Hello Lina, Welcome to the MarTech Cube! Could you please start by sharing with us about your professional journey and your evolving role at Epom?
Sure! I started in the 2010s as a junior digital marketer in an ad agency – and I wanted the job so badly that I found the company’s CEO and pitched myself to get this role. I witnessed the evolution of digital ad spending from pouring the budget on banner ads and counting clicks afterward to ad performance optimization. At Epom, I wanted to focus more on content marketing – because it was the only thing that worked in a highly complicated ad tech B2B niche and brought us relevant leads from Google search.
While shaping our content marketing, I dived in-depth into the ad tech industry and our product, trained my ad tech contemplation, and organically grew into orchestrating Epom advertising as a CMO.
5G technology is often hailed as a game-changer across various industries. From your perspective, what are the most significant benefits of 5G, particularly in the context of digital marketing and advertising?
5G means more rich media with longer and higher-resolution video ads. In the past, these ad formats may have seen high bounce rates due to the latency in loading, but 5G will fix this issue. It will also collect better quality, hyper-relevant data from smartphones and other IoT devices. Advertisers can personalise their ad campaigns and understand customers’ needs in real time. With minimal latency, users can experience seamless streaming and interaction with content, which leads to better retention rates and increased chances of users interacting with marketing campaigns.
How do you see 5G transforming mobile advertising? What are the key changes you anticipate in terms of user engagement and ad performance?
Global 5G connections reached 1.76 billion by the end of the year, a 66% increase over the previous year, and this number is projected to skyrocket to 7.9 billion by 2028. As we all live on our smartphones, 5G ads will deliver life-like ads in real-time, making the target audience closer and more engaged with brands.
Higher engagement rates with immersive AR experiences exponentially lead to brand recognition because users will remember the ad. As ads become more tailored, users will feel less interrupted and more involved. And, of course, 5G will help reduce ad fatigue. Users are less likely to feel overwhelmed by repetitive ads when they experience new and engaging formats.
The speed and low latency of 5G open up new possibilities for real-time, high-speed programmatic campaigns. Could you elaborate on how marketers can leverage these capabilities to create more effective and dynamic ad experiences?
With 5G, marketers can deliver highly personalized ads in real-time based on a user’s current location, behavior, and context faster. It could include adapting ad content dynamically based on weather, events, or user preferences, making ads more relevant in a particular period. Marketers can use 5G to create dynamic ad formats that change in real time.
For example, video ads can be personalised on the fly, or interactive elements such as AR can change based on user interaction. It creates a more engaging and interactive user experience. 5G can improve omnichannel experiences where ads adapt based on the user’s device, ensuring a consistent and optimized experience on mobile, smart TVs, or wearables.
In what ways can 5G enhance the user experience in digital advertising? Are there specific examples or use cases where 5G can make a substantial difference?
One cool thing about 5G is that it lets ads load super fast. Whether video, interactive content, or web banners, the experience becomes seamless without buffering or delays, reducing user frustration. 5G ensures that ads load as quickly as the content itself when mobile users watch videos on platforms like YouTube or Twitch. This keeps users engaged instead of driving them away due to slow load times.
These can include gamified ads where users can actively participate in mini-games or quizzes, enhancing engagement and brand recall. For example, Nike could run an interactive gamified ad where users compete to customize their virtual sneakers in real-time. With the speed and responsiveness of 5G, users wouldn’t experience any lags, keeping them engaged and encouraging them to spend more time interacting with the brand.
As a marketing leader, how are you and your team at Epom preparing to adapt to the opportunities and challenges presented by 5G technology?
We are heavily upgrading our DSP platform and ad server to leverage the benefits of faster speeds, lower latency, and enhanced connectivity. Top crucial updates included:
- Upgrading Infrastructure for Scalability and Speed: Epom can handle the increased data volumes and faster processing speeds that 5G enables.
- Optimizing the RTB algorithms to capitalize on 5G’s lower latency, allowing real-time bidding to be faster and more precise. Our platform can quickly adjust and serve the most relevant ad creatives based on user data, network speed, and location.
