Top Online Advertising Trends of 2019 So Far
Online advertising continues to be the dominant way in which businesses reach new customers, but not all strategies are created equally—tactics that leverage cutting-edge technologies are often quick to displace entrenched industry standards. With how quickly technology evolves, the landscape of marketing is constantly shifting, leaving many businesses behind. Thankfully, today’s article is going to present you with four of the most popular advertising trends of 2019 so far to quickly bring you up to speed.
#1—The Continued Rise of Video
Video is by no means a new form of advertising—commercials have, after all, been around for decades. What is relatively new, however, is its prevalence in the field of online marketing. For years, businesses have been focusing primarily on the creation of text-based promotional materials that could be easily localised and distributed on a truly global scale. It’s only recently that video has begun to supplant text for two key reasons—it is not only far more engaging to audiences but also encourages greater information retention. There are considerable start-up costs to creating a video marketing campaign, but the long-term reward has proven time and time again to be well-worth the effort.
#2—Connected TV Advertising
If video is becoming an extremely important asset for marketers, it will come as no surprise that they’re trying as hard as possible to get them viewed across all available platforms—this is where connected TV advertising comes in. The term refers to promotional content that is displayed across the interfaces of video streaming services, applications, and dedicated devices. Due to the limited availability of this advertising space, however, this form of marketing doesn’t come cheap. The cost per completed view—CPCV—can be upwards of twenty USD. Despite this, the industry has been growing due to the results offered—the relative lack of competition means engagement, awareness, and video completion rates tend to be much higher. Ultimately, the numbers seem to indicate that businesses willing to spend for premium access to lucrative demographics can make use of connected TV advertising to great effect.
#3—AI-Driven Customer Profiling
Effectively segmenting your customers into clearly defined categories is key to ensuring highly incisive marketing campaigns. Traditionally, this was done by teams of experts working around the clock to track consumption habits and purchasing behaviours to uncover any underlying patterns that could be used to inform subsequent outreach efforts. With the enormous amount of data available to businesses today, however, it’s no longer necessary—or even possible—for humans to take charge of this domain. AI and machine learning algorithms have become increasingly capable of drawing highly accurate inferences from even small subsets of data. Modern marketers are now leveraging the full capacity of these cutting-edge technologies to recommend new products that inspire conversions, personalise messages to generate a much greater number of leads, and identify underserved demographics that can be successfully tapped into. By unifying data and adopting the technology that can efficiently sort through it all, marketers are becoming more successful than ever before.
#4—Micro-Moment Marketing
Information is not only moving much quicker than ever before but also increasingly accessible—the global prevalence of smartphones and wireless connectivity has enabled consumers to access anything imaginable on a whim, prompting what are known as “micro moments.” These moments can be thought of as times where individuals are struck and captivated by a spontaneous thought. Whether they’ve caught the travel bug or are just looking for something to eat, these micro moments prompt customers to turn to the internet for answers, advice or recommendations, and are extremely powerful due to the psychological sway they carry. Driven by impulse, such moments have enormous potential for marketers. Through an intimate understanding of both their niche and the needs of their market, businesses can identify how to best capitalise on these impulsive decisions to meet the needs of their target demographics. This represents a radical paradigm shift where marketers are favouring timely, spur-of-the-moment marketing efforts that are product—rather than brand—focused.
Ever-changing and often unpredictable, marketing trends can be extraordinarily difficult for many businesses to keep up with. Thankfully, this article has presented you with all of today’s biggest online marketing trends to quickly bring you up to speed. While it may not be necessary to implement each and every one tactic explored above, identifying the ones that can add the greatest value to your operations will be of the utmost importance going forward.