Mid-year Reality Check : 2024 Digital Marketing Trends (Wait, did everything change again?)

6 key trends taking shape right now and how you can benefit

Courtesy : DALL.E

Rhetorical question - How much can marketing trends really evolve between January to July ? Typically - not so much, but 2024 is not your typical year !

We saw seismic shifts over last few months in marketing landscape and some of our January predictions did not pan out, so a mid-year reality check is in order -

Key Trends

1. Trouble in Cookie land - Google rattles everyone yet again by reversing it’s course on cookie deprecation. (And what can you to do)

2. Voice Search Optimization - You get 5 seconds - With 72% US (27% worldwide) usage, Voice Search Optimization is critical to Digital Marketing arsenal. Best answers need to be under 5 seconds (And how to approach it)

3. Unprecedented rise of Retail Media Networks (RMN) - RMNs to contribute 10% of digital spend - that’s upward of $60 Billion (And how to benefit from it)

4. Short form videos through the roof- Dizzying acceleration in production and consumption of short form videos (And how to leverage the trend)

5. CAC headwinds continue - Customer Acquisition Cost(CAC) from paid media face the same double digit increase in 2024 - making it 3 years in a row (And how to mitigate it)

6. Notable -AI in MarTech - 2024 is officially the year AI in MarTech goes supersonic, with legacy platforms sprinting to keep up while a wave of newer players emerge.

All the above are categorized into either “New” or “Updated”. Read on

1. Consumer Privacy - Reversal on Google’s Cookie Deprecation Rattles the Advertisers - Yet Again ! 5 Year Old Saga Continues… (New)

We asserted this in January post - but it clearly didn’t pan out -

Google started deprecating third party cookies for 1% chrome users (30 million) on Jan 4th and will ramp to 99% by end of the year. It plans to replace the cookies with its own solution called Topics API, which enables interest-based advertising (IBA) without having to resort to tracking the sites a user visits.

Update

In July 2023, Google announced a further delay to this plan. They now aim to begin phasing out third-party cookies beginning early 2025. Google will develop alternatives to it’s troublesome solution, Privacy Sandbox, and allow users to make an “informed choice” about whether or not to accept cookies.

Why this happened

Over the past few years, Google introduced several cookie-replacement experiments for the broader industry to test, but none ever gained full support from industry partners and regulators. One of the latest solutions was Privacy Sandbox, which was kicked off in 2019 and raised serious concerns from both regulators and IAB, Interactive Advertising Bureau, an American advertising business organization that develops industry standards.

• Regulators’ View - Unfair Market dominance: This is one of the dominant reasons behind the delay. There are serious concerns from UK’s regulators - They believe that removing third-party cookies could further strengthen Google's already dominant position in the digital advertising market.

• IAB’s View - Expensive and not effective - IAB states in it’s blog that Privacy Sandbox will require substantial development and infrastructure investment costs for both buy and sell-side technology companies. Additionally, operational, business, financial, and legal processes for brands, agencies, and media companies will need extensive reworking. At it’s heart is the argument that more granular metrics such as event-based impression and click metrics will be abandoned in favor of more aggregated reporting that will make some of the higher impact analysis impossible.

In any case, Privacy Sandbox in it’s current form is Toast - So what does all this mean ?

As we discussed in our earlier posts - Future-proof your advertisement strategy if you haven’t done already ! This development is just another rude reminder on the volatile and unpredictive nature of how advertisement ecosystem is shaping up, and why advertisers need to be more in control. While cookies remain in use for now, this delay is a temporary reprieve and the industry must still prepare for a significant shift. Invest in solutions that align with privacy-first principles, leveraging first party data instead of relying on where Google takes us with its Privacy Sandbox iteration..

2 Rise of Retail Media Networks (RMN) - RMNs will be 10% of Digital Spending in 2025 (New)

Truth be told - This was not even in my top 7 list earlier this year but given how RMN spend has been on a tear, and on track to contribute 10% to digital spending in 2025 - it’s an undeniable and pivotal trend that needs to be surfaced

Time for some 101 first -

What are Retail media networks (RMNs) anyways-

Retail media networks (RMNs) are advertising platforms set up by retailers to sell ad space on their digital channels to brands. RMNs can help brands reach a captive audience on the retailer’s digital channels.

By 2025, it is expected to reach around $61 B in spend, roughly 10% of digital spending

How this works-

See the picture below - I just searched “laptop” on walmart.com and saw a sponsored ad from Chromebooks- isn’t that a great way to advertise on the “shortest” path to purchase ?

Compare this with conventional Digital ads, where brands have relatively little control over their digital ad showing up on some .com, OR little understanding of the audience that seeing their ads on paid search

Types of RMNs:

• Individual RMNs - Walmart connect, Amazon Ads and Target Roundel

• Connected Retail Media Platform - Top platform is Criteo Retail Media. Criteo is an all-in-one self-service platform helping brands purchase retail media at scale. The beauty of connected retail media platforms is their integration with multiple retail companies, empowering advertisers to scale using just one account. Some of the retailers that partner with Criteo include Walmart, Target, CVS, Staples, Best Buy, and over 40 other businesses in Canada, the E.U., and beyond.

How you can benefit ?

