Insights
The world of digital has experienced an immense amount of change in recent years. As we move further towards a cookie-less future and the number of privacy regulations continues to rise, both technology and businesses have been forced to adapt.
Our heads of departments got together to discuss the trends and predictions for the year ahead.
Data, data, data. This has been a hot topic for a number of years now, pushing businesses towards new modes of tracking that respect privacy concerns.
Google has announced an official deadline for the sunsetting of Universal Analytics, encouraging the transition to a more future-proofed, data-driven approach available in GA4. Tools are also evolving to fill in the gaps of broken user journeys with the likes of modelling and automation becoming essential for sustainable solutions.
We envision more focus on GA4 and the privacy-preserving technologies within the platform, such as Consent Mode. Businesses need to have these in place now and get comfortable with them before third-party cookies disappear.
The numerous consent and cookie changes represent a huge shift in measuring the success of campaigns, as well as reporting and optimisation of activities. Automation has begun levelling the playing field with several solutions now widely available.
Several updates within Google Ads, such as Smart Bidding, Dynamic Search Campaigns and Performance Max, have made day-to-day tasks easier for everyone. This has increased the importance of supplementing solutions with insights and first-party data to optimise the technologies and stay ahead of the competition.
Facebook’s Conversions API and Google’s enhanced conversions are also two key examples of technology evolving to fill in the gaps between data, using login data to follow users on whichever journey is available to deliver accurate content.
Google rolled out the MUN (multitask unified model) update in 2021 which has influenced a more multi-modal direction in the world of digital. The development of apps similar to Google Lens has also gained significant traction, highlighting the urgency of optimising websites for all types of content catered for those multi-modal searches.
Tiktok has continued to grow at an immense pace and is going to be a consistent theme in 2023’s campaigns. Social media’s growth is beginning to illustrate when topics are really entering the media. Once conversations are happening on social media and TikTok, it’s evidence that people are searching and discussing at large.
Personalisation is a big part of what we expect to shape 2023. The launch of Google’s Ads Creative Studio has been a catalyst for the shift towards more hyper-personalised content, aligning with each user’s journey and what they’re expecting to see.
A similar shift in value-led content has steered this more personal direction. Companies are beginning to push content that isn’t necessarily about what they do or how they work, but more about what matters to them. This allows audiences to buy into them as a company and a personality rather than solely a service.
This movement is heavily influenced by video being the content medium of choice and is showing no signs of slowing down. Streaming online videos and downloads currently accounts for 82% of total internet traffic, indicating that a lot of content we consume online will be more video focused.
We also expect a lot of the bigger businesses to step foot into the Metaverse and experiment with virtual reality to see if it sticks with audiences.
Marketing over the past year has evidenced that everyone needs to be adaptable to change. The pandemic meant that marketing strategies got torn up and had to be started from scratch. This changeable world is something that is going to continue into next year with the likes of the cost of living coming to the forefront and impacting how marketers communicate with their customers.
Similar themes run through PR with the media’s focus shifting to the cost of living crisis and how people can be smart to save money and energy. Journalists are now looking for this more useful and practical content that will continue to steer the industry’s direction.
This year has highlighted the importance of agile and adaptable strategies. The growing number of changes across digital is driving businesses towards a data-driven approach, using data to fill in the blanks and overcome the mounting privacy hurdles.
Dive deeper into the data privacy landscape in our recent podcast and get in touch to find out how we can boost your digital performance.
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