Digital advertising and paid marketing strategies are constantly evolving as new technologies emerge and consumer behaviours change. Keeping up with the latest trends is crucial for brands and marketers to stay ahead of the competition and effectively reach their target audiences. Here are some of the top paid marketing trends to watch in the coming years.
The Continued Rise of Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising spend continues to grow year over year. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok are becoming increasingly vital for brands looking to engage with consumers.
With advanced targeting options, detailed analytics, and flexible budgeting, social media ads allow marketers to connect with precisely defined demographics. As social media user bases expand, expect paid social marketing to command an ever-greater portion of digital advertising budgets.
Automation and AI Will Streamline Processes
The paid marketing landscape is growing increasingly complex with more channels, platforms, and data to manage. Automation and artificial intelligence promise to make processes like campaign management, bid optimisation, and budget allocation more efficient.
Automated workflows powered by machine learning can quickly process troves of data and fine-tune campaigns for optimal results. This frees up marketers to focus on strategy and creativity. Expect leading ad platforms to integrate more AI and automation capabilities in the coming years.
The Rise of Streaming and Connected TV (CTV) Ads
As consumers shift their viewing habits to streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer and YouTube, attention and advertising dollars are following. Brands now have more options to reach cord-cutting audiences through over-the-top (OTT) and connected TV (CTV) inventory.
Programmatic CTV ad spending is forecast to grow rapidly in the next few years. The more personalised, targeted capabilities of these ads make them an intriguing addition for savvy digital marketers.
Growth of Shoppable Ad Formats
With commerce activity increasingly happening online, shoppable ad formats that allow direct purchases are proliferating. Instagram’s shoppable posts and Pinterest’s shop tab ads are just a couple of examples.
These ads help convert interest into sales by allowing transactions without leaving the app or site. Especially for direct-to-consumer brands, shoppable ads provide a new way to drive ROI from digital campaigns.
Continued Importance of Search Engine Marketing
While the digital marketing landscape has expanded, tried-and-true search engine marketing remains essential for brands. In fact, UK search ad spend continues to grow steadily year after year. Tactics like SEO and PPC ensure brands appear prominently in keyword search results.
As voice search rises in popularity, brands will need to optimise for spoken keywords through tools like Google Ads. Partnering with a knowledgeable PPC agency like https://www.wrp.team/ppc-agency can help unlock the full potential of search campaigns.
Personalisation and Segmentation Get Smarter
Today’s customers expect advertising to be highly relevant to their needs and interests. Fortunately, digital channels make personalised marketing at scale possible like never before.
Look for marketing technology to get even better at creative segmentation and individualised messaging. Custom audiences, lookalike modelling, and predictive analytics inform campaigns tailored to micro-segments. The future is 1:1 marketing powered by data.
Testing and Optimization Take Priority
With an ever-expanding martech stack, marketers risk spending too much time managing tools and not enough time optimising campaigns. Leading brands will increasingly focus on rigorous testing and improvement efforts.
Marketing experiments, multivariate testing, progressive profiling, and advanced analytics will help determine what resonates best with target audiences. Agile optimisation trumps elaborate planning in the fast-paced digital landscape.
Marketing is constantly changing, so it is worth keeping up to date with the trends.