The digital and traditional advertising industries have witnessed a steady decline in jobs over the past few months. Over 2000 people working in the ad industry lost their jobs in the U.S. in May this year alone.
With current trends in mind, this number could see a further decrease if current trends are anything to go by. After all, the ad industry does seem to be hit pretty badly despite the increase in online viewership for display ads since the beginning of the pandemic.
So why is the demand for professionals in the industry declining when you’d expect an increase instead? Let’s find out.
Ad Tech Issues
One reason behind the decrease in demand for SEO and PPC experts in the industry is the possibility (and reality) of marketers facing ad tech issues. Ad tech is now more advanced than ever and allows marketers to make the most out of several great ad tools.
But, with advanced solutions come complex problems, and finding unique approaches to deal with the latter can be costly. This makes sense considering the decrease in jobs in the advertising industry has seen a somewhat corresponding decrease in employment rates in the tech industry.
The problems that plague related industries like advertising, social media, and tech are often one and the same. But, it can be difficult to evaluate the impact of rising tech-related issues on the digital advertising industry.
After all, not all forms of digital advertising require modern tech solutions. Depending on a company’s budget and the kind of ads they wish to design, they may not need advanced tech solutions.
But, that doesn’t mean that safeguarding the interests of online advertisers is always easy. For instance, ad fraud is not entirely uncommon these days given the increase in web activity across several platforms.
Advertisers often have to employ solutions like using residential proxies to solve tech issues like ad fraud and loss of financial data. These solutions can be costly and can impact a company’s reputation in the long run.
Companies seem to be finding it easier to lay people off than to invest in more complex ad tech solutions. Besides, the results that can be achieved with the help of digital advertising have been called into question lately.
Companies are hesitant to shell out large amounts of money on ad-tech when they’re attempting to scale down their digital advertising campaigns.
Rising Costs
The costs of hiring employees in the advertising industry are rising now thanks to an increase in interest rates. Companies using digital marketing campaigns are finding it easier to lay people off than to hire new employees to execute their sales strategies.
Companies that aren’t laying people off are executing hiring freezes instead. Whatever the case, one thing’s for certain, digital advertisers aren’t happy with the way things are going in terms of employment.
Even social media platforms like Meta aren’t too keen on increasing employment opportunities with the recent increase in interest rates. Companies are finding it increasingly difficult to meet their revenue targets with these rates.
As a result, it’s not difficult to imagine why they don’t wish to shell out on hiring professionals to execute their ad strategies. Social media and digital advertising go hand-in-hand these days.
This is thanks to the rising popularity of online display ads and online influencers. If these platforms are freezing their hiring processes, it’s easy to see that they’re anticipating (or experiencing) insufficient results from their efforts.
Updated Ad Policies
Companies like Google and Apple are now implementing new ad policies to protect user information and keep it secure. Users fear for the safety of the information they post online.
These concerns have led to large tech companies tightening their privacy policies to keep users safe. Thanks to these new policies, companies are limiting the information they share with third parties online. This has affected ad targeting, which in turn has affected the reach of display ad campaigns.
In the past, advertising companies have made considerable revenue by buying user information to improve ad targeting. Since instances of the same are reducing, it makes sense that these companies wish to cut down on wages.
The same goes for hiring PPC and SEO experts or agencies to design display ad campaigns. While it’s often cheaper to hire these experts instead of full-time employees, this isn’t always the case.
These experts sometimes charge exorbitant fees that small companies can’t always afford. These individuals will also find it difficult to find jobs in the future if current trends continue.
Conclusion
The current trends of advertising companies downsizing their staff will likely continue if they lose big clients. With stricter privacy and data protection laws around the corner, it’s not difficult to imagine that this will be the case.
Besides, the global economic downturn following the pandemic has also affected the job market. The repercussions of the downturn have extended to the advertising industry as well.
If financial experts are right and the U.S. economy is headed towards a recession, then things look bleak for job prospects in the advertising industry. Moreover, the fact that advertising is among the functions of a business that a company can do without inevitably means that companies are likely to cut down on ad spending in the next few years.
However, since there’s now a larger online audience than there’s ever been before could lead to an increase in demand for display advertising in the near future.
