The pandemic has had all kinds of effects on consumers, and in turn, on how they interact with products and services. eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin speaks with fellow principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom about what happens when business metrics go haywire, including at Walmart, Nike, and Peloton. They also talk about Facebook's narrowing attribution window, Prime Day finally happening, and Samsung Ads' new self-serve demand-side platform option.

While TikTok’s programmatic and direct-response ad offerings are still fairly rudimentary compared with other social media companies, it has taken steps to expand its offerings; in July 2020, it introduced its self-serve ad manager platform.

Roku’s self-serve platform, OneView, launched in May 2020 and enables marketers to purchase ads across all its channels, including desktop and its mobile app.

This is made possible by the increased digital skillsets being developed internally and the preponderance of self-serve ad tools from publishers. WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report covers five key developments in Canada’s digital economy in 2020 that will have lasting impacts on the market in 2021.

An intelligent chatbot directs customers to the right team and also supports by directing customers to self-serve options, such as online claims reporting portals. AI Use Cases in Middle-Office Insurance. Insurers are applying AI to risk management, a middle-office function that directly affects the customer without being entirely consumer-facing.

Advertisers and agencies can access YouTube inventory in a few different ways: by making a bid through Google’s self-serve buying platforms; making a reservation buy through a Google sales rep; or making a direct buy with a YouTube partner. Self-Serve Programmatic.

In fact, some 80% of today’s B2B buyers prefer remote, digital, and self-serve interaction models, according to an October 2020 McKinsey & Company survey. And that number is only growing. How can marketers meet this dramatic shift in the way buyers make decisions with their existing stack, budget, and data?

Spotify expanded its video products by adding video ads to its self-serve platform. It also launched video podcasts around the same time that it signed exclusive podcast deals with well-known figures such as Michelle Obama and Joe Rogan. These moves give the indication that Spotify is trying to tap into more video advertising dollars.

TikTok has also made several advances in its ad business, including launching a self-serve ad portal and a marketing partner program with nearly 20 certified and approved TikTok partners.

TikTok launched its self-serve portal for advertising that month, so it’s not surprising that Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter were all more popular ad destinations for the respondents. Our Take: As of mid-2020, TikTok was expecting to make $500 million in US ad revenues that year, according to reporting by The Information.

Social media platforms typically offer ads through programmatic direct transactions, often via self-serve buying interfaces. The skew of social networks toward both direct, API-based transactions as well as mobile impressions is why mobile is even more dominated by direct transactions than the overall programmatic display market.

The TikTok for Business ads manager, a self-serve tool for buying ads on the platform, also became available to advertisers in Canada that month. “2020 has definitely changed the way the world shops, with online commerce giving audiences the ability to be more impulsive with their purchases,” TikTok’s Bloom said. “That’s making the sales funnel collapse.

Banks have seen customers rapidly shift to digital banking in record numbers: BMO’s self-serve transactions surged to about 95% of overall retail transactions as of late April—up from just under 90% before the pandemic—and saw the weekly rate of customers signing up for digital banking spike 300% between late March and late April.

Amazon’s self-serve, cost-per-click-based ad console forms the core of the offering and includes Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display ads. Amazon DSP is one of the leading demand-side platforms (DSPs) in the programmatic display market and allows advertisers to buy ads both on- and off-property.