Trends in digital marketing

Before we get into the specifics of 2024’s digital marketing trends, it is important to comprehend the broad changes that are affecting all strategies and tactics.

The emergence of hyper-personalized advertising and the changing use of data for targeting and personalization are the two main trends that are dominating this year’s market.

Data from both parties: the new standard

In the wake of privacy regulations and the gradual phasing out of third-party cookies, marketers are increasingly turning towards first-party and zero-party data.

In data-driven marketing, first-party and zero-party data are increasingly considered the gold standards.

Primary party data: what is it? First-party data is directly gathered, with consent, from interactions with clients or prospects through your own channels, such as mobile apps or websites. First-party data includes things like online activity, demographic information, past purchases, emails, sales interactions, phone calls from call centers, feedback from customers, and behavioral information.

Describe zero-party data. Zero-party data, also called zero data, refers to customer information that is intentionally and proactively shared with brands, usually through surveys, forms or preference centres. Examples of zero-party data include preferences and interests, purchase intentions, feedback and opinions, personal information, and participation in events.

This shift represents a significant change in how marketers approach data collection and use. Businesses are now focusing on building trust with customers, encouraging them to share their information directly.

This trend underlines the importance of transparency and value exchange; customers are more likely to share their data if they believe it will enhance their experience with a brand.

Hyper-personalization in advertising: a consumer expectation

Gone are the days when generic ads were sufficient. According to Deloitte Digital, consumers are expecting hyper-personalized marketing. This expectation has given rise to hyper-personalisation in marketing and advertising.

Through the utilization of AI, advanced analytics, and rich data obtained from both first-party and zero-party sources, marketers are able to craft highly customized marketing messages.

Hyper-personalization goes beyond basic demographics or behavioral data. It involves understanding the customer’s preferences, interests, and even current emotional state to deliver content that is not just appealing but also timely and contextually relevant.

This degree of customization improves customer loyalty, increases engagement, and increases the efficacy of marketing as a whole.

Adapting to the evolving platforms of 2024

Digital marketing platforms will keep developing in 2024, bringing fresh approaches to audience engagement and outreach.

This year, a number of significant platform updates are reshaping how brands interact with their clientele.

From social media enhancements to the rise of targeted advertising technologies, these updates are pivotal for marketers looking to stay ahead in the digital realm.

Reminder ads on Instagram increase interaction

Available in the business manager since October 2023, Reminder Ads are a type of Instagram ad that allows businesses to promote events, products, or launches they want users to remember.

Image Source: Instagram

These ads appear in the Instagram feed and Stories and feature a “Remind Me” call-to-action button. When a user clicks on the “Remind Me” button, they receive a notification on the day of the event or launch.

A post or a reel can be used for these reminder advertisements.

This feature is a game-changer for marketers, offering a direct way to keep their audience engaged and informed.

Brands can guarantee greater participation or response rates for their events or product releases by setting reminders, which will build anticipation.

Meta’s introduction of Threads opened a new avenue for digital communication

Meta’s latest feature, Threads, allows for more intimate and engaging conversations between brands and their audience.

Image Source: Facebook

You log in using your Instagram account and posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length.

Thanks to community-driven discussions and more individualized interactions, Threads offers businesses a unique chance to build stronger relationships with their customers.

The power of platforms like Locala to target locations: Trends in digital marketing

Businesses can use localization targeting with platforms like Locala to reach their target audience with highly relevant and successful marketing campaigns.

The platform can integrate with various data sources to identify users’ physical locations. Using the collected geolocation data, the system can enable businesses to create highly granular audience segments based on various location criteria.

The omnichannel capabilities of these platforms guarantee the seamless integration of localization targeting strategies across diverse digital advertising channels.

This form of hyper-targeted marketing is especially effective for businesses with physical storefronts or those looking to tap into specific local markets.

Genuineness and involvement distinguish micro-influencers from macro-influencers

The influencer marketing landscape is seeing a shift towards nano-influencers.

Photo courtesy of LinkedIn Pulse

In addition to the size of their audience, nano- and macro-influencers differ in several other ways:

• Authenticity: Since nano-influencers usually have a closer relationship with their followers and are more relatable than macro-influencers, they are frequently regarded as being more authentic.
• Engagement: Nano-influencers have higher engagement rates because their followers are more likely to be interested in their content and interact with it.
• Cost-effectiveness: Because they will share posts for less money—or even for free—nano-influencers are more economical.

Brands are increasingly leveraging these influencers for their ability to foster genuine connections and trust with their followers.

Trends in digital marketing, Weather Ads: The weather activation platform

Platforms such as WeatherAds allow brands to trigger ads based on meteorological conditions, and weather-based advertising is emerging as a major trend.

Picture Credit: WeatherAds

Digital platforms such as websites, mobile apps, and social media can all be used to distribute weather advertisements.

Weather data services are used by advertisers to pinpoint particular weather conditions, like rain, sunshine, and temperature swings, and then develop specialized advertising campaigns based on those conditions.

