8 Key Digital Advertising Trends That Will Take Place in 2018

True, there’s still much to do throughout 2017, and we still have many months of planning and meticulous strategy to implement. However, 2018 is just around the corner, and if we’re not prepared, it’s going to take us by surprise.

It’s essential that you get your business prepared for 2018 by learning the strategies that are going to take place. This will help you to stand out from the rest of your competition and get a great start when it comes to sales and promotion throughout the year. If you start the year great, you’ve got the best chance ending the year great.

Here to give you a head start in the digital marketing game, here are eight key advertising trends that are going to shape our every move in the upcoming year.

Continuous Ad-Blocking

Back in 2017, the number of users who installed ad-blockers on their mobile devices nearly doubled with an increase of 90%. As of December 2016, over 236 million internet users had one of the most popular ad blockers installed on their computer browsers. This has been continuing year or year and looks set for 2018 to be the biggest yet. This means it’s vital that you don’t just rely on ad-marketing by rather use a balance of techniques.

Instead of just using paid advertisements on publisher websites, in 2018, you’re going to need to start thinking outside the box. Try to think of new, industry-relevant ways that you can get your message and brand in front of your customers.

Of course, the main way to do this will through content marketing, but more on that later. However, there are ways that you can get around ad blockers. One of the most popular ad blockers, known as Ad Blocker Plus, is free for users and allows them to navigate the web, speeding up their browser experience and hiding those pesky ads.

However, Ad Blocker Plus doesn’t block every single ad. It does, in fact, operate what is known as an ‘acceptable ad policy. Ads can be whitelisted to this service and places are accepted on the basis of the size, distinction and placement of the ad itself. If it’s not the in the way of the user’s experience, you can still get your ads shown.

Bear this in mind when spending your budget on paid advertising campaigns. Here’s the link for how to get your ads whitelisted.

However, there will be some restrictions, and obviously, not all ads will be able to be shown at all times. This means that the ads you do use need to be clever and of the high-quality, such as the ones you can manage and create using Adobe Experience or AdRoll.

Bigger and Better Than Ever

As we all know, Google and Facebook have been the dominating force in the ad industry over the last few years. However, with all the implementations and features that the tech-giants are adding over this year and next year, the race is on to be bigger and better than ever before!

You’ll also want to consider other marketing giants that are taking the world by storm. In particular, you’ll want to draw your focus to Instagram and Snapchat. Although somewhat similar and each platform being each other’s rivals, both are extremely popular and if you haven’t already got an account on either platform, you need to do so now!

“Of course, this means you’re going to need to adapt and add to your existing content marketing strategy which takes time and budget, but the return and interaction you’ll get back from your customers are unparalleled” – explains Maria Williams, a Content Marketer at Write my essay company.

Stricter SEO Guidelines

SEO has changed in recent years from being based on the keywords that user’s use when trying to search for something to websites and businesses having to give their users the best experience possible. This means all businesses will have to up their game in 2018, giving users the most fluid and best possible experience.

With this in mind, as the year starts to draw to a close, you’ll need to start considering how you can improve your user experience. Your website needs to be extremely easy to navigate and well laid-out. One of the most important factors you’ll need to consider is the overall speed of your website.

You’ll lose about 30% of your users if your website takes over two-seconds to load and you’ll be ranked lower in the Google search bar. Bear this in mind when it comes to uploading high-quality images and data-heavy pages.

You’ll also want to consider whether or not your website works well on mobile devices and there are no dead links!

High-Quality Content

Content marketing is still taking off bigger and better than it has ever been before. However, instead of spammy articles, users are looking for really high-quality and valuable posts that can change their lives. This means businesses and marketers will have to proofread and edit their content (for example, by using Big Assignments or State of Writing online editing tool) to absolutely perfect or risk their hard-earned follower counts.

As mentioned in the first point, content marketing is, and has proven to be, the way forward, and it’s essential that you strive for absolute perfection. This means instead of spending your time creating 20 or so average articles to put out, instead focusing on putting 3 or 4 amazing articles that provide real information and value to your reader.

