What’s Next for Digital Display

2018 Digital Marketing Trends: What’s Next for Digital Display

Where did all the cookies go?

Since the mid 90’s, using cookies to target audiences has been a staple in online advertising. As you kick off your New Year’s resolutions, not only will your diet see fewer cookies, but so will your advertising. While the nature of cookies and how they’re used is changing, marketers will still be able to put your brand in front of the right audience – with more accuracy and better results than ever before.

Besides snacking, what are cookies for?

Cookies are small text files that are downloaded into your browser as you visit different websites. Cookies remember your preferences on websites, like what local news you read on AL.com or your city’s forecast on Weather.com. They also track when and where you saw an ad and whether you clicked on it. Cookies revolutionized digital display advertising by allowing advertisers to take advantage of online data to reach individuals based on location, demographics, and behaviour. 

Why are cookies changing?

Cookies work differently depending on the device, whether it’s a desktop, mobile browser or app. Because mobile apps can’t share information with each other or with a mobile web browser, cookies are less effective on mobile than on traditional desktop. As smartphone and tablet usage continues to grow, traditional cookies are becoming less relevant and the rise of other targeting technologies will become more widespread in 2018.

What to expect in 2018 and beyond

Unique Device ID targeting: This type of cookie-less targeting is standard practice for location-based targeting like geo-fencing. Expect Unique Device ID targeting to grow in use and capability and adopt more sophisticated targeting options. Due to their hyper-local relevance, unique device ID targeted ads often receive higher response rates than traditional display ads. If you’re next to a coffee shop and receive an ad about a new beverage, wouldn’t you be more likely to visit the coffee shop than if you received the ad while at home?

Environment Targeting: Where will you find sports fans? In the sports section. This type of logic has remained relevant for events, newspapers, websites, and most recently, apps. With or without traditional cookies, classic advertising methods aren’t going anywhere. App and Device-specific targeting, as well as fixed ad units on specific site pages, will increase in 2018.

Data’s Reign as King Continues: Data is currency so information that is uniquely collected by websites (First-Party Data) will remain invaluable. In 2018, expect an increase in targeting based on a universal login (like how you log in to Spotify or Snapchat using Facebook). Also expect, self-identifying data to have a resurgence. Though you may not realize it, when you visit websites like AL.com, you often set your location, and read articles, and take actions to identify location and interests.

As we venture into 2018 and beyond, your body and your advertising will be healthier with fewer cookies. Advances in precision targeting will make ads more relevant for customers, contributing to higher engagement and response rates for advertisers. The future is bright, so go have a cookie . . . while you still can.

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Digital Marketing Trend Prediction For 2018: Give Up On Facebook

Digital Marketing Trend Prediction For 2018: Give Up On Facebook

When was the last time you scrolled through Facebook--and paid close attention to what you were scrolling through?

For most people, this practice is intended to numb the brain. We scroll when we're bored. When we need a break. When we want to feel like we're doing something, but don't want to do something that requires us to actually think. That was certainly the case for me today. I was homesick, scrolling.

All of a sudden, I started to pay attention to what I was scrolling through.

A video ad promising to teach me how to land my first Facebook ads client.

Another video ad encouraging me to sign up for a free webinar.

A long-winded status with a link to a book called Overnight Millionaire Secrets.

My entire feed was a mix of baby pictures, engagement photos, and people selling things. Lots of things. Pretty much everything you could imagine: 

Consulting best practices

Digital marketing "hacks"

Free eBooks

Landing page optimization

Social media workshops

The next entrepreneurial event featuring Gary Vaynerchuk

Facebook has become noisy over the past few years.

But in the past 2 years, that noise has increased exponentially.

It seems everyone is on the bandwagon in search of "passive revenue success." Everyone wants to know how they can arbitrage their Facebook ad spend against their $299 course on social media marketing--so they can make money while they sleep. Every "hustler entrepreneur" video ad starts with the phrase, "A year ago, I was homeless, sleeping on my friend's couch...". And all the while, very few brands and businesses have bothered asking, "Is Facebook where I should be investing more of my time and resources?"

To clarify: I'm not saying Facebook isn't worth keeping in your marketing mix. 

I still think it's the most powerful paid advertising platform on the Internet. I still see value in boosting certain posts to targeted audiences or keeping Newsfeed ads that drive traffic alive. 

But to anyone with a finite budget, to any brands or companies that want to get the most bang for their buck, or to anyone who wants to get creative and separate themselves from the noise, here's my advice (and prediction) for 2018.

Forget Facebook.

Go spend 10 minutes on the platform and see for yourself. Count how many times you scroll past someone trying to sell you something. It won't take long for you to realize that your brand or message (no matter how much you want to believe that you're "different") will get lost in the sauce. You'll just be another video ad, asking bored, glazed-over consumers to take action.

They're not going to. 

I have always believed that one of the best ways to find which platforms are best for marketing yourself and/or your company is to approach the platform without a budget. 

A lot of people would disagree with me. 

But when you approach marketing with zero budget, it forces you to get creative. It demands that you understand every single element of the platform you're working with so that you can get the most out of it you possibly can. 

More importantly, no budget means you will get some brutally honest feedback regarding the platform's ROI potential. 

Facebook is a platform for brands and companies with bottomless budgets.

As an advisor and consultant to a number of startups, I would never, ever recommend Facebook as a primary platform for a company that has the small to the

medium-sized marketing budget.

