The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing. Here are 5 changes my team and I have gone through lately. Each of these elements affects our daily work.
1. Instability of used advertising platforms
The mix of available and upstream or downstream advertising platforms is constantly changing.
Take Google Ads, the biggest player. Over the past two years, Google Ads has revolutionized businesses with machine learning (ML). First, competitive strategies using ML were presented, i.e. Smart suggestion and maximum performance. Secondly, machine learning is used to create and display the most relevant ads for each context.
With the above changes, the old Google Ads management style of over a decade is gone. There is no need to select and optimize keywords. Google Ads automatically optimizes keywords based on the pricing strategy and marketing goals set by the digital marketer.This change to Google Ads is the biggest change ever and has revolutionized how performance marketing works.
Meta, which owns the second-largest ad platform after Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads, is planning a big leap into AI with short-term adoption of tools for creators and long-term AI personas (targeting), according to Marketing Plonger. h. . . Zuckerberg said he wants to "charge" Meta products with artificial intelligence. Tech companies like Meta and Google serve millions of advertisers, mostly small businesses. Creating ads is a big constraint for small businesses that want to get the most out of online advertising.
Only 40% of Meta Reels' 10 million advertisers use it, according to The Economist. If Meta can provide AI-based tools to create ads (with images and videos) without the need for specialized designers, this could result in higher costs for smaller clients. These tools can also make it easier to create content that will lead to more users and more engagement on Facebook and Instagram. The day when a small retailer can create personalized ads using voice commands may be far off, according to The Economist.Consider two other platforms. The US online market data is presented here.
Since Musk's acquisition, Twitter has seen volatility. There are functional issues and failures, as well as a clear lack of business stability. On the other hand, there have been concerns about the safety of the brand due to the rise in misinformation and hate speech.
The advertisers are gone. Twitter ads have never been the centerpiece of your online media plans. Twitter's weekly reach for US adults is just 22%, compared to 63% for Facebook and 40% for Instagram. For media companies, reach is an important metric that determines the percentage of ad spend. Twitter's small footprint means it only accounts for 1.2% of US online spending, far less than other big sites like Google, Facebook and TikTok.
Twitter is also seen as a product that, unlike Google and Facebook, only dedicates itself to brand advertising and not performance marketing. Twitter needs to expand its reach and rethink its advertising product.
Here I present the fourth advertising platform, i.e. Tick-tock. It is prohibited in India. The United States has seen huge user growth and daily usage is high, especially among 18-24 year olds. This is a great option for marketers to expand their audience to this age group. Its popularity has led to the launch of Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, as well as short video formats in general. Short videos have taken social media by storm. Of the 64 minutes Americans spend on social media, they spend 40 minutes watching music videos.
However, as explained in a recent article by The Economist, short video formats like TikTok and Instagram Reels monetize lower than other ad formats. First, there are fewer video ads compared to other social networks (one of the reasons for the lack of video ads is that many advertisers, especially smaller ones, have not yet created video ads). So the click through rate is also lower.
TikTok is facing hurdles due to regulatory pressure in the US and Europe. If TikTok usage declines as a result, various short video products will be reorganized.
Impact on digital marketers
The examples above show quicksand, which is an advertising platform. No digital marketer can hope to depend entirely on one or two, and experience in one or two is not enough. Digital marketers need to be vigilant and constantly evaluate which mix of advertising platforms to use for their brands.
2. Running an e-commerce business isn't for everyone.
E-commerce is currently a fairly mature industry. There was a time when consumers were afraid to shop online, then there was a time (right after Flipkart went public) when every neighbor wanted to start an e-commerce business, but now none of them are more true. Only people with big money start an e-commerce business.
While the barriers to entry remain low and are likely to be lower than ever (with Shopify, UPI, fulfillment partners, Amazon, and other marketplaces), it is easy to succeed, i.e. build a profitable eCommerce business. . It usually took a long time to mature (for example, Amazon took 9 years to become profitable).
The company requires constant investment. E-commerce companies compete in large markets. There is a desire, rather an imperative, to be "no". 1, which creates the need to invest in the company in several areas, viz. Product development, technology, infrastructure, sales, customer acquisition, offline expansion, new product lines, markets, people and more.
Then the next contest. Millennials and Tier 2 and Tier 3 twins make extensive use of online transactions, with the number of e-commerce users expected to grow to 450-480 million in 2022 from 150-180 million in 2022, according to a Bath report. growth in 2027. This causes a FOMO mentality and an influx of investment from consumer companies in this D2C activity. E-commerce players need to maintain their investments in order to face competition from players with big pockets.
