Social Advertising Trends to Watch in the Coming Year
Working for many years as digital marketing experts in SEO, we’ve seen a number of dramatic changes in both technology and social media habits that change the way we market quite considerably. As the marketing world develops, it’s only going to change ever further – so here we’ve compiled a handful of social advertising trends to watch out for and bear in mind over the next year or so.
Digital spend will overtake all other advertising spend
TV has for many years been the predominant advertising spend most big brands invest in. However, in 2016, it’s likely that social and digital spend will for the first time overtake TV as the biggest form of marketing activity.
Mobile and native advertising will continue to grow
Alongside the increase in social advertising spend, brands will in 2016 continue to develop marketing specifically for mobile and tablet users. The channel already accounts for more than a third of all digital spend – and with smartphones becoming increasingly sophisticated – and tablets becoming a genuinely viable alternative to laptops and desktop computers, it only makes sense to target ads towards these channels.
Dominant marketing activity on Facebook
Regular users of Facebook have become a lot more selective and conspicuous about how they use the social media platform. Gone are the days, amongst most sectors of society, in which it’s used to predominantly share pictures of nights out…users of every age group have become a lot more used to curating their online profile and image, and this is advertising gold for most brands. Expect Facebook advertising to continue to grow, but additionally become increasingly smarter about how it targets the right people. Additionally, it is a huge mobile first audience.
Buy buttons
On most social media platforms, we’ve seen the introduction of ‘buy buttons’ on adverts – allowing users to buy products offered in one click. Facebook and Instagram have already capitalised on the potential success of this – and Pinterest are not far behind and will allow users to buy products as they browse.
Targeting and privacy
All proponents of marketing on social media now take privacy very seriously – and for good reason. We share more and more about our buying activity and lifestyles on social media, and extra privacy has allowed brands to be a lot more targeted and niche about how they market to certain uses.
Inn-app functionality
Facebook have already announced this, and as we head into 2016 it’s likely that other social media platforms will follow suit. Soon, you will be able access apps and articles within Facebook itself, allowing users to stay on the platform and navigate around at the same time. Messenger has already succeeded in this – consolidating all private messaging interactions in one app – whilst being branded by Facebook yet still seperate. Read more about Facebook Instant Articles.
We’re likely to see this list diversify and change as we head into the final weeks of 2015 – but if one thing is clear – it’s that social media advertising and marketing will continue to get smarter in the months and years to come. Although social media companies now know more about us than ever before, this is the perfect opportunity for businesses of any size to capitalise on a huge amount of data for marketing purposes.