RMSs put your brands in direct path to purchase, provides access to retailers rich first party data and allows for direct attribution of conversions to the retail channel, thereby allowing for closed loop reporting and measurement.

All of that is music to our ears !

Brands are loving the higher ROI, while retailers are laughing all the way to the bank with their shiny new revenue streams. It's like the ultimate win-win: shoppers get relevant ads, brands see better results, and retailers cash in.

If you’re juggling a lot and trying to prioritize where your ad dollars go, RMNs deserve a spot in your playbook. They provide a more controlled, scalable alternative to digital ads or even traditional search for targeted campaigns

3. Dizzying Rise of Short form Video Creation & Consumption (Updated)

Short-Form Video Dominance: While short-form video was already popular, it has become overwhelmingly dominant content format with an unreal growth rate. TikTok is the major driver outpacing Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts with users increasingly favoring quick, engaging content over long-form videos.

Table below (Courtesy- ChatGPT with some crafty prompts) summarizes the meteoric rise on yearly basis -

Short form video is staggering 60% of social media ad budget and 70% of all video content consumed on social media. That is already 2X growth between 2022-now - and the year isn’t over yet…..

Credit - ChatGPT

Let’s unpack TikTok for a moment -

Ever wondered about the secret sauce of Tiktok’s explosive growth ? Hint - it’s in the algorithm - Interest versus Social graph

Unlike platforms like Instagram or Twitter, where content is primarily driven by who you follow, TikTok's algorithm emphasizes discovering new content based on user interests. It may sound like an insignificant distinction, but TikTok’s emphasis on an ‘interest graph’ instead of a ‘social graph’  is one of it’s secret sauce. TikTok’s algorithm very quickly learns from how users interact with the content they’re served in the ‘For You’ feed to decide what it should deliver to them next. The approach is similar to that of Spotify and Netflix

How can you benefit from the Short Form Video trend ?

• Prioritize Video- Relentlessly prioritize the creation of short, punchy videos that resonate with your target audience. Your creative teams are spread too thin - have them focus on what is moving the needle - storytelling in 15-60 second formats, testing different styles and tones to see what best drives engagement and conversions. Both creative teams and CFO will be grateful for the outsized ROI !

• Lean into TikTok - Ok- it took me a while to get here ! Initially, I struggled with the platform/brand fit , but after investing a ton of time , I think TikTok offers access to some of the most engaged, trendsetting, early adopters, creators and niche micro influencers that you won’t get anywhere else.

  I now feel comfortable with dipping my toe in the water and running different experiments with content that taps into niche interests. Track how different types of content perform and let the algorithm help you reach new potential customers organically. As with any other platform - Mitigate any potential brand reputation risks with ad placement controls, brand safety tools, exclusion lists etc.

4. Voice Search Optimization (Updated)

With 70% of US households (27% worldwide) using voice search -Voice Search Optimization is becoming the new "must-do" in digital marketing in addition to the traditional SEO. As more people yell questions at their smart speakers like they’re talking to an old friend, marketers are realizing that their content needs to be ready to answer back—in a conversational tone.

Why Voice Search Optimization is different

Gone are the days when keyword stuffing could do the trick; Now it’s all about natural language processing. Optimizing for voice search is like preparing for a pop quiz—because you never know how your audience will phrase their queries. "What’s the best pizza near me?" is simple enough, but try preparing for "Where can I get a thin crust pizza slice that tastes like heaven but costs less than my morning latte?" Voice search is pushing marketers to think beyond just keywords, and more about intent, context, and the quirky ways people actually talk.

How to approach Voice Search Optimization

Best answers are under 5 seconds. 72% of Voice search is local and on mobile. Think “Pizza near me” while driving. Key is to be direct and concise with answers.

Some of best practices for Voice Search Optimization include focusing on long tail keyword/questions, prioritization of local SEO, adding schema markups for discoverability, minimizing latency, and using conversational tone while creating content

5. CAC pressures continue from Paid Media (Updated)

I estimate that Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is poised to rise nearly 10% YoY in 2024 - yet again - making it 4th year in a row we see CAC increases from Paid media.

How to mitigate CAC pressures

I have written at length about it in my past posts where I discuss the hold grail of CAC improvement. The best way to mitigate is relentless focus on conversion - Focus on conversion rate improvement from the visitors - this could be a combination of marketing funnel optimization, improvement in converting sales qualified leads or improvement from other backend processes.

6. Notable: 2024 is officially the year AI in MarTech went supersonic(Updated)

While AI has been all the rage for a while now, we specifically call out AI innovations in MarTech as the prominent trend. Legacy platforms like Salesforce, Marketo, and Adobe are sprinting to keep up while a wave of newer players like Braze, Klaviyo, and Iterable are giving them a serious run for their money.

It’s not just that automation and personalization use cases are up by 80% this year—the bidirectional data flow that ensures all data sources—from CRM, social platforms, customer touchpoints—are more unified and accessible than anytime in past years

Finally - business leaders are developing and orchestrating MarTech with concrete end goals in mind. Marketing, Product, and Engineering are rowing in the same direction and great things happen when organization has shared goals and mission.

That concludes the reality/pulse check of marketing updates . I welcome your thoughts.

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