An overview of the biggest digital media trends in 2020

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The digital landscape is constantly evolving as consumers head online to research, shop and find
product recommendations across an expanding number of platforms and channels. Brands that wish to
remain competitive in the market must be aware of the new technologies, platforms and media formats
that continue to shape the digital advertising world. Here are the top digital media trends to look out for
in 2020 and beyond.

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How will ad budgets be spent across digital?
Search will take the biggest portion of spend with nearly
a third of the total budget (31%) going to Google and
Bing, followed by social media platforms Facebook and
Instagram at 28%.
Display will account for 14% of total digital spend,
followed by YouTube at 16%. Other social media
channels like Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter will take the
smallest portion of total spend at
11%.
Digital media will capture over half of the world’s advertising spending in 2020.
Here’s a breakdown of how ad budgets will be spread across digital:

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TOP DIGITAL MEDIA FORMATS IN 2020

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Native ads are contextually relevant content designed to seamlessly integrate into social feeds and
website pages. Native ads are delivered in stream and take on the design, copy and formatting
elements of the environment in which they are placed. They are featured in a way that does not
impede the user’s normal behavior on that channel. And, they are less intrusive than banners or
pop-ups, which contributes to a more positive user experience.
Native Advertising

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In-Feed / In-Content Ads appear within a web article or in the feed of social
platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. These ads look like the surrounding
content appearing in the article or feed.
Search Ads appear in stream and match the format of other entries on a search
engine results page. These narrowly targeted placements are most commonly used to
drive a direct response such as a sale, download, or data capture.
Recommendation Widgets such as
recommended posts, article or resources are
usually found underneath or on the sidebar of an
article or post.
Native Advertising

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• Native ads receive 53 percent more views than traditional display ads.
• Native advertising increases purchase intent by 18 percent.
• Native ad spending is projected to increase to $41.1 billion in 2019. This means native
advertising will account for 61 percent of total digital display ad spending in the U.S.
• Native video advertising accounts for 56 percent of video ad spending.
• 73% of consumers dislike pop-up ads.
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Native Advertising Fast Facts

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When it comes to social media, what worked a few months ago may not get you the same good results
now. Consumer habits change, platforms evolve, and new channels come into existence. Changes in social
media influence how consumers interact with social media marketing, as well as how marketers are able to
reach their audience. That’s why it is more important than ever to stay ahead of the curve to make the most
of social media.
Stories
If you haven’t tried promoting your brand using stories 2020 is the time to get started. Stories are posted
within existing story feeds and look much like the rest of the organic content on the platform. Research has
shown that 56% of people now use Stories on three or more platforms at least once a week, and 57% of
users say that Stories make them feel part of a larger community.
Social Media

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Stories promote brand awareness, allow constant engagement with followers, are cost-effective in
terms of ROAS, and increase website traffic. They can be optimized for Reach, Video Views, Brand
Awareness, Traffic, Conversions, Lead Generation, or App Installs.
Instagram is the most popular social platform for publishing stories. Instagram Story Ads appear
between organic Stories and users will not see the ad preview before clicking to watch an organic
Story. hey are designed for vertical screen viewing and encourage distraction free engagement by
making use of the full screen.
According to a Facebook user survey, one third of the most viewed Instagram Stories are from
businesses, and 53 percent of respondents polled said they made more online purchases based on
Stories.
Social Media

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By weaving storytelling into your
Instagram strategy and using
aesthetically pleasing
design, you will be able to
engage consumers in a way that
is natural and responsive without
coming across like you are
advertising to them in a stark
way.
Social Media

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Some brands are leveraging stories to amplify brand engagement by encouraging customers to
create and share brand centric content. Airbnb’s consumer centric platform
features content submitted by the brand’s actual customers.
Social Media

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Shoppable Posts
Shoppable Posts drive traffic to online retail stores from social media. They work via native integrations
between e-commerce stores sand social platforms, making it easy to tag products and shop directly from
social feeds. Consumers have been shopping on social media for a few years now. Recent polls show that
60% of Instagram users discover new products on Instagram, while 70% of Pinterest users say Pinterest
helps them find new products. Digital marketers expect shoppable posts to become the norm in 2020 with
widespread adoption across retailers.
Social Media

