The future of ads? No websites

It can take 52 individual steps for a user to make a major purchase online. What if there was a way to eliminate almost all of that? Diana Lee, CEO of Constellation Software, discusses how we can create a frictionless ad experience.

Research from LinkedIn suggests that the average US consumer sees 5,000 ads per day, many online. Out of this mass of information, only a dozen may be relevant, with just one or two tantalising enough for the user to consider a purchase. They click on the ad, hit a web page and go on from there.

With so many steps between initial interest in the product and the sale, the pursuit is often abandoned.

The digital shopping cart left behind after fleeting interest in a sale could be the bane of advertisers. With everything riding on a flash of desire, the action of buying needs to be seamless.

The average US consumer sees 5,000 ads every day.

– LinkedIn

Is internet advertising fundamentally flawed?

Diana Lee, CEO of Constellation Software, thinks web pages – the foundation of the internet as we know it – are stopping advertisers from creating a frictionless experience.

“We believe the future is in no websites, because everything driving people towards the website will be untrackable anyway,” said Diane, referencing the imminent demise of third-party cookies. “Transactions can start happening from the ad. This is life-changing for consumers, as it will be faster and frictionless.”

This frictionless approach could help increase ‘spur of the moment’ sales.

“If you believe anything at all about advertising, you have to believe the first impression did the most amount of work,” said Kochava founder and CEO Charles Manning. The implication is that subsequent impressions of a product or service – such as clicking through to a web page – offer diminishing returns anyway.

A smartphone with a digital ad onscreen. Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

As Diane described it, instead of clicking through to a web page, consumers could use the ad itself to add personal data and make the purchase. This type of adtech is also applicable to other financial actions, including credit applications: “The future is collapsing all the different steps to any application into a single ad,” Diane said.

Diane said people are currently required to take up to 52 steps when filling out a credit application for major purchases such as cars or property. Implementing adtech that can handle applications in a centralised way, with access to all your personal data, will be game-changing.

Changing the perception of digital data use

Making this adtech a reality – and ridding the internet of unnecessary web pages – is only possible if people understand that companies aggregating personal data isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Diane said that questions around consent for advertising online are misleading, as businesses aren’t asking if you want advertising: “You’re getting it whether you like it or not … So adtech is really trying to deliver a personalised experience and make it less aggravating.”

With appropriate adtech companies using consumer data ethically to create relevant, personalised ads, online advertising might start to be met with interest rather than irritation.

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Main image of Diana Lee, co-founder and CEO of Constellation Software, on PandaConf stage at Web Summit 2022: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)