For advice and guidance on creating this kind of high-quality, engagement-creating content pieces, you can check out online writing resources such as Coursework service and Australian Help, two sites that are home to professional writers that have been keeping up with these trends.

Programmatic Advertising Boom

This industry and technique have been building up momentum all year, and it’s predicted that programmatic advertising is really going to come to the forefront of marketing early next year.

This means you’ll be able to bid for advertising space, all while receiving valuable information on your users that can help you define and target your audience much more effectively.

If you haven’t got started with programmatic advertising, now is the time to do so. You can start using online services, such as the Rubicon Project or Google’s own DoubleClick program.

Valuable Information

We’ve seen this consideration increasingly becoming important throughout 2017, but the value of your copywriting online will be one of the things that define you as a business.

Whether it’s your content marketing campaign, your website copy, your product descriptions, your contact page or the content of your email marketing strategy, you must consider the quality of your work.

This is because, as mentioned above, users are looking for the best experience possible and Google is looking out for high-quality pieces, website and content to put at the top of their search engine results page.

This means you’ll need to invest a serious amount of time and money into your content, rather than sitting down trying to cram as many keywords into an article as possible.

If, as you’re trying to run a business, you don’t have time to write the content for your website, your articles, blog posts etc. don’t risk uploading poor-quality content. 2017/2018 has also brought around a wealth of writing services, such as Custom essay or Academadvisor, who can create the high-quality content on your behalf.

It’s All About Video Media

This has been a reoccurring theme for many years but, what is known as outstream videos, are becoming more and more popular every single day and 2018 is going to be huge for them. It’s predicted it could even be as much as 77%!

An outstream video is a video that’s played on a computer or mobile device and means that advertisers can play videos outside the players, such as following a user as they scroll. This makes for a better ad experience for the user while still giving you the opportunity to advertise your business.

Hand in hand with the consideration on social media, you need to make sure that you’re taking full advantage of the features that are available to you.

Going back to Instagram and Snapchat, both are extremely heavy when it comes to visuals and, if you think creatively, you’ll be able to create your own niche and community of followers based on the content that you implement.

This means using the ‘story mode’ on Instagram and especially using live videos. It’s worth noting that only 29% of businesses have considered using the Live Video feature on Instagram, but it’s predicted that this will skyrocket over the coming year. Make sure your business is ahead of the game.

Chatbots are Taking Over!

Okay, so they’re not taking over, but 2017 saw a huge increase in chatbots, especially for companies. In fact, there’s over 100,000 of them already, and this number will only increase in 2018. Predominantly, on websites such as Facebook, although 2017 was a year of ups and down as the service didn’t quite take off as expected.

However, 2018 will be a lot different and chatbots are expected to be a huge driving force when it comes customer experience and interaction with a business. Once again, this all about building up this customer experience and making it as perfect as possible. Not everybody who has a question for a business has the ability or time to phone, nor wants to. Sometimes, international borders mean a phone call simply isn’t feasible, but they still don’t want to wait for an email reply.

“Many people would rather sit at their computers while chatting every few minutes to a representative from your business. Chatbot software and platforms are now readily available for businesses to implement and it’s well worth looking into as a business, especially if you have, or want, a lot of interaction from your customers” – explains Rosemarie Janssen, a Marketing Manager at Essayroo.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, many of the trends that are coming up in 2018 could potentially define the marketing industry forever, so it’s vital that you pay attention to what’s going on, allowing you to be one step ahead of the game and one step ahead of your competition.

Remember to think creatively and explore all the options, features and platforms that are currently available to you to find the best way to promote, advertising and spread the word when it comes to your business.

About Gloria Kopp.

Gloria Knopp is an advertising manager and a content writer for Paper Fellows. She also regularly contributes her articles to The Tab and PhD Thesis Writers blogs. Gloria is an author of Studydemic blog where she writes her guides and tips for students and educators.