According to eMarketer, by 2020, digital media ad spending will grow by 15.5% to reach $384.96 billion. That willbe 53.6% of the total media ad spending, up from 50.1% in 2019.
Despite the looming possibility of a global economic slowdown, or perhaps driven by it, advertisers are not afraid of increasing their ad spend. In many ways, digital is still driving continuous growth for them.
Google, Facebook, and Alibaba are the major ad sellers, with 2019 net digital ad revenues at $103,73, $67.37, and $29.20 billion, respectively. This isn’t to conclude that digital will overwhelm other media in 202. But, advertisers will continue to strategically find a balance between the traditional and digital modes of advertising.
As we move into 2020, let’s look at the top trends we can expect to see.
Digital Ads and Media Trends Moving into 2020
Native Advertising
The aim of native advertising is to be unobtrusive and yet provide value-driven content within channels, sites, and feeds. Companies driving ads in this space are not talking about their services or products, but essentially showcasing their relationship with the broader community.
When executed correctly, native advertising can be share-worthy for the audience as it offers standalone value to the viewer beyond talking about product or service. As native ads reflect the look and feel of the media format where they are displayed, they gain higher engagement and response. Some popular formats we might get to see more of in 2020 are-
- Recommended posts/resources
- In-feed ads on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram
Digital Video
According to IAB’s 2019 Video Advertising Spending report, videos will keep on driving all-time highs in digital ad spend. Marketers reveal that digital budgets have increased by 25% YoY and that 86% of marketers are using digital video content in their marketing campaigns.
Shorter, bumper ads were a huge rage in 2019. Compelling content caught the eye of the audience.YouTube and Google both supported 6-second long ads as a way for brands to deliver creative advertisements and extend their reach within a short span.
AI in Advertising and Media
?Artificial intelligence is a promising technology for various business functions, including, obviously, advertising and digital marketing.
By the year 2020, 60% of organizations will be using AI to drive digital revenue. Artificial Intelligence, in itself, is expected to grow into a $ 190 billion industry by 2025. And 71% of B2B marketers are inclined towards using AI for personalization.
Currently, businesses are using artificial intelligence customer service chatbots, product recommendations, content creation, email personalization, and several other functions. As the technology gets more mature, we can expect to use it to drive engagement through hyper-personalized advertising.
Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising uses elements of Artificial Intelligence to deliver ads so that marketers can target more specific audiences. Real-time bidding is a kind of programmatic ad purchasing. This automation makes the process more efficient and quicker, leading to high conversions and low customer acquisition costs.
As digital advertising evolves, according to e-marketer, 86.2% display ads in the United States will be programmatic by 2020.
Ads Targeting and Hyper-personalization
For a standout presence in 2019, businesses will need to personalize their marketing, including content, advertisements, products, and emails.
Consider this. 63% of customersreportannoyance with generic advertisements. And 90% of consumers claim that they find personalization appealing. Gamifying and personalizing advertisements will allow businesses to differentiate themselves in an overcrowded market. And it will help their ad strategies deliver greater impact.
Micro-moment Targeting
Micro-moments are moments when a user turns to a device to take action on whatever they need or want right in the moment. People are increasingly making instant decisions on what to eat, where to go, and what to purchase by performing searches in the moment.
As Google puts it, marketers will have to be there, be useful, and be quick to leverage micro-moment marketing in 2020. When users act on their needs in the moment, their expectations are high, and patience is low. This makes quality, relevance, and usefulness of content in advertising more important than ever.
Social Media Stories and Ads
Worldwide, nearly 4 billion people use social media. This suggests that brands now have a larger opportunity to reach audiences than ever before. However, more people are now choosing to detox from social media by switching social channels off for a specific period of time to regain their balance.
Ultimately, for marketers and advertisers, offering more consistent value on social remains the key to social media success. Using genuine social media influencers and word of mouth advertising will also be a heavy trend going into 2020. Brands are also using social media stories to gain more traction as users interact with them just as well as they do with posts in their feeds.
Changes in the industry– Facebook implementing limits on how many ads a page can run in 2020
Several changes await us going into 2020, including a major change from Facebook expected to hit us mid-2020. As part of its latest Graph and Marketing API update, Facebook announced it will soon implement limits on how many ads a page can run at a time.
Facebook said the ads limit will affect only a handful of advertisers and that more information on the limit will be shared early next year. Facebook cited that very high ad volume can hinder an advertiser’s performance. When too many ads run at the same time, fewer ads pass out of the learning phase and more budget is spent before the delivery system optimizes an ad’s performance.Other changes as part of this update include the elimination of several video ad metrics and updates to business messaging options. Quite clearly, there is a lot for advertisers to look forward to in 2020. It promises to be a year full of action and impact.
