The notion of context is nothing new to marketers, but will be become very important in digital advertising in the coming years.

What I mean by this is not just the content of the ad itself, but the moment that the ad is presented and also what surrounds the ad on the page.

Placing an ad on social media allows you to choose to have it displayed beside user generated content (UGC) which brands have no control over or even worse, they could be placed in an environment that is completely irrelevant and therefore totally ignored.

Another example, which is far more brand safe, is placing ads in the context of premium publisher sites, allowing brands to control their ad's environment and thus increasing trust with readers and viewers.

Here's the thing!

In the main, most smaller brands have come to rely on third-party data sources to help them reach their desired audiences - but that's about to get a whole lot harder moving forward with the elimination of third-party cookies limiting the amount of personal data advertisers can access.

So, what's the answer?

Targeting contextually on news sites will provide part of the answer, as this will allow brands to choose the news that they want to feature next to, along with the publications they want their brand associated with.

Context, it seems, will most definitely be king!