Top 5 digital marketing trends to watch out in 2024

In the ever-evolving realm of digital marketing, staying ahead of the curve is not just a choice but a necessity. As we step into the new year and form a goal resolution and to-do list for 2024, it’s definitely time to upgrade it with new tendencies that present marketers with new challenges and exciting opportunities. That way, you will be ready to constantly change the marketing landscape and adapt an ad strategy on time. 

So, let’s dive into digital marketing trends for 2024.

AI becomes closer to marketers

AI is a hot topic these days, and rightfully so. After years of developing AI & ML-learning technologies, it uncovers great potential for digital marketing. For marketers, it’s easier and faster to create ad copies, generate ad creatives, and so on. So, it is no wonder they delegate more marketing routines to Artificial Intelligence.

Source: hootsuite

Moreover, AI is changing the game of customer service and interaction with consumers. AI-powered chatbots allow brands to be in touch with their clients 24/7, sorting customers’ issues in real-time and saving them valuable time waiting for the brands’ response. Likewise, it offers an incredible level of ad content personalization that allows brands to offer their target audience what they want. In turn, it significantly drives customer loyalty, satisfaction, and, even more, brands’ profit. That’s why implementing AI-based technologies into marketing will become a norm in 2024, especially if we consider that the expectation of 80% of users is for AI-powered interactions to significantly enhance their service experiences.

What does it mean for brands?

Although AI solutions provide brands with great benefits, they bring them a bigger responsibility—the responsibility of transparency and safe usage of customer data, the responsibility of legal and brand compliance, and many more. So, it’s important to consider all these points to develop your brand safely and efficiently, as losing some points may damage your company’s reputation.  

It is worth remembering that Artificial Intelligence is just a machine. It cannot know all the nuances of brands’ target audience, behavior, and necessities. So, checking and adapting all AI-generated advertising content for brands’ target audience is essential. Also, remember that it could make serious mistakes. It could be a helpful tool, but delegating all marketing tasks to that tool is not a good idea. For instance, developing a media strategy is better to trust specialists in this sphere than machines. Only the combination of human input and technology will power your brand and open a new age of digital marketing.

Higher personalization rate

It should come as no surprise that we currently live in a digital era. The biggest “side effect” of this digital life has become unbearable competition and the necessity to overcome information noise. If you have a business and are not trying to stand out from the crowd and catch users’ attention, you are choosing to get left behind, as nowadays, users pay attention only to information that is relevant to them. And personalization is a fundamental tool for providing relevant ad experience and catching attention. 

With the development of AI-based technologies, it’s become easier and faster to personalize ad creative and provide relevant ad experience for a target audience. AI algorithms are becoming increasingly sophisticated, allowing marketers to analyze vast amounts of data to understand individual preferences and behaviors. This level of insight enables hyper-personalization, where advertisements are tailored to the unique tastes of each consumer. The result? More relevant and engaging interactions that foster brand loyalty in an era where personalization is king.

How to lean into this trend?

Use tools that help you speak one language with your audience, such as Programmatic technology. Programmatic was designed to deliver relevant ad messages to a certain user based on their interests in a particular topic. It became possible due to ML algorithms at the core of the Programmatic platform. These algorithms analyze big data in real-time to reveal users’ behavioral patterns, interests, and preferences. After that, they choose an ad creative that most of all matches users’ interest from a package of creatives, and display it for a certain user. It helps brands provide users with personalized experiences and attract more audience attention. (learn more about Programmatic technology here)

Also, it’s important to note that 75% of users who shop online use multiple channels before making a purchase. If you want to succeed, you need to diversify marketing efforts and use different ad channels to meet a target audience where it is. Programmatic works through all stages of the sales funnel and supports digital channels, so you will be able to be on each point of your target audience’s customer journey. (learn more about what is customer journey and customer journey map here)

Although Programmatic is an incredibly powerful tool for brands, it’s too fast for a person to react. So, the element of human presence remains necessary for Programmatic—even if it is a high-technology development sphere. Despite the automated process of searching and choosing an audience for advertising, advertising campaigns couldn’t be changed without specialist intervention. Ultimately, effective Programmatic advertising depends on the people behind the setting of the campaign.

Working with experts can help brands get the most out of their Programmatic ad campaigns across various digital channels. In this case, managed service from NT Programmatic Platform is a perfect solution to achieve your goals. Contact us today. Our team will help you achieve any marketing goals.