- Enhanced data privacy and security – we take data privacy very seriously and have a multi-layered approach that addresses potential vulnerabilities while complying with data protection regulations. We adopted advanced encryption protocols to handle the higher volumes of sensitive user data that 5G enables.
- Invested in Fraud Detection Tools: our fraud detection systems monitor high-speed data traffic for anomalies, detecting and preventing ad fraud in real-time.
What new opportunities do you believe 5G will bring to the table in terms of innovation in programmatic advertising? Are there any emerging trends or technologies that excite you the most?
With 5G networks capable of processing vast amounts of real-time data, advertisers can drastically improve targeting and user engagement. In North America alone, 5G is expected to make up 80% of all connections by 2028.
Video ads will become more immersive and interactive, combining AI-generated personalization with advanced targeting. 5G facilitates instant streaming of high-quality video ads in 4K/8K, interactive formats, and playable ads. I believe that programmatic DOOH will see an increase in hyper-targeted campaigns where ads change instantly to align with nearby audiences or live events. 5G will enhance the ability to display personalized content at scale in high-traffic areas, integrating seamlessly with mobile campaigns.
Imagine a digital billboard in a shopping district that could display different ads based on the time of day, foot traffic data, and weather conditions. For example, an umbrella brand might serve ads during a sudden rain shower, while a coffee chain might promote cold drinks during hot weather.
While 5G offers immense potential, it also comes with challenges. What are some of the key considerations marketers should keep in mind when planning for 5G-enabled campaigns?
While 5G already covers 40% of the global population, this distribution is uneven, with high-income countries experiencing much broader access than low-income regions. That is the biggest challenge: adopting advertising strategies to maintain engagement rates.
One more challenge marketers should consider is avoiding the overwhelming ad stream with immersive experiences that feel intrusive. Faster connectivity can lead to more frequent ad serving, contributing to ad fatigue if not managed carefully. That’s why I recommend using such a feature as frequency capping to balance the number of ads displayed per user at a particular time.
With 5G networks capable of processing vast amounts of real-time data, advertisers can make more accurate and timely decisions in programmatic advertising, improving targeting and user engagement. In North America alone, 5G is expected to make up 80% of all connections by 2028.
What advice would you offer to marketing professionals and businesses looking to stay ahead of the curve in leveraging 5G technology for advertising?
Summarizing our customer`s experience into applicable insights, I`d advice to go slowly with implementing 5G. Steps to start with:
- Gradually Rollout Multi-Network Optimization: Implement hybrid advertising strategies that function optimally across 5G and 4G networks.
- 5G drastically improved VR, AI, and IoT, but these ad campaigns are expensive so the early adopters are more prominent brands. 5G ads offer hyper-realistic personalized “wow” moments but are still complex in creation and require bigger budgets.
- Invest in data encryption and privacy-compliance measures (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) to safeguard sensitive user data collected via 5G networks. 5G’s enhanced connectivity grants agencies access to more detailed, real-time data, helping to optimize programmatic campaigns better. But gather it – penalties for GDPR violation are no joke.
- Optimize Creatives for 5G: use lightweight, scalable ad formats that can be dynamically optimized based on users’ network speeds (5G, 4G, etc.). Do not use many ad tags and redirects – launch the optimization algorithms in your DSP to filter out fraudulent impressions.
And don`t forget to constantly monitor and mitigate new forms of ad fraud specifically targeting 5G traffic, focusing on real-time detection of anomalies.
Looking ahead, how do you see 5G shaping the future of programmatic advertising? Are there any final thoughts or insights you’d like to share with our readers?
The key challenge is how to fully utilize 5G’s capabilities—real-time targeting, hyper-personalization, and enhanced user experiences—without encountering issues like inefficiencies in campaign execution, ad fraud, and data privacy concerns.
5G is to connect real-world user experiences to their online experiences giving them better brand perception and alignment between online and offline. I`m looking forward to the future where the ads I`m shown would not be intrusive and will be shown at the exact moment when I`m ready to interact with them.
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Angelina Lugova, Chief Marketing Officer at Epom
Lina Lugova is a CMO at Epom. Lina has created, developed, and managed growth strategies for some top brands and solution providers. She is passionate about what she does and leverages data, innovation, and creativity to drive results. LinkedIn.