This creative strategy taps into the needs and surroundings of consumers to enable highly contextual and timely marketing.

The ongoing growth of connected television

As more people turn to streaming services for entertainment, connected television (CTV) advertising is growing.

Picture Credit: Magnite

This change creates new opportunities for advertisers to reach audiences with more interactive and engaging video ads when they are viewed on internet-connected devices.

CTV advertising has several advantages.

• With its audience-based targeting, CTV offers accuracy.
• CTV is a place without cookies.
• Since CTV is full-screen by design, it is also 100% in-view.
• Due to environmental factors, CTV campaigns will result in 100% in-view and 90%–100% completion rates.
• Targeting projections are available based on real data, not on statistical approximations or CIM.

It enables ads to appear on TV, desktop, and mobile devices in an environment where ads are theoretically everywhere. These retargeting opportunities take it to another level.

Because of their immersive and high-quality experience, CTV advertisements present a special chance for brands to interact more powerfully with viewers.

Trends in digital marketing and technological developments influencing it in 2024

New technical advancements are significantly influencing digital marketing strategies.

Two key areas where technology is making a notable impact are in the realms of search engine optimization and the measurement of ad effectiveness.

utilizing voice search to adjust to customer search habits SEO optimization

Voice search has become increasingly popular this year, making it one of the biggest technological developments. As more consumers use voice assistants for internet searches, optimizing for voice search SEO has become imperative.

Comprehending the subtle differences between voice searches and conventional text searches is necessary for this. Voice searches tend to be more conversational, longer, and often phrased as questions.

Targeting long-tail keywords, concentrating on natural language processing, and offering succinct, straightforward responses to prospective inquiries are all necessary to keep up with this trend.

Making sure your content is simple for voice search algorithms to find and comprehend is important because these algorithms affect traffic and engagement more and more.

Not only does voice search optimization increase your website’s visibility in voice search results, but it also improves your website’s overall search engine optimization, which may raise its rankings.

A new method of gauging the effectiveness of advertisements and developments in digital marketing is attention metrics.

Another key technical update in the digital marketing sphere is the emergence of attention metrics. Traditional metrics like clicks and impressions are no longer sufficient to gauge the true impact of digital ads.

Attention metrics provide deeper insights into how users interact with ads, measuring factors like:

• View rate: occurrence rate of the ads seen by a user
• Eyes-on dwell time: Average seconds the users looked at the ad
• APM: Average seconds of attention per 1000 impressions (new CPM)

These metrics offer a more nuanced understanding of ad effectiveness, helping marketers optimize their campaigns for actual consumer attention rather than just surface-level interactions.

By focusing on attention metrics, brands can assess and calculate the impact of ATL campaigns or A/B test creative in awareness campaigns.

In 2024, as audience engagement tactics change, Digital marketing trends

The way content is created and consumed in the digital marketing sphere is evolving rapidly.

Two major trends in content this year are the growing popularity of shorter video ads and the growing significance of user-generated content in advertising campaigns.

The way brands interact with their audiences is changing as a result of these trends, which also present fresh opportunities for genuine and deeper engagement.

Shorter video ads can quickly grab attention.

The tendency towards shorter video advertisements has gained more traction in a time when people’s attention spans are shorter—more than 25% of adults admit they would quit watching a video after the first 10 seconds.

Nowadays, brands are concentrating on producing entertaining yet succinct and direct video content.

Shorter video advertisements generally have higher completion rates and are more likely to stick in the minds of viewers.

This is due to the fact that viewers, particularly those viewing on mobile devices, are more likely to stay with a brief advertisement than a lengthy one.

Shorter advertisements are also more likely to be impactful and get right to the point.

Brands are using extremely brief but highly engaging YouTube advertisements in order to avoid the “skip” button, which shows up after six seconds.

In order to prioritize impact and brevity, marketers should reconsider their approaches to creating video content. It all comes down to providing value and grabbing the audience’s attention quickly enough to convey the important points before they leave.

advertisements that increase credibility and trust by utilizing user-generated content

Using user-generated content (UGC) in advertising campaigns is another important trend for 2024. Customer-generated content (UGC) is growing in importance as a tool for marketers. This includes user-generated content such as images, videos, blog posts, comments, and social media posts.

This content is perceived as more authentic and trustworthy compared to traditional brand-created content, resonating strongly with audiences seeking genuine experiences.

In fact, user-generated photos are five times more likely to convert customers than non-user-generated content and seventy percent of people will consider UGC ratings before making a purchase, making it vital to incorporate this type of content as the creative in your ad campaigns.

Including user-generated content (UGC) in advertising campaigns not only builds brand trust but also strengthens the bond and sense of community between the company and its customers.

Customers become brand advocates as a result of the encouragement of their involvement and engagement.

To effectively integrate customer content into their marketing strategies, brands must actively encourage and curate it.