5 Online Marketing Trends to Leverage

Online marketing is the main avenue for most businesses to get their messages out into the world.

The statistics in 2016 reveal that digital ad spending will surpass TV ad spend, which is a major milestone that has been coming for years.

In order to stay on top of the game, businesses have to be aware of the latest trends within online marketing. They have to know what they have to do in order to stay ahead of the competition.

This article is going to show you some of the online marketing trends you have to leverage this year.

1. Facebook Advertising Is Not an Added Extra

Facebook advertising comes with $16 billion in revenue every year and has far outgrown Twitter, which is the second biggest social media network. What makes Facebook so great is that it places your message in front of your desired audience. It has a reach that no other advertising platform can reach, and not only is that message going to a lot of people it’s going to the right people.

The statistics don’t lie. Facebook is taking a fifth of total Internet viewing time. If this is where most people are spending a significant portion of their time, it goes without saying that your business has to be on here. And with the acquisition of Instagram, Facebook’s reach has only grown.

Facebook ads are not a new option they’re the option.

2. Video Ads Are Not Just Flashy

Video ads used to be a secondary form of ad. They have evolved into the primary form of advertising because of the mobile revolution. Most people are browsing on phones these days, and so they don’t have time to read lots of written content. A video will say 10,000 words in just 30 seconds, allowing you to get your message across in the limited time you have.

YouTube’s revenues are going up and other platforms are prioritizing video ads, including Facebook. There’s a huge amount of interest and companies are having a lot of success with them.

Typically, a video ad is more accessible than ever before. You no longer need to worry about spending a lot of money on making a video ad. You can make one for a small amount of money, and it doesn’t require any expensive equipment to make it happen. Video ads are the biggest trend for 2016, and this is going to be a trend that continues long into the future.

3. Audience Targeting Arms Race Continues

Facebook’s advanced audience targeting options are the most advanced in the world today. But using Customer March and Remarketing Lists for Search Ads, Google is quickly catching up on its main social media rival. Advertisers are becoming spoiled for choice.

Advertising providers are realizing that performance does matter if they are going to keep their revenues increasing. They need to make sure that their clients are making money or they are just going to stop spending. It’s why both Google and Facebook are investing so much in helping advertisers reach their target audience.

And you can target your audience on your own site like this site does, so you don’t have to leave Facebook or Google in order to perform more research or to do anything fancy. It’s possible to manage everything on a simple platform, thus making audience targeting easier and more convenient.

4. Last-Click Attribution Comes to an End

Last-click attribution hasn’t disappeared entirely, but the version we know and love is set to disappear. Google AdWords is already playing around with it. It comes with the revelation that Google has acknowledged that branded keywords and last-click conversions are not everything in the world of digital marketing any longer.

Google is trying to encourage advertisers to think about the digital marketing funnel as a whole. Advertisers want to invest more in non-branded paid search options, so it makes sense that Google is going to react to this.

Again, this can only be attributed to the increasing level of competition from the likes of Facebook. Changes are going to come faster just because Google wants to make sure that its main source of revenue isn’t threatened. So get ready to adapt.

5. Top of the Funnel Concentration

Marketers are going to have to come up with a complete digital marketing strategy that takes into account the entire marketing funnel if they are going to cover all available platforms. People are going to have to take into account the search side, the social side, and their own site when coming up with a digital marketing strategy that works.

Social media and video ads are becoming a huge part of the top of the marketing funnel. Some people even believe that the amount of spending on social media will surpass that of search. And that has to have Google extremely worried about their future revenues.

What’s Going to Happen Next?

The most jarring change of all is the fact that changes seem to be happening at a faster pace than ever before. Previously, from year to year, it was common to see trends. The problem is these trends now are moving from month to month, and so you need to be aware of what’s going on in the wider industry at all times.

As of now, what happens next is that the arms race between Facebook and Google is only going to grow in intensity. This is good news for advertisers because it means they are going to get more competitive deals. It’s also going to encourage further innovation. Change is going to happen at a faster rate, and that can only mean good things for ordinary companies.

So what does all this mean for you? If you have yet to come up with a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, you are behind the competition and that has to change. Begin thinking about where your target audience is hanging out and how you are going to reach out to them. Then determine where you are going to start testing.

The time to start doing this is now. How are you going to make sure that you continue to bring in new customers today?

Dominate Your Niche: 5 Online Marketing Trends to Leverage