For those on the on the sidelines, the story of digital advertising in recent years has been as entertaining as a binge-worthy TV series. Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy began in spring 2021, and the plot only thickens with rising inflation, a likely recession, and an unexpected cast of new ad platform characters: Netflix, Uber, and, curiously, Apple.

While these headlines are dramatic, they tend to obscure what’s really going on: digital advertising may be in transition, but it’s not dead. Consumer brands, especially direct-to-consumer (DTC), continue to rely on digital advertising and there are more and more ways to put it to good use.

Based on our work with hundreds of brands, along with a recent survey of 158 consumer marketing leaders, we’ve summarized what we know about the current advertising landscape below. We’ve also gathered tips for navigating these options to cost-effectively generate income during the holiday season and beyond.

There are plenty of setbacks, but startups have to be even more creative

The chaos of the past year has left advertisers with an ever-changing field of imperfect options and the need to continually review their approach. As changes due to privacy concerns weakened the ability to target consumers, particularly on Facebook, 46% of consumer marketing leaders surveyed by Proxima said “difficult targeting” and “limited budget” were their top two challenges. were for marketing effectiveness. About 40% specifically said changes to the iOS privacy policy had a negative impact on their business.

Not surprisingly, the impact is felt disproportionately by smaller startups. Of those surveyed, 70% of large companies expect to exceed 2022 revenue targets, but only 52% of SMBs reported a similar level of optimism. SMBs in the survey were also 20% more likely to report that iOS privacy policy changes had a negative impact on their business.

Dramatic headlines can mask upside opportunities

It is important for consumer start-ups to take the opportunity out of the doom and gloom. For example, Meta’s stock price is much less important to you than the number of users on Facebook, which saw 1.93 billion daily active users in the third quarter of 2022.

TikTok is more popular than ever, which is great for brands looking to experiment with a growing platform. But Instagram’s 2 billion monthly active users are hardly a thing of the past, meaning the platform still offers a huge opportunity for brand building and engagement.

Despite a rocky road, consumer advertisers persevere

Not surprisingly, satisfaction across advertising platforms included in the study – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Google – was remarkably low, with dissatisfaction rates ranging from 31% to 65% depending on the platform.