Digital Marketing Trends 2023

Just like that, it’s that time of year again where we ask the team what they think the top digital marketing trends for 2023 will be. The digital world moves extremely quickly, and keeping up with these changes isn’t always easy, but to help maintain a competitive advantage, it’s important to stay ahead of the game.

That said, we’re here to ensure your marketing strategy is in good shape for the new year, and have rounded up our top digital marketing trends for 2023.

Short-form video content will continue to rocket

Year on year it feels our attention spans are getting shorter, and this is one of the reasons why short form content has become increasingly popular. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram have been quick to capitalise on this direction and have made it very clear to users that if they want their posts seen by more people, they need to be creating short-form video content such as reels (the algorithm demands it!) It’s clear that video is not going away any time soon. Short-form videos have become a source of not only quick laughs and memes, but for education too, in the form of explainer videos, product teasers, user-generated content and more. This has opened a new gateway for marketers and will see the most growth of any trend in 2023. According to The Drum, 90% of marketers using short-form video will increase or maintain their investment next year, and 21% of marketers plan to leverage short-form video for the first time in 2023, also the highest of any trend.

An increase in automation in PPC and Google Ads

Over the last few years, Google has moved more and more to automation with the biggest shift coming in the form of their fully automated Performance Max campaign. We have also seen the loosening of match types to become more flexible and the removal of granular targeting options such as display keywords within video campaigns. This looks to only be the beginning of a more major move into automation for Google in relation to their ads platform which takes away control from advertisers but places far greater importance on high-quality first-party data to feed the machine learning and algorithms the information they need to deliver ads to relevant end users.

Social searching

Google has been king of the search engines for many years, but now the world’s most used search engine is facing competition from apps such as TikTok, as users in their droves are seeking advice on travel, fashion, recipes and more on the app’s search function. According to a Hootsuite report, 40% of 18-24 year olds use social media as their primary search engine. This may be due to the app’s more personalised and relevant results, the ability to filter results by likes and views, and by just how quickly those results appear. For many, Tiktok has replaced Google as their go-to search engine, but don’t consider switching your ad spend too quickly, as Google still holds a 92.2% market share, and TikTok is only searching content that is available on the app and not the world wide web. However, it is important that this is on your radar if you know your audience may prefer this way of searching, and you may want to incorporate more social search optimization into your strategy for 2023.

Growth in audio

Video has long been in the driver’s seat of content marketing for some time, yet audio is starting to make waves. This should come as no surprise, with the meteoric rise of podcasts, audiobooks, and streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music in recent years. According to a recent survey by HubSpot, roughly 43% of B2C and B2B marketers plan to increase their investment in podcasts in 2023. This suggests that across all industries, brands are beginning to recognise the power of audio content, and may also look to enter the podcast world themselves. However, podcasting isn’t the only audio space marketers should be focusing on. Audio ads are also a strong format right now, as a lot of people tend to listen to podcasts while running or driving and are therefore unlikely to skip ad breaks, and given the number of podcasts available right now, there is an opportunity that brands should certainly be considering.

More personalised marketing

Personalisation will continue to have a massive impact on brand loyalty. For many years now personalisation has proven itself as an essential part of successful businesses. Personalisation is much more than using a customer’s first name in an email address, customers want brands to echo their needs and savvy marketers are now taking personalisation to the next level through AI-driven personalisation, location-based targeting, and zero-party data – to name a few. The most successful brands in 2023 will be the ones who are persistent in creating personalised experiences and actively engage in building a greater connection with their consumers to understand their individual needs.

These are a handful of our predictions for 2023, with many more that we will be covering in the New Year, such as what we think is next for Twitter and the future of sustainable technology, keep an eye on our LinkedIn feed to keep up to speed with our latest content.