2. AI in Digital Marketing Trends
There’s no doubt that AI has dominated headlines and spun the heads of many marketers. In 2024, we predict continued exponential growth in AI capabilities which will require businesses to embrace the technology and stay ahead of the rapidly evolving landscape.
“49% of the value of the NASDAQ and 25% of the US stock market consists of just six companies, and they're all AI companies,” says Brian Corish, founder of AI-focused consultancy Elemental Intelligence and DMI Global Champion.
So what does this mean for marketers?
Marketing should take charge of AI strategy
There’s some confusion about what to do with AI. Because marketing departments are closest to the consumer, they can be proactive and push forward with an AI strategy. They can use the knowledge gained over the customer journey to identify the opportunities AI can bring to enhance what a business already has.
“Marketers have the opportunity to own AI because nobody owns it in companies at the moment. It's a great opportunity for marketers to say, ‘I'm going to grasp this and be the person who helped set the strategy, who decides what we're going to do and how we're going to use AI best’,” says Ken Fitzpatrick, CEO of the Digital Marketing Institute.
Corish believes the first step is to figure out what type of company you're working in, as well as the ambition for change and the resistance to that change. Then you can strategically identify and prioritize AI projects, getting any necessary buy-in from stakeholders.
When choosing an AI project, marketers need to decide whether they want to optimize processes, accelerate production, or transform the business model:
Optimize: Make your internal processes more efficient (e.g. using ChatGPT to write marketing briefs).
Accelerate: How could you use AI to make your existing products or services better? Look at the metrics that you could use and ask if AI would add enough customer value to increase the price of the product.
Transform: Could you use AI to create a new product, service, or business model? This is a great opportunity to go around the organization and have a conversation about the problems that people in the organization face and how AI could solve these problems.
Expert tip: When choosing your approach to AI, be aware of where your company is at. For example, if 80% of tasks are browser-based, there's a good chance that a lot of those will be automated. There’s no point jumping to the transform model if you’ve not audited internal processes.
AI is getting better on its own – fast
AI has been around for a long time but what’s unique about the technology is that it’s the first one that can improve by itself.
“Every previous technology needed someone to develop or deploy code or improve the product to increase capability,” says Corish. “The difference now is these AI models can increase and learn by themselves.”
Expert tip: When it comes to AI capabilities, don’t dismiss the platform’s capability based on its current maturity. Remember that the rate at which the platform is improving means that you need to revisit the tech and your AI strategy every couple of weeks or months.
Marketers should nurture new skills & co-create
There’s no denying that AI comes up trumps on the technical skill side and it is accessible to everyone. But what is it not good at?
“AI is the worst it will ever be right now,” Corish explains. “In our roles as marketers, we have to look more at our soft skills and reasoning skills because AI sucks at those things.”
It’s important to ask how we navigate an organization to get things done. That’s what’s going to be important in the next two to three years. Also, we need to look at how we co-create with AI.
“AI is not going to take your job. But someone who knows AI will. So the idea is to co-create,” concludes Corish
3. SEO Trends
SEO is changing and its future looks to be more user-centric and technology-driven. In 2024, those changes could be drastic as AI and machine learning help search engines deliver results based on user intent.
So what are the SEO trends we see in 2024?
Google’s Search Generative Engine (SGE) will grow up
Google’s SGE is transforming the search experience with generative AI. The goal is to provide more relevant and comprehensive information to users based on questions. SGE also provides relevant links and has a conversational mode where users can follow up with more questions – in essence, have a conversation with Google.
The experience is due to be rolled out in 2024 and Lam believes these new ‘AI snapshots’ will have a huge impact on search. “From a traffic perspective, we are anticipating this could potentially decrease clickthrough rates for websites below this snapshot, which is scary for us in SEO,” says Lam.
Expert tip: Proactively monitor when you're appearing in an AI snapshot. Because once SGE fully rolls out in (probably) early 2024 and you can access the tools to start analyzing, it will be critically important to let the data tell the story.
Create content that’s worth talking about & sharing
It’s always been important to create great content, but in 2024 if you want to appear on search results, what you create needs to be ramped up. “Your success is going to be tied to whether you can create content that's much better than AI-generated content,” says Lam.
In recent months, there have been rumors about backlinks dying off. In fact, interviews with Google employees have uncovered that backlinks are not a top three ranking factor. However, Lam believes backlinks will continue to be a signal of popularity to Google, especially when it is planning to corroborate its AI snapshots with sources across the web.
Expert tip: Google is surfacing videos in high-quality imagery directly in the SGE carousel. Although the quality isn’t quite there yet, you should expect that playable videos will become a really important part of your content strategy.
Create high EEAT content
Google’s EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) framework is not a ranking factor but a component of its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. While this framework has existed for a decade, this year Google added an extra E for ‘Experience’.
This is significant as AI cannot generate real-world experience like people can. This gives human content marketers an advantage and cements the importance of having experts write or inform content.
