Last year, we predicted six trends that turned out to be fairly spot-on:
- TV Shifted Digital: In 2023, cord-cutters and cord-nevers will surpass viewers of legacy pay-TV services. The tipping point is here.
- Creator Economy Gets Real: Influencer spending growth on social platforms outpaced ad revenue on every social platform, according to eMarketer. One trend we didn’t predict was AI influencers. Also, the White House hosted influencers and creators at a holiday party this year.
- Social Media Levels Off: Time spent on social nears its peak, flattening out at about 108 minutes a day.
- Brand Image (and Activism) is Huge: Gen Z values corporate responsibility. According to GWI, they “expect more action from brands as they put more onus on bigger corporations rather than individual action.”
- Automation and AI Goes Mainstream: This turned out to be an understatement.
- “Nimble Innovation” is a Must: As the social, political, and economic landscape continues to shift rapidly, marketers have to keep up. This will be true for years to come.
Here are the digital marketing trends we’re watching in 2024:
Programmatic Sustainability
Long supply chains make ads perform less efficiently and contribute to global warming. Serving 1,000 impressions uses the same amount of energy as running a load of laundry. When we auction an ad, we’re spinning up servers around the world using energy and creating heat. The average RTB-enabled publisher monetizes through 28 supply-side platforms (SSPs) and authorizes 16 SSPs to resell its inventory.
We need to think about optimizing our buying to increase sustainability. With that, we’ll start to see trends of SSPs consolidating and buyers getting smarter about which SSPs to tap into. Marketers need to find the most direct, cost-effective, and fastest path to supply with Supply Path Optimization.
Marketing Powered by AI
It’s not a “trends” post if we don’t mention AI. Meta is launching an AI chatbot including AI characters, some based on celebrities. Microsoft has genAI, and Snap created My AI chatbot. Google announced its Gemini AI model this month.
In the last year, our AI evolution at Mindgruve has become apparent. Our analytics team uses AI for approaches like additive regression and XG Boost to create our own AI models to project revenue for clients or rank the best zip codes to bid on. We built an AI-based anomaly detection system that flags potential problems in our campaigns. Additionally, the media team utilizes AI algorithms in most of the ad platforms we operate in.
Retail Expansion
We’ve already seen big players expand offerings into Retail and Shopping to compete with Amazon. We expect continued evolution across Google Shopping, YouTube Shopping, Facebook Shop, Instagram Shop, Microsoft Shop, TikTok Shop, etc. Walmart and Instacart expanded ad options in 2024.
Insider Intelligence says consumers will spend one in five dollars online by 2027. The largest growth is coming from essentials, such as health, personal care, beauty, food and beverage. Marketers can look to new retail opportunities in CTV with Amazon Prime Video. Non-endemic advertisers can consider advertising on Amazon’s platform or using Amazon’s DSP to tap into their walled garden data.
Attention Metrics as KPIs
Viewability tells us whether someone had the opportunity to see the ad but not whether they processed the information. Attention metrics are far more valuable, as they show how engaged a consumer was, how they interacted with that ad, etc. This helps advertisers focus on higher-quality inventory.
Vendors such as IAS are rolling out attention metrics in their brand safety reporting tools and we’ll be on board to monitor and optimize our campaigns. The other thing we’re tracking with IAS? MFAs — especially with the rise of AI. More and more useless sites are popping up everywhere.
Cookies Finally Deprecate
Maybe this will be our last post mentioning cookie deprecation, as they finally sunset in 2024. The focus will be on identity resolution, tapping into walled garden data, and secure, clean rooms for data transfer.
Conclusion
2024 will be pivotal. Marketers who need help keeping up with these massive trend shifts can tap into agencies at the forefront. Mindgruve is ready to help brands evolve into a modern marketing world.
