the unique attention they are giving to the IKEA ad. In this way, advertisers receive optimized ROI based on hyper-targeted advertising since the user himself selected the ad to watch it. Apart from this, Brave also utilizes a location-based machine learning algorithm that helps it serve related and relevant ads way before the user opts to view them. In this manner, there are almost zero chances of wasteful middlemen and fraud.

Keeping in mind the fact that Brave is also the founder of Mozilla Firefox and JavaScript, there are several other benefits, including:

•   The open-source Mozilla Firefox
•   The privacy of DuckDuckGo
•   The added extension of a crypto wallet
•   2-8 times faster loading time because of the lack of tracking
•   By default and by design, complete compliance with iOS 14

As compared to the other altcoins, this network has a higher adoption rate than an Ethereum-based network. And the popularity is definitely rising. That being said, Eminent Digital Marketing along with others have got their hopes high on Brave Ads as it is moving ahead on its journey toward creating a win-win environment for advertisers, publishers, and users. Users have complete privacy and control and are getting paid for viewing ads; advertisers actually receive unique and relevant attention. Finally, publishers get the most of ad funds without being into technology. From a bird’s eye view, this model isn’t different from what Web 2.0 was doing. The main difference is user rewards. They have devised a more efficient way of connecting publishers and advertisers. To conclude, what they are doing is a brave thing to do as the model itself poses an existential threat to Facebook and Google. It’s just a matter of time when this model will become the norm, transforming the digital marketing industry and Eminent Digital Marketing is all set to move ahead with BAT.

Mig Liberté

I am extremely passionate about Digital Marketing and Storytelling. My articles will help you become a defined online marketer with my latest case strategies and experiments for you to implement and replicate for your PPC, SEO and Analytic strategies.