Short video on the rise

The reign of video as the preferred content format shows no signs of slowing down in 2024. Short-form videos and interactive video content are capturing the attention of audiences across social media platforms. Marketers are harnessing the power of video to tell compelling stories, showcase products in action, and connect with their audience on a more personal level. As attention spans shrink, video’s ability to convey messages quickly and effectively makes it an indispensable tool for digital marketers.

For example, it’s already actual for baby boomers. The popularity of TikTok as the app for interaction with brands and influencers has grown by 57% (learn more about efficiency advertising in TikTok here).

How to lean into this trend?

It seems marketers don’t have any choice but to adopt video in marketing strategies. You can choose a video format that matches your goal and is more convenient for you. For example, you may run ad videos on social networks such as Instagram (in stories or posts) or TikTok to boost users’ interest, engagement, and awareness or try native out-stream videos to maintain product demand. Whatever you choose, remember that video is always about telling stories. Building understanding with your audience requires a simple and familiar language. 

It’s worth considering that if a brand’s target audience is mobile-oriented, then you need to adapt video ads for mobile devices.

Social media is a new search engine

Another big marketingtrend to watch out for is the rising popularity of social media among users. In 2024, consider the many ways consumers use social networks. Nowadays, more than 4.7 billion users use social media platforms, spending 30% more time each day. The essential question is, how do they really use these platforms? They no longer open it only for entertainment and keeping in touch with their friends. In fact, 67% of TikTok users use it for brand discovery and new places for shopping. 

Source: retail-assist

How to lean into this trend?

Obviously, try social media. If your target audience actively uses social networks and your brand isn’t still there, your business is losing money. However, it’s not obligatory to have a blog to ensure a brand’s social media presence. You can run social media advertising across popular platforms among your target audience. The greatest benefit of such type of advertising is the native interaction with potential clients. An advertisement, for example, promo posts or stories on Instagram, integrates organically in feeds, so users don’t skip these advertisements like aggressive advertising or even like ads. That’s why they are positive about such advertising. Likewise, if they like it, they will share promo posts with friends, driving the organic reach of your campaign.

In this case, you may also use Programmatic technology. The main reason is that Programmatic allows brands to launch all necessary digital channels and track their performance in one place. That way, if you want to launch display ads and social ads at the same time, you do not need to use different platforms; Programmatic platforms support both of them. It significantly saves you time developing your business.

Moreover, you will be able to use different channels to communicate with your customers through CJM. By implementing different channels in one media mix through one Programmatic DSP, they created a synergy between them, improving the performance of each ad channel. As the platform gets much more user data from different channels, it learns faster and finds high-intent users in social media (or other channels) properly and quickly. So, marketers may achieve their goals and boost brands’ profit.

Let us give you one example of our client who applied to NT Technology in order to launch a wide awareness- and performance-focused ad campaign. The client and his team were faced with ever-changing customer needs and preferences, a booming of competitors, and a reduction in marketing staff. Simultaneously, the client’s social media campaign reached a plateau and didn’t deliver any results. That’s why he needed a complex solution to sort it out. Choosing a Programmatic solution from NT, he increased the efficiency of all ad campaigns by 2.3 times and increased brand awareness by 3.1 times. Also, social media campaign performance increased 2.4 times.

Cookieless future just around the corner

One of the most significant shifts in digital marketing is the move towards a cookieless future. With increased privacy and data protection concerns, major browsers are phasing out third-party cookies, and more platforms tend to protect website visitors’ data. Google has already started testing Tracking Protection since January 4, 2024. This feature limits access to cookie data for websites and others. They applied it for only 1% of users now, and by the end of the year, it would apply to everyone.

How to lean into this trend?

Brands will need to find a way to deliver an ad message to their target audience without cookies. You will still be able to use first-party data. So, it’s a good point to think about how to motivate users to leave it for you. Also, a good alternative may be to use a Programmatic platform with their own DMP for custom audience segments (for instance, NT DSP). So, don’t panic and have a knee-jerk reaction; stay calm and choose solutions that match your goals and necessities.

Bottom line

From using AI, hyper-personalization, and short videos to a cookieless future, these marketing tendencies in 2024 will shake digital marketing this year. In order to stand up from the curve and achieve success in 2024, don’t forget to adapt your marketing and advertising strategy to the new realm. The thing is, you may face a lot of challenges doing it alone as you need to consider a lot of nuances. In this case, it’s better to share responsibilities with AdTech professionals, such as NT Technology, and rely on them. For your launch, our team will develop a media strategy and cast media mix with your marketing goal-focused ad channels. We will consider all details and carefully track ad performance to optimize your campaign and maximize results. So, if you want to get strong results and grow your business, contact us today. Our team will take care of it and help you achieve any marketing goal.