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Ad serving and geopolitical uncertainties
When running a business, especially an online business that operates globally and relies on ad serving, it is a good idea to keep up with current affairs around the world. While every business owner would like to be in a situation where the geo-political climate doesn’t affect them at all. There are already enough things to worry about when running a business.
However, the reality is that we are not living in a simple era when countries are self-contained and self-sufficient. Globalization has been working its way through pretty much all industries and companies for many years. Now we are seeing a push back against globalization with more trade restrictions and protectionism. Furthermore, pandemics, wars, and a host of other issues can all have an impact on business. They also have an impact on how companies market themselves and serve ads during those times. In an uncertain world, businesses need to be able to adjust on the fly to ensure that their sales continue unabated, or at least stay steady during troubled times. Let’s take a look at how an uncertain geo-political situation might affect your ad serving strategies:
Sanctioned markets
One of the first things that nations do when trying to shut down a perceived aggressor is to put sanctions in place. Sanction is done in an effort to hurt the economy of said country, which is exactly what is happening to Russia at the moment.A sanction blocks companies from doing business with the sanctioned country. This results in a difficult time getting products, parts, and services from foreign companies. Modern products and services rely on a complex series of parts and components from many different companies in different countries. Therefore, an international blockage can stop production and disrupt supply chains.
Within the advertising industry, companies may be forbidden from advertising in a specific country or region. Depending on your business, you might or might not have exposure to the affected country. If you do have a significant exposure, you need to quickly adjust your marketing campaigns to take these sanctions into account because continuing to do so is basically throwing money away. Even if you can display ads, people might not be able to buy the product or make the purchase transaction. To be on the safe side, apply geotargeting, turn off current advertising campaigns in the ad server and/or put planned campaigns on hold before evaluating the situation further.
Sanctioned clients
Where things get more tricky for businesses is when sanctions have a negative impact on existing clients. It is likely neither their fault nor your fault that the business relationship and activities must be terminated or put on hold. It may seem unfair to discontinue working with a good client from a sanctioned country, but that is the nature of the game. The financial impact is definitely significant if it happens to a big client or if you have many clients in the sanctioned country. There is no single approach when dealing with this situation but it’s wise to maintain a good relationship with those clients even if you cannot serve them now. It is the hope that those clients will return when things get back to normal, or as close to it as possible in the future.Part 2: Evolving rules, boycotts and payment systems
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