According to the survey of iResearch in China, more than 50% of advertisers believe that the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 will have a great impact on marketing. However, they think the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social life is gradually weakening. After 2021, the advertisers who believe that the pandemic still greatly impacts their marketing activities has decreased by 15%, while the proportion of advertisers who believe that there is little or no impact has increased to about 30%. This means that although the pandemic has not completely ended, most advertisers believe that the pandemic is no longer the core consideration in the process of marketing activities.

The pandemic improves digital cognition and promotes the digital transformation

The path of digital transformation also promotes the digital upgrading of enterprises and the digital transformation of marketing activities. In fact, the pandemic has catalysed this digital transformation process. After the outbreak of the pandemic, nearly 60% of advertisers believe that "the pandemic has accelerated the process of enterprise digital transformation". During the pandemic, remote offices have changed from an "optional" to a "necessary option" for many enterprises. After the pandemic, there are more activities such as the approval of various processes and staff meetings have moved to online platforms. It also improves the digital penetration of the company's business processes and marketing activities. 

In a survey on the relationship between digitization and marketing, more than 90% of advertisers believe that "digital transformation is the inevitable trend of the company's marketing activities. Compared with the previous year, only 67% of advertisers believe that digital upgrading is very necessary. This is due to the importance of marketing in an enterprise as part of the digital transformation process. On the other hand, marketing technology continues to penetrate and upgrade in different business scenarios, which increase advertisers’ confidence in the digital transformation process in marketing. As for the long term environment, it is believed that the investment in marketing technology will continue to increase.

New marketing technologies has been increasing

According to the data from iResearch, more than 60% of advertisers' investment in new marketing technologies in the latest year accounted for 10% or more of the total budget. At the same time, more than 70% of advertisers' budget investment in new marketing technologies increased significantly compared with that before the pandemic. 20.3% of advertisers maintained the investment level pre-pandemic, and only 5.9% of advertisers chose to reduce the investment in new marketing technologies. As an important means to boost the digital transformation of enterprises, new marketing technology is inevitable. Thus, increasing the budget and investment in marketing technology is part of the agenda for enterprises that are seeking digital transformation.

At the same time, after the pandemic, the effect and value of the application of new marketing technologies continue to be reflected, and advertisers' confidence in the use of marketing technologies continues to increase. With the further improvement and maturity of new marketing technologies, advertisers' investment in new marketing technologies will continue to increase.

The scale of China's online advertising market

In 2021, the scale of China's online advertising market reached 766.6 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of 18.6%, which is 4.1% lower than the expected growth rate last year. In 2021, the growth rate of China's online advertising market slowed down significantly, mainly due to the impact of the pandemic. Some brands have to re-planned the online advertising budget.

With the continuous recovery of market confidence and further improvement of business activity, it is expected that China's online advertising market will pick up, and the year-on-year growth rate will reach 21%. In the next three years, China's online advertising market will continue to maintain a stable growth trend at a compound annual growth rate of 17%. 

Marketing optimisation, Campaign efficiency and Digital intelligence are the three main focuses and they will be the core driving forces to grow the online advertising market in the future.