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With paid social advertising options constantly expanding, it’s easy for brands to lose sight on what truly
matters most – that is, what actions are driving engagement and ultimately sales. Engagement is a key
behavior that influences purchasing decisions. Answering customer questions (responsiveness) tops the list
of brand interactions on social that prompt consumers to purchase, while 46% are driven to convert by
promotions and 42% are swayed by educational content.
Brand Actions on Social That Drive Sales

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Brand Actions on Social That Drive Sales

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While responsiveness is one of the most powerful interactions for driving customer purchases, few brands
seem to get it right. The average response rate for customer messages on social is just 12%, and average
brand response time is 11 hours. That’s significantly lower than consumer expectations. For example, 78%
of people who complain to or about a brand on Twitter expect a response from the brand within one hour.
Brand Actions on Social That Drive Sales

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• The average Facebook user clicks on eight advertisements per month.
• 1 in 4 consumers made a purchase after seeing an Instagram Story.
• 24% of consumers made more purchases in 2019 compared to 2018 thanks to ads on social
media
• Instagram videos get 21.2% more interactions than images and 18.6% more interactions than
carousels
• Pinterest drives an astounding 25% of all retail website referral traffic
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Social Media Fast Facts

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Voice dialogue ads are interactive audio ads served on microphone enabled devices that receive verbal
calls to action. Listeners can respond with verbal commands and choose how they want to interact and
engage with the audio.
For example, an ad could ask the listener if they want to find out more information about the advertised
product, creating a two-way conversation between audiences and voice AI technology. By following voice
command prompts placed within audio ads, consumers can instantly shop for items, such as adding items
to Amazon shopping list via the Alexa App / Echo Smart Speaker.
With feedback from consumers like positive response (like “sure, tell me more”), negative response (like “no
thanks”) or no response, voice dialogue ads create a ton of data for brands to track on their audio ads. Even
if the listener isn’t interested, the impression isn’t lost. If a negative response is given, such as “I’m not
interested,” the ad can follow up and say, “Ok, ‘Brand Name’ is now taking you back to the music.” Ensuring
that brand recall is sealed at the end.
In 2019 some huge retailers started launching voice dialogue ads, including Adidas, HP, Starbucks,
McDonalds, BMW, and Chevrolet. And audio streaming services Spotify and Pandora recently began to
promote voice dialogue ads integration services on their platforms.
Interactive Voice Ads

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• A new report by Adobe found that 39 percent of consumers who have come across voice
dialogue ads said they are less intrusive and more engaging than traditional advertisements
• One in four people in the US now own at least one smart speaker like an Amazon Echo or
Google Home, and according to a new report by NPR and Edison Research, 57% of smart
speaker owners have shopped via their devices.
• Consumers are making high-value purchases with their smart speakers, with 25% of
purchases totaling more than $150.
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Interactive Voice Ads Fast Facts

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Location Based Marketing
Location based ads use geo-location technology to deliver messaging to smart phones based on where
their target audience lives, where they’ve recently visited, or where they are currently located. Marketing
strategies that use geo-location technology can be especially valuable for businesses looking to drive in-
store visits to brick-and-mortar locations.
Dominos Pizza launched their outdoor hotspots service in 2018, showing how location based marketing can
be used to attract customers. Dominos customers began ordering pizza from beaches, parks, and other
hotspots.
Mobile Ads

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Burger King’s used a tactic called geo-
conquesting to steal customer’s from McDonald’s and promote the new
Burger King app. When customers downloaded the app and were located
within 600 feet of a McDonald’s, they could unlock a promotion to order a
Whopper sandwich for only a penny. The app then navigated the customer
away from McDonald’s to the nearest BK restaurant.
Geo-Conquesting
A type of mobile advertising that directs
consumers toward a specific business when
they are physically in a competitor’s location.
Mobile Ads

