OnlineMarketing22Classic keyword campaigns will lose relevance in the future. Advertisers must finally establish alternative solutions to third-party cookies and encourage the user to accept consent management with good content. In addition, diversity is becoming more and more popular in advertising and social networks. The digital marketing world will continue to be dynamic in the coming year and advertisers should keep an eye on the most important trends for 2022.

Companies that are now putting their Internet advertising to the test can expect a conversion rate that is as good in the future as it has been before. At least that’s the conclusion of the Google Ads agency Smarketer that has put together the trends that will determine the advertising world in 2022.

An important trend in the coming year will be the cross-channel Google Performance Max campaigns, which Google presented this year as an alternative to the classic keyword campaign. Google Performance Max campaigns focus on conversion goals with the help of user signals instead of being based on keywords – and combine search, display, YouTube, Discover and other advertising platforms. Even if new AI algorithms take over many tasks that the account manager was responsible for in the past, this will not become superfluous. On the contrary: "The account manager must understand the KPIs across all channels, select and interpret the relevant data. By bundling the data and the interaction of all channels within campaigns, marketing goals can be viewed holistically, and audiences can be achieved better and more efficiently." explains Eric Hinzpeter, content marketing expert at Smarketer.

Google and Microsoft's search for adequate substitutes for cookies

Cookie-less tracking will remain one of the most important topics for advertisers in the coming year. Google has announced that it wants to establish the consent mode as an alternative that extrapolates the rejected consent management requests and inserts lost data into the Google Ads account.

At the moment, however, all of this is still a bit inscrutable and there is no panacea, so Smarketer advises companies individually on this. At the same time, Google is continuing to expand its own data protection initiative in the form of “Federated Learning of Cohorts” (FLoC). FLoC should group clusters of users and work out commonalities from the group characteristics. Although individuals can no longer be tracked, but tests still show that a large proportion of the conversions can be absorbed.

Microsoft is following a similar path as Google within the framework of the Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN), where campaigns can be played out across services and target groups too. The ad adapts to the respective location and desired format and, with the help of an AI in the background, creates a conversion-optimized ad from various image and text variants. "Artificial intelligence is conquering ad management more and more. Algorithms take on a lot of manual tasks and this relieves the ad manager, who is given more freedom in his work, which is important since campaigns are getting more and more important regarding the data to be considered", reports Hinzpeter.

Like Google, Microsoft will increasingly have to look for an adequate replacement for the slowly but surely disappearing third-party cookies and develop its multimedia ads further.

Diversity and inclusion come across in advertising

Consent management is developing into an increasing problem for the entire advertising industry, and many users are now annoyed by it. It is important to recognize, however, that users tend to be more willing to give their consent if they receive attractive offers and good content.

The demand for diversity from many international customers has also developed as a cross-industry trend, demanding inclusive and correctly gendered advertising regarding the creation of advertising material and communication in social media.

The trend goes away from the one central social network towards adapted advertising material or even completely individual campaigns for certain target groups: TikTok and Twitch are currently one step ahead, especially with younger target groups, and Instagram remains extremely important for many companies. The trend towards more video advertising, which was also observed in 2021, continues, especially since YouTube will roll out more ad features and forms of advertising next year.

By MediaBUZZ