It's just not worth it.

In 2018, I really encourage marketers and brands alike to look elsewhere. There is more to Internet marketing than Facebook. 

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Top Digital Marketing Strategies For 2018

Digital marketing strategies for 2018:

digital marketing strategies for 2018 www.digisalesweb.com

Budget and strategy planning go hand in hand. As they’re both large tasks, it can be difficult to decide where to start. To help out, here are some top tips to make sure you include in your 2018 digital marketing strategy.

1. Keep a content calendar

The key to a systematic and effective digital marketing strategy is a content calendar. It will help you add structure and format to2018.

This will help you straighten all marketing content and assets with your marketing and overall business goals and put proper campaigns in place to target each of your guest segments.

You can plan digital content campaigns around key events, dates, and seasons throughout the year so that you can improve brand awareness and maximise audience interest all year round.

Can organize a content calendar in whichever way works best for you and your business, but we advise including columns for the month, preparation date, go-live date, the content topic, team member responsible, the objective of the content and the channels for publication, and circulation.

May want to add more columns to the content calendar to go into more depth.

2. Invest in video

By 2021, video traffic will make up 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic, according to research by Cisco. As YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, beaten only by its owner Google, it seems like the way to go.

Hosting a video on your site gives you the chance to showcase not just your property but your staff and excellent guest service as well.

Visiting your website, potential guests can get a taste of what it’s like to stay at your hotel by taking a virtual tour of your rooms and services.

If a picture paints a thousand words, a one-minute video paints 1.8 million, Forrester research has revealed.

Video content has the highest engagement rate according to global marketing agency Hubspot, with 55 percent of people consuming videos thoroughly.

Videos are six times more likely to be retweeted than photos. Adding an optimised and engaging one-minute video to your website will likely improve your organic and social traffic.

This will raise brand awareness and maximise the likelihood of potential guests making a booking as they get a feel for your property.

3. Target long-tail keywords

A surge in voice search has resulted in the improved effectiveness of long-tail keywords.

As interactions online become more ‘human’, people are posing questions to Google and other search engines as they would a real person. Get an edge on keyword competition in 2018 by targeting long-tail keywords.

This will allow you to zone in on lower costing key phrases while driving organic traffic.

You can easily strategize your content around long-tail keywords by adding a keyword column into your content calendar.

4. Optimise for local search (i.e. hotels near me etc.)

Local searches are growing twice as fast as mobile searches, figures from ‘Search Engine Land‘ show. With many apps automatically picking up on location, it’s important to optimize your direct channel for local search.

Consider creating top-funnel content to improve your ranking for location-based keywords and phrases. (e.g. Top 10 things to do in Dublin) and ensure your property’s Google listing is up to date.

Include a map on your website as well as content around events, activities, and landmarks in your surrounding area.

Leading marketing site, Search Engine News, has revealed that online coupons work really well for local searches with 70 percent satisfaction, so consider incorporating campaigns to target local searches, with exclusive discounts and packages for people searching near your property.

5. Reach out to influencers

Influencer marketing can be nine times more effective than other marketing strategies, studies have shown, with consumers being 83 percent more likely to convert if they have come to you from a referral source.

Beyond friends and family, these referral sources include people your potential guests follow on social media, i.e. influencers.

They trust these people, engage with their blogs and vlogs, their tweets, Facebook posts and images on Instagram and deem their opinions and recommendations to be credible.

Incorporate target influencers who are relevant to your target audience, such as travel and lifestyle bloggers and journalists into your digital marketing campaigns. Your strategy could include writing as a guest author for an influencer’s blog or magazine, or getting them to write about you. You could offer them a free stay so they review your property on their site and social channels and let the world know how good their experience was with you.

6. Get social

The benefits of sharing engaging content throughout your social media channels can be very valuable. Social media allows hotels to develop personal relationships with followers, spread key messages, and work with influencers.

Use Instagram to post regular enticing images of your hotel and the surrounding area. Share updates, valuable blog posts, images, videos, and promotions on Twitter and Facebook and determine which network your guests prefer so that they’re more likely to find you.

Encourage guests to follow you on your social channels and tag you in their posts during their stay.

7. Incorporate metasearch

A metasearch engine is basically a search engine that gathers up and presents information on your hotel rates and availability to website browsers so that they can find your hotel more easily online.

Metasearch engines like TripAdvisor, Trivago and Google Hotel Price Ads (HPA) differ from online travel agencies (OTAs) as they link back to the hotel’s direct website, rather than selling the rates themselves.

It’s unsurprising that Google HPA has powered ahead as the biggest generator of revenue for our partners. In the second quarter of 2017, Google HPA contributed nearly half (48 percent) of overall metasearch revenue, Trivago contributed 31 percent of overall revenue with TripAdvisor at 17 percent.

We recommend setting aside a metasearch budget of €500 per month. Our hotel partners have seen huge growth in the volume of direct bookings generated by metasearch.

8. Track your success

It’s critical to have an effective method of tracking your performance.

For every digital marketing campaign you set up, we recommend measuring the rates of traffic, engagement, acquisition and bounces it generates.

Set up regular reports that track the metrics that are most important to your marketing department and business as a whole.

To find out more about how we can help you improve your overall digital marketing strategy get in touch with DigiSalesWeb.com today.

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