There have been some fundamental shifts in the digital marketing landscape in recent years. In his recent webinar Rand Fishkin he explored how marketers can keep up with 2024’s biggest issues in digital marketing.
It’s clear there has been a massive impact by AI on digital marketing but that’s not all. Old, reliable tactics (such as the performance advertising barrage, the SEO + content flywheel, the influencer marketing takeover, and the big, splashy media launch) simply don’t cut it any more.
At the same time, other forces have become far more influential. We’ll break down each of these, examining the stats and challenges, and offer key middle east mobile number list takeaways to continue your marketing success.
- The death of trackable martech
- The rise of dark traffic
- The big lie of marketing attribution
- The end of the rising tide
- Living in a zero-click world
- Email: the last channel standing
- Other channels to consider
Watch the full webinar below.
The death of trackable martech
Marketing technology once promised to track and attribute the entire customer journey, from discovery to purchase, allowing marketers to assign dollar mga pautang sa maliit na negosyo sa montana values to each step. However, this trackability has significantly declined due to data privacy laws, increased use of ad blockers, and changes in cookie effectiveness. Multi-device journeys and the combination of apps and websites have further complicated tracking, making it difficult to accurately attribute marketing efforts to sales.
The decline in trackable data has made it challenging for marketers to justify investments in content, SEO, and other marketing initiatives. Google’s monopoly power has led to an increase in ‘zero-click’ searches (where users find answers directly on the search results page without visiting websites). This trend is particularly pronounce usa ceo d in the EU, where nea
Major platforms like Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google do not proactively notify advertisers of overcharges or false clicks, requiring constant manual auditing to avoid wasting ad spend. This situation has made it necessary for many businesses to employ agencies, consultants, or dedicated team members to monitor and audit their advertising efforts regularly.
Key takeaways
- AdTech is less trackable, and less reliable than in years past. Make sure you’re building and testing your own models.
- Fraud, misleading attribution, and easy overspending mean it’s critical to regularly conduct ad audits, and manually file complaints with your ad providers.
- If you currently run ads that rely on third-party cookies (in other words, almost everything outside Apple’s ecosystem), prepare for a massive shakeup in the next year, probably including higher ad prices.
The rise of dark traffic
The rise of dark traffic, also known as dark social, is a significant trend affecting marketers’ ability to track and attribute website visits accurately. Many companies find that their marketing efforts often involve people hearing about them through podcasts, webinars, or social media posts. However, when these individuals eventually visit the company’s website, the traffic is typically attributed to direct visits or organic search, masking the true sources of influence.
For instance, SparkToro’s own analytics show that 76% of their visitors come from direct traffic and 13% from organic search, accounting for 90% of their total traffic. However, this data is misleading as it doesn’t reflect the actual sources that led users to search for or directly type in the company’s URL. In reality, much of this traffic likely originates from various platforms like WhatsApp, Slack, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Discord, where people discuss and share links to the company’s content.
