MailChimp Moves Toward Becoming a Marketing Platform with Facebook Ads Feature
Oriented toward small businesses, the company wants to offer new features that build on the customer and product data stored in its email platform. Read more
Tag Archive for: Facebook ads
5 Digital Marketing Predictions for 2017
This past year has been an intense one, to say the least. But we’re finally nearing the end, and we’re ready to set our sights on 2017! Of course, in order to make appropriate assumptions about what will occur next year, we have to look back at some of the notable digital marketing predictions that came true this year.
Throughout 2016, we saw a rise in voice search queries, Google’s Penguin algorithm began updating in real-time, mobile-friendly sites continued to be rewarded, and so much more. Social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram expanded their arsenals, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology was such a favorite this year that Amazon was sold out of its Echo and Echo Dot devices at one point.
Since many of these popular trends are still pretty new, we can only expect them to continue to grow in the new year.
Below are some of our digital marketing predictions for the upcoming year
1. The shift from desktop-first to mobile-first will continue
Mobile search has always been an important component of SEO — and of digital marketing in general — so it’s no surprise that its role continues to grow as years pass. In 2015, Google released a mobile-friendly update to their search algorithm. Since this update, mobile-friendly websites have had the advantage over others when it comes to mobile rankings.
Today, many businesses are receiving more traffic from mobile search over desktop. In fact, Moz performed a study that showed 20 out of 24 industry niches note mobile as their primary source of web traffic. As technology progresses and Google continues to reward those with mobile-friendly sites over others, we have no doubt that the mobile-first trend will continue to rise and most likely overcome our desktop-first mentality.
2. Say hello to Progressive Web Apps
If the mobile-first shift comes to pass, it’s possible that the move towards PWAs will as well. Just as AMP (a code that optimizes mobile websites) took precedence in 2015 and 2016, PWAs, or Progressive Web Apps, may take center stage in 2017. Users are becoming less and less patient with page load speeds, and even a highly optimized site has trouble loading within 3 seconds. Enter: Progressive Web Apps.
They’re defined as user experiences that have the same capabilities as a web page, and are reliable, fast, and engaging. In other words, they allow a website/website page to work as if it were an app, without actually being an app. Although PWAs may not be suitable for every type of business, there are plenty that could benefit from them, such as content-heavy or real-time data sites, chat-related platforms, news outlets, and blogs.
As consumers yearn for safer, faster, and easier-to-use mobile-friendly websites, we can expect to see a greater prominence of Progressive Web Apps in 2017. They may even replace the use of separate mobile sites or apps entirely — but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
3. Live video will take over (at least with social media and content marketing)
Consumers have become accustomed to carrying around mobile devices and having practically anything they need right at their fingertips. Now, both brands and individuals have begun using livestreaming as a way to be more in-the-moment with their followers (capitalizing on that whole #FOMO trend of the last couple years).
In the past, brands chalked up their entire video marketing strategy to the hope that one of their videos would go viral. However, as video (live video, in particular) becomes a larger part of users’ everyday lives, brands are going to have to work on continuously creating quality video content.
Joe Pulizzi remarks on how video will become an important part of content marketing strategies in 2017 in an article for the Content Marketing Institute:
“It doesn’t take “Chewbacca Mom” to show us how big and important using video and having a visual storytelling strategy are…most brands [should begin] building a process and organization around the ongoing delivery of valuable information through video.”
As top platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat are incorporating live video, we can be sure we’ll see it grow in 2017.
4. Native advertising will flourish
Back in the good ol’ days, online advertising was defined by intrusive pop-up ads and annoying flashing sidebar ads. And it’s important to remember that most of those ads were irrelevant and spammy.
While there are still plenty of ads like this, native advertising has helped online ads become more user-friendly. And to ensure that users don’t click on unwanted ads, brands are required to clearly label these ads as such. Websites like BuzzFeed, Mashable, and even The New York Times offer sponsored content that relate the ads to content users are already interested in viewing.
Brands are also taking advantage of the native advertising potential on social media sites like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. With Facebook pushing their Promoted posts and ads and Instagram releasing it’s “Shop Now” button, we’re sure to see more online native advertising in the coming year.
5. People are going to want to SEE the data
Data is key to knowing the who’s, what’s, when’s, why’s, and how’s of your marketing strategy. However, that doesn’t mean analyzing data is easy. In all honesty, it can be boring and immensely time-consuming when done properly. Even if you analyze data every day, digesting all those numbers can be tricky.
Thankfully, there are plenty of data visualization tools that can help. As technology evolves, so are visuals; and as more data visualization tools become available, the more businesses are going to start using them. In addition, as narrative content grows in popularity, the need for visual storytelling grows.
Keeping these technological and content marketing trends in mind, 2017 is probably just the beginning of the data visualization revolution.
Recap
While we don’t have a crystal ball to know exactly what 2017 will hold, we feel it’s safe to say there is a lot to look forward to. What are your digital marketing predictions for the upcoming year? Leave your thoughts in the comments — we’d love to hear ‘em!
H/T: Business2Community
8 Fun & Noteworthy Digital Marketing Stats From This Week
The last several days provided an array of digital marketing data points, with figures aplenty about consumers’ search habits, mobile habits, social platforms, bad ads, chat bots and more.
The following eight stats particularly got our attention.
