With the rapidly expanding capabilities of the digital advertising landscape, it is practically impossible for marketers to keep up. Check out our top 7 hottest digital advertising trends for 2018 below and stay on your toes as we kick off the new year.
- Identity Data and Personalization Implementation – By pooling data resources, advertisers are able to create highly personalized experiences for users based off of the “identity” or demographic the users fits. Who doesn’t like feeling special? Personalization makes consumers feel like they are important and included in a brand’s community.
- Social Messaging Apps Folded Into Communications – Many brands are turning to Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and even SnapChat to converse with their consumers – meeting where it’s most convenient for them (in the apps they’re already using!). Some companies have tested using the platforms to make restaurant reservations, review products, provide customer feedback and research, and much more.
- Additional Artificial Intelligence (AI) Investments – Chatbots allow businesses to stay in touch with their consumers virtually 24/7. Investing time to create a system that appears to be genuine and not robotic will increase user experience and provide the quality, immediate responses that consumers have grown to expect.
- Professionalization of Live Videos on Social Media – All of the core social media platforms have added some variation of a live video feature. Long gone are the days of the shaky, hand-held live video. Big businesses will now begin to invest resources in to polishing this method of communication with social media users, offering high-quality, high-resolution, and well-produced live videos.
- Voice Marketing on the Rise – With the growing number of consumers turning to Alexa, Siri and smart fridges for the answers to their questions, marketers need to be proactive and curate content that caters to voice queries and makes the experience just as meaningful and informative as a digital experience online.
- Prioritization of Mobile-First Search Indexing – Smartphones reign supreme over desktops when it comes to browsing the internet. On-the-go users need to be catered to, and Google is making it a requirement in order to rank higher on their search results page. Though a hard start date for mobile-first search indexing has not officially been announced, marketers need to be prepared and have their websites optimized for mobile users sooner rather than later.
- Ad Fraud Will Continue to Rise – Marketers need to beware that there are scammers out there selling ad space on websites that they have no access to – or are creating fake versions of authentic sites to trick marketers in to believing they are legitimate. Adloox estimates that $16.4 billion in ad fraud occurred in 2017 worldwide. Don’t let yourself fall victim to this fraudulent scheme.
Marketers should use the above trends to their advantage in order to capitalize on the growing expectations of consumers, as well as protect themselves against the increasing number of online scams. Only the best, and most seasoned, marketers can anticipate all of the twists and turns of the ever-changing digital landscape, but we hope these must-watch trends give you a kickstart in 2018.