Therefore, e-commerce has traditionally not been a high return on investment activity. For example, online cosmetics retailer Nykaa posted a 44% gross margin, 5% EBITDA and less than 1% PBT in the first 9 months of fiscal year 22-23.
Impact on digital marketers
With only serious players left in e-commerce, digital marketers need to drastically improve their game, be better at their recommendations and performance in organic, social and paid marketing. For example, an e-commerce site should have a high-quality UI/UX and an extensive platform, it should have the widest and most differentiated product range, as well as high-quality SEO.
3. Online privacy issues and their impact on digital marketing
Apple's App Tracking Transparency Initiative, which began in early 2021 with the iOS 14.5 browser and requires apps to obtain user-generated content before being tracked in apps and websites, has had a significant impact on Facebook's ability to segment ads and other social media. networks. media sites like Snapchat that rely heavily on this third party data. More than 50% of US mobile phone users are iPhone users.
Secondly, GDPR law requires all companies to obtain the consent of EU users regarding the types of cookies they can place on a company website. Third, removing third-party cookies from Chrome next year will hurt Facebook's business even more. This triple attack can dodge the target effectively.
Google Ads is testing the Themes API, which runs in the user's browser and collects the user's general interests such as fashion, food, or travel. These large groups can then be targeted for advertising.
Aside from missing examples like Google Ads above, only sites with access to a lot of their own data (like Amazon) can hope to avoid a triple whammy for their ad revenue.
Impact on digital marketers
Any business that wants to run an online campaign needs to be able to collect their own data. Can the site provide something of value, e.g. newsletter and collect user emails? Can sales teams in commercial enterprises routinely collect email IDs and phone numbers of existing and potential customers at the point of sale? Digital marketers need to prepare their customers for this transition by directly promoting such data initiatives.
4. Generative AI
Today, with ChatGPT and GPT-4 taking center stage among other products, this topic needs little to no introduction. Like many other industries, artificial intelligence will revolutionize digital marketing.
AI has also been used quite a lot in Google Ads and should be widely used in Meta Ads (see above).
ChatGPT and MidJopurneys of the world now offer excellent opportunities for digital marketers. Copywriting, image creation, social media posting, and customer service/FAQs are on the brink of failure.
It must be understood that both content creation and copywriting were resource-intensive efforts requiring skilled personnel. Having a lot of quality content and ads is a huge advantage in digital marketing. And there just aren't enough qualified writers and visual designers.
Generative AI helps overcome this hurdle. A marketer who generates the right leads can create content at any scale, be it content ideas, blog posts, LinkedIn posts, and more. In fact, writing effective leads is like writing a good report, which has historically been part of any talented salesperson's skill set.
Proofreading, translation, data analysis, email marketing, market research, video scripting, targeting, and SEO will also change forever.
Impact on digital marketers
If a digital marketer has not yet created an account with ChatGPT or GPT-4 or any of the generative AI products and is using it for one of their marketing tasks, they should DO IT. The longer you wait, the greater the risk of impacting the future performance of the clients and brands you manage.
5. Beginner Trading
The rapid growth of digital marketing has led to a shortage of marketing talent. Most digital marketers do not have a marketing education and/or experience. Most of the millions of organizations involved in online advertising, SEO or social media also do not have adequate full-time marketers.
However, marketing is one of the two pillars on which digital marketing is built, along with online media. Without a solid marketing foundation, most of your digital marketing efforts can be ineffective.
Here are some tasks that only marketers are good at. write effective sales letters, build a brand, provide structured feedback on the creative your agency offers you, get the most out of your ad agency, gather customer feedback, and do market research. These and other skills are lacking in today's marketers. How can they get the most out of digital marketing?
Impact on digital marketers
Digital marketers need to improve their understanding of marketing, and experienced digital marketers can double their efforts by taking on the role of a marketing or brand consultant for their clients.
Sources:
1. “How TikTok broke social media,” The Economist, March 25, 2023.
2. “Year of Meta-Effectiveness Brings Big AI Ambitions,” Marketing Dive, March 16, 2023
3. How India Shops Online Report 2022, Bain & Company
Mirum India's latest report on Martech states that while global spending on martech accounts for 25.4% of the average marketing budget, over 66% of respondents in India spend less than 15% of their marketing budget. Experts are looking into why.
