For more than a decade, walled gardens have represented a certainty for brands and advertisers: a high number of users willing to spend a good part of their time online, high ability to customize the content offer and target their audience, thanks to an in-depth knowledge of data, personal information and interests.
All this translated into the possibility of creating effective and high-performance advertising campaigns, so much so that on these channels the most significant budgets were invested on average even for campaigns with conversion objectives.
But, for some years now, the situation has changed. Walled gardens are progressively losing appeal in the face of an open web that is gaining ground, showing itself to be more responsive to changes in privacy regulations, technological advances and user expectations.
But let’s proceed in order and before we get to understand the change taking place, let’s start from the basics.
Walled Garden: what are they?
The term “walled garden” defines closed ecosystems in which data, content and user interactions are confined within the platforms themselves.
Meta, Amazon, Google, TikTok: it is enough to refer to some big players attributable to this category to understand the characteristics of these systems.
Here, proprietary companies choose which information, services, or products to show to users, and all interactions take place within a controlled environment.
All this, as we have anticipated, allows a very precise and centralized collection of data: every click, view of a product, interaction with content or advertising is tracked, providing a rich source of information on user behavior.
Thanks to all the data collected, it is possible to create detailed user profiles to be used for profiled target audiences to be reached with targeted advertisements, thus increasing the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.
It is therefore no coincidence that, as eMarketer reports, Meta and Google were the destination, in 2023, of more than 60% of global advertising spend.
Advanced profiling through first-party data, but not only: let’s start with a significant figure to also introduce some less positive aspects that concern walled gardens.
According to Statista, in 2014 walled gardens occupied 62% of the time spent online in the US by adult audiences, a percentage that in 2023 dropped to 39%.
This figure is significant of a progressivelack of interest on the part of the public in the use and enjoyment of the walled gardens themselves. The reason is certainly attributable not only to a progressive loss of interest in the proposed content, but also to the growing interest of users in their privacy.
One of the less transparent aspects of walled gardens concerns the management of the data itself. Users have little control over first-party data and how it is used: the process by which each company manages data
it is, in fact, considered proprietary. Additionally, most platforms only allow advertisers to see aggregated metrics, which leads to performance transparency issues.
Open web: the increasingly “real” alternative to walled gardens
Precisely on this last point relating to the transparency of walled gardens, the open web is strengthening its position as an effective channel for conveying advertising campaigns. The term “open web” refers to the internet ecosystem in which data and information are accessible without restriction. This includes websites, apps, digital properties where content can be shared and contributed by anyone and which do not refer to big players in the tech sector.
Recent studies conducted on clusters of American consumers report that over 48% of these are more interested in spending more than an hour browsing resources on the open web, while only 30% are more interested in walled gardens.
The combination of free, quality content, combined with a growing attention of non-walled garden sites to privacy is winning over more and more users, and consequently, is attracting the attention of brands and advertisers.
The process is accelerated by the evolution of technology and the presence on the market of increasingly high-performance platforms, such as Blendee, which allow advanced profiling activities even in open environments thanks to:
- identity resolution processes;
- processes enhancement of first-party data on company properties;
- data enrichment and data collaboration activities;
- contextual targeting and advertsing.
Walled Garden vs Open Web: what future?
The advertising sector is getting us used to really sudden changes of perspective and contexts in which models and approaches do not necessarily have to be alternative.
This is precisely the case of walled gardens and the open web as channels on which to convey our advertising campaigns.
Combining advertising activities on Meta with programmatic advertising activities on other channels of the open web allows you to exploit the strengths of both “ecosystems”. This integrated approach helps you reach a wider audience and engage your audience more effectively.
Brands and companies can no longer afford fragmented strategies and tactics: all activities must be able to work together efficiently, supported by technological solutions capable of collecting and normalizing data from multiple sources and touchpoints to create detailed customer profiles from which to create larger target audiences also with the help of second and third party data, in full respect of user privacy.
Contact us to discover the potential of Blendee!