1. Santa Claus = “totally a dog person”
SLI Systems studied more than 5.5 million consumer searches on ecommerce sites during the four weeks leading into the holiday seasons, and it found dogs are more than twice as likely to receive gifts from their owners than cats. Purr-ty surprising, huh?
2. Insta-success
On Thursday, Instagram revealed it now has 600 million users. The photo- and video-sharing app has been on a rapid growth trajectory, adding 100 million accounts in just the past six months. Check out this six-year timeline to see its quick ascent in the digital realm.
3. Publishing anarchy in the U.K.
KPMG’s recent survey of 2,000 Britons found that 49 percent of them expect to download ad blockers in the next six months. Forty. Nine. Percent.
4. Irrelevance sucks, AGAIN
Speaking of bad ads, Fiksu DSP released a study on Thursday, most notably reporting that 77 percent of consumers are likely to delete an app if they repeatedly receive an irrelevant ad. It’s the second week in a row we’ve highlighted such a stat about brands’ lack of relevance.
5. Yikes, Yahoo!
With its Verizon merger at risk, this had to be a painful admission: Yahoo said Wednesday that more than 1 billion user accounts were breached in August 2013. The hack appears to be separate from the 500 million account breach that Yahoo reported this September, and it follows a history of security problems for the digital company.
So, Yahoo has 1.5 billion accounts? While there are obviously individuals with multiple accounts, just for fun, let’s imagine every user only has one: That calculates to 20 percent of the world’s population.
6. The potential marriage, by the numbers
This year, according to new eMarketer numbers, Yahoo will get $2.98 billion in total digital ad revenue worldwide, or 1.5 percent of the global digital ad market. In 2017, Yahoo’s net worldwide digital ad revenue is expected to grow to $3 billion, per eMarketer, but its market share will drop to 1.3 percent. Meanwhile, the researcher estimated Verizon garnered $1.41 billion in digital ad revenue worldwide this year, or 0.7 percent of the global ad market.
7. Ever-expanding web of influence
Meanwhile, new research from Conductor concluded that 80 percent of marketers plan to ratchet up their investments in 2017 when it comes to online marketing, SEO and content. The study’s results suggest that digital’s years of growth will continue for at least one more.
8. Chatty folks
According to a [24]7 study, roughly 29 percent of consumers stated that chat is their preferred method to contact a retailer when shopping online, making it the most popular channel of customer service over phone and email.
Bonus stat: the smartphone era
Hey, we’re not done! A Forrester Research study commissioned by SteelHouse revealed that 3 out of 5 marketers said they would prefer a single platform for media buying.
Double-bonus stat: Hey Phelps, you rule
OK, we have one more. Adweek creative editor Tim Nudd has selected Under Armour’s “Rule Yourself” spot, starring Olympic swimming great Michael Phelps, as the Ad of the Year. It has been viewed on YouTube 11.6 million times. Check it out below.
Google Launches Smart Goals For Advertisers That Don’t Have Conversion Tracking
If you’re not already using AdWords conversion tracking or importing goals from Google Analytics into your AdWords account, the new Smart Goals might be the next best thing.
Smart Goals are powered by Google Analytics and designed to help businesses that don’t currently have a way to measure conversions and optimize their campaigns. There are thousands of advertisers in this position.
The key distinction is that Smart Goals don’t measure actions taken on an advertiser’s website, like conversion tracking and Analytics goals do. Instead, Smart Goals use the anonymized conversion data of other websites using Google Analytics to identify visits that are “most likely” to convert based on Google’s model. From the announcement:
To generate Smart Goals, we apply machine learning across thousands of websites that use Google Analytics and have opted in to share anonymized conversion data. From this information, we can distill dozens of key factors that correlate with likelihood to convert: things like session duration, pages per session, location, device and browser. We can then apply these key factors to any website. The easiest way to think about Smart Goals is that they reflect your website visits that our model indicates are most likely to lead to conversions.
To set up Smart Goals, you’ll need to link your Analytics and AdWords accounts. In Analytics, select Smart Goals under Goals in the Admin tab.
A nice feature is that Smart Goals don’t get activated automatically. You can see how well the Smart Goals model is working for your site before activating it by looking at a new “Smart Goals” page under Conversions in Analytics. Here you’ll be able to analyze the behavior of Smart Goals visits and compare it to those visits not deemed likely to convert. In the (somewhat extreme) example from Google below, the Smart Goals visits didn’t bounce, visited significantly more pages and stayed on-site longer than visits the model did not deem likely to convert.
If you’re satisfied with the results, you can then import Smart Goals into AdWords.
With Smart Goals imported, advertisers can set a target cost per acquisition (CPA) with the Smart Goal being the acquisition: “In this way, you’re able to optimize your AdWords spend based on the likelihood of conversion as determined by our model.”
Google says Smart Goals will be rolling out over the next few weeks. Also note that to be eligible, the Google Analytics view has to receive at least 1,000 clicks from AdWords over a 30-day period “to ensure the validity of your data.”
H/T: Search Engine Land.
How Your e-Commerce Businesses can get the Most out of Facebook
Sites like Etsy, Amazon and eBay have made it easier than ever to open an online store and jump on the e-commerce bandwagon. Now advertising on Facebook is essential for success in today’s e-commerce market. For many online merchants, Facebook is more than a tool to drive sales, it’s a platform to market and sell products, build brand identity and interact with customers. But where and when do you start to place your ads? Who are you targeting and how do you succeed in reaching them successfully? Read more
Google Partner
