Wednesday, June 28, 2017

The Biggest Internet Trends You Need to Pay Attention to Right Now

Those who stay tapped into what’s happening on the internet know well the name Mary Meeker. Every year, she publishes an in-depth report on trends that we need to pay attention to. You may not have been as eager as me to dig through the 300+ slides in the 2017 report, so I have extracted 14 things that you should know right now.

1. Smartphone sales are slowing slightly

Meeker points to two indicators that indicate a slowdown in the smartphone market:

  1. In 2016, 7% fewer smartphones were shipped globally than in 2015.
  2. The number of installed bases for smartphones, which indicates how many are in use rather than being sold, dropped from 25% in 2015 to 12% in 2016.  

We might suppose that people are keeping their smartphones longer, or that now just about everyone has a smartphone, so sales are slowing.

2. We are using our mobile devices to spend more time online than in the past

In 2015 we spent, on average, 5.4 hours online on a mobile device, while in 2016 we spent 5.6 hours. The reason for this slight increase might be that mobile users are more accustomed to using their devices for internet searches, as well as the prevalence of voice-recognition technology.

3. Advertising is making the move to mobile

Marketers want to be where we are, and we are on our mobile devices: 2016 saw mobile ad revenue grow by 22%, passing desktop ad revenue as it climbed. As advertisers find more ways to engage viewers through videos and interactive advertising on search engines as well as social media, this will likely increase.

RELATED: These 5 Mistakes Are Why Your Online Marketing Is Failing

4. Internet ad revenue is king

Here’s a remarkable fact from Meeker’s deck: Internet ad revenue has at long last surpassed TV ad revenue in America. We’ve seen some really interesting ad formats that have contributed to internet ads’ success, such as native advertising, responsive ads, and video ads.

5. Google and Facebook are the reigning rules

Facebook increased its advertising revenue by a whopping 62%, while Google saw a nice 20% growth. Other advertising publishers experienced 9% growth.

Facebook may have had the highest year-on-year ad revenue growth, but Google still leads the pack with its $35 billion dollars in advertising revenue in 2016.

6. Ad blocking is a new threat to advertisers

Consumers don’t like to be annoyed by ads, and are using ad blocking software more than ever, especially in developing nations. This presents a challenge for advertisers as they struggle to find ways to get people to deliberately interact with their content.

7. Incentive-based and skippable video ads aren’t a bad thing

With television commercials, we’ve mastered the art of taking a bathroom break during ad spots. Advertisers have successfully circumvented the same issue with online video ads by offering skippable pre-roll, social click-to-play, and mobile app rewards, all of which are positively received by consumers.

8. The ROI challenge continues

Measuring return on investment has long been a challenge for online marketers, and it still is. In fact, 61% of marketers identified this as a current challenge.

Engagement, it seems, is easier to measure than investment: 56% of marketers measure a campaign’s success based on engagement, while 21% look at conversion and revenue and 15% use brand amplification and brand awareness as metrics.

9. Social media ad platforms are providing more insights than ever

It’s exciting to watch technology move at the speed of light. Now, advertisers have more and more ways to better target their audience and measure results: Facebook offers Delivery Insights, Google offers AdWords, and Snapchat has Snap Ads—all of which are highly successful.

10. Nothing beats targeted ads and click-to-buy social

Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) got 43% more clicks in 2016 than in 2015. And Pinterest is establishing itself as a kind of store using Shop the Look, where users can click and buy what they see on the site.

Also, Pinterest is gaining a rep as a space to buy things: in 2017, twice as many survey respondents chose Pinterest as a good place to buy things, as compared to 2015.

11. Surprisingly, internet ads send foot traffic to stores

Marketers may have had concerns about online retail competing with brick-and-mortar stores, but the opposite seems to be true with online ads. Google had an astounding 5 billion tracked store visits from its ads, a number that has increased 5x since last year.

12. To answer your question: people DO buy things from Facebook ads

Some marketers question whether Facebook ads actually work in converting to sales, and Meeker’s slides prove it to be true: 26% of Americans who click on a Facebook ad buy something.

Chatbots and sponsored content on Facebook are also contributing to advertising’s success on the social channel.

13. Image search is hot

As the number of searches increases on mobile devices, technology is struggling to keep up. There are now tools like Google Lens that let users take photos to search rather than enter text.

 14. Voice-based services are becoming mainstream

Whether you use Siri, Alexa, or Google, chances are you’re speaking to your device rather than typing in your requests. In fact, 20% of mobile queries are made via voice over typing. As users become more accustomed to the feature, expect this number to rise.

It’s exciting to see how we’re in the midst of a technological revolution when it comes to marketing and the internet. You can watch Mary Meeker present her awesome stack of slides here.

RELATED: Marketers: Check Out These Hot New Trends in B2B Marketing Automation

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The post The Biggest Internet Trends You Need to Pay Attention to Right Now appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Brenda Stoltz.



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