“As you develop your content strategy, think about how to weave in proof that the writer or person running your website has Expertise, first-hand Experience, Authority, and Trust, so they deserve to be listened to,” says Lam.
Expert tip: Make a checklist of all the EEAT signals that matter to your business and grid it like a scorecard. Look at what your competitors are doing to build trust and authority. Then grade yourself against all the things your competitors are doing and figure out how to improve.
Focus on conversion rate & UX
Google always makes changes that affect your ability to capture people directly in the search engine results page (SERP) with clicks. Unfortunately, that's out of your control. But you can control user experience (UX).
“You can't afford to have slow page speed and poor user experience,” concludes Lam. “You want to make sure that for every user that visits your site, you are absolutely maximizing your chance at converting them.”
Expert tip: When Mozilla shaved a second or two off its load speeds, it was able to improve its conversions for Firefox by around 14%. Small tweaks to your UX and page speed, and a focus on conversion rates, can have a big payoff.
4. PPC Trends
With such fierce competition for customers, paid advertising offers a way for companies to target their core audience with relevant messages. What makes the pay-per-click (PPC) model so enticing is that marketers can control their spending and stick to a budget.
Unsurprisingly, the leader in this space is Google. Worldwide revenue for Google in Q3 2023 came in at $76.7 billion, of which $59.6 billion was from Google advertising. This was a 9.5% year-on-year increase, demonstrating the appetite for paid ads.
In 2024, that growth shows no signs of slowing down but there will be developments to consider, particularly AI.
AI is an ‘assistant’ to Google Ads
In 2024, Google is going to roll out further generative AI tools into Google Ads. While this can be helpful, we also need to be skeptical because Google Ads is, after all, a moneymaker. The danger is AI will use design engineering and create biases in things like algorithms and ad layouts.
“Systematically, Google has been reducing control and handling a lot of the activities that search marketers would have typically performed over to AI,” says Cathal Melinn, Digital Marketing Director, Commercial Analyst & Ecommerce specialist.
This use of AI will limit your control of Google Ad visibility and performance. It will also over-optimize as it cannot use context or language in the same way a human can. Here’s a great example:
So what you need to do in 2024 is to view AI as an assistant to help you in your strategy, rather than see it as the only way forward.
Expert tip: In the Google Ads interface there’s an optimization score, where you can add the display network, allow Google to write your ads, turn everything on the broad match, or remove keywords. However, bear in mind that Google Ads is designed to make you do certain things you may or may not want to do. Make sure anything you do is for your benefit.
Avoid on-the-spot pressure
Don’t take Google’s word for it! No matter how long you have been working in PPC or search marketing, be sure to use your own (data-backed) judgment with Google Ad campaigns.
Over the past few years, Google reps have been calling up accounts and suggesting changes to ad campaigns. But there’s an increasingly aggressive script that they follow. This can make you think you’re taking the wrong strategy or not using the right features on tools, but Melinn recommends never deciding on the spot.
“Don't make changes on the phone with your rep because they may not be the right changes, and they'll be pressing you to do that,” says Melinn. “Just say no.”
Expert tip: Check out the founder and MD of Google Partner agency Paid Search Magic, Amy Hebdon’s article ‘Are you being manipulated by Google Ads?’ for further insights.
5. Digital Marketing Strategy Trends
The start of a new year is a great time to review your digital marketing strategy. It’s important to figure out what worked – and, more importantly, what didn’t.
A cohesive strategy can help you achieve your business goals, whether that’s growth or building brand awareness. However, the strategy also guides your team so they understand where to concentrate their efforts and what they are aiming for.
In 2024, a cohesive AI strategy will be a must, especially since only 15% of organizations have a clearly defined and well-understood one, according to Mesh-AI research. But what are the other priorities?
Data privacy continues to be a sticking point
Data breaches and data misuse cost brands, and not only from a monetary perspective. Data breaches make customers lose trust and show reluctance to share personal information, and this has an impact on your engagement and data capture.
86% of Americans say data privacy is a growing concern for them, while 68% are concerned about the level of data being collected by businesses, according to KPMG research.
“You've got to decide how you want to use customer data,” says Ken Fitzpatrick, CEO of the Digital Marketing Institute. “If you can be open and honest about that with customers and explain what you're doing and why you're doing it, there's an opportunity for companies to steal a march to be very transparent.”
Expert tip: Be honest about how your customer data is being used and give customers more control over their information. Look at the value you give to customers for their data and see if it’s enough. And keep up to date on what’s happening in data privacy regulations.
Managing customer expectations on sustainability
According to PWC’s Global Consumer Insights Pulse Survey, more than 70% of customers said that they were willing to pay more for sustainably-produced goods. This positive trend enables customers to use their purchase power to align with their social concerns, and it offers companies pricing power for a product or service that addresses these concerns.