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Navigation apps offer location based advertising services to help businesses build brand awareness and
drive incremental and new store visits and transactions. Google’s navigation app Waze can target users
with navigation pins, search listings and popup banners for businesses near their current location or
destination.
The 76 gas station promoted their Tank 5 campaign to drivers on Waze using billboard-style messages
promoting the TANK5 offer as a way of conditioning an audience of fuel consumers to choose 76over
competing brands. The campaign drove over 10 thousand navigations to promoted locations.
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Mobile Ads

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Mobile Search
Google’s focus on mobile first indexing has forced businesses to optimize web content for the majority
of users who are now searching for information, products, and services on mobile devices. However,
many businesses are still running ads that give top priority to sites that are optimized for desktop
viewing. Here are a few tactics brands can leverage to optimize paid search campaigns for mobile.
Mobile Ads

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Mobile Ad Extensions
Mobile optimized sitelink extensions can
send users directly to mobile pages rather
than having to use the site’s mobile
navigation menu.
Call-Only Ads
Offering a click to call option on your display
ads gives users the option to quickly
connect with you directly from their mobile
device from a single click.
Mobile Ads

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Google Search rolls out new search listings
with website favicons for mobile.
Favicons
Google recently began displaying website
favicons on the SERP. Design a favicon
establishes a visual brand identity on mobile.
Mobile Ads

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• Mobile ad campaigns are five times more effective than online advertisements.
• Appearing in mobile search ad results can increase brand awareness by 46%.
• 80% of marketers use location targeting for their mobile ad content.
• Location-based mobile advertising spend is forecasted to reach nearly $40 billion in 2022
• Location-specific digital ad campaigns are 20x more effective than traditional banner ads that
are not location-based.
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Mobile Ads Fast Facts

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Video is now a critical component of most marketing strategies, with technology constantly creating new
ways to engage with consumers and tailor video content to specific business goals. According to Animotos’
2019 Social Video Trends report video ads were the #1 format consumers used to discover a brand they
later purchased from.
That said, some brands are still holding back from using video in their marketing strategies. The biggest
reasons marketers give for these missed opportunities? Twenty-one percent say it’s because they don’t
know where to start, while 23% state they don’t have the time.
Video Advertising
Bumper Ads
Bumper Ads are compelling, short videos that grab a consumer’s attention in a few seconds. YouTube
and Google both launched 6-second bumper ads as a way to offer brands a creative way to extend
brand reach in a short time frame. Shorter ads seems to be the trend, with 56% of videos published in
the last year under two minutes long. (Hubspot)

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TrueView Video
YouTube’s TrueView platform offers a simple, straightforward, and effective solution for marketers looking to
leverage the power of streaming video. TrueView in-stream ads are cost-effective – you pay when a viewer watches
30 seconds of your video (or the duration if it’s shorter than 30 seconds) or interacts with your video, whichever
comes first.
The TrueView platform offers the flexibility needed to properly engage an audience at every stage of the sales funnel,
including a post-click landing page that helps maximize ROI and conversions. TrueView has been shown to increase
click-through rates over 11% from those of simple banner ads and users that click-through are 500% more likely to
engage in a company’s call-to-action.
TrueView for Action is YouTube’s video format designed to drive leads and conversions with prominent calls to action
and headline text overlays. They can be paired with custom intent audiences that have searched for specific
keywords and terms related to what your ad is about.
Video Advertising

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YouTube Video Reach Campaigns
Youtube’s new Video Reach Campaigns harness machine learning technology to serve the most
efficient combination of YouTube ads in order to maximize reach. Video Reach Campaigns don’t
require marketers to manage separate campaigns for bumper ads or in-stream skippable and non-
skippable ads. Instead, it distributes an optimized combination of ad formats automatically.
Video Advertising

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• 96% of marketers have placed ad spend on video.
• 91% of marketers are satisfied with the ROI of video marketing on social media.
• 93% of brands got a new customer because of a video on social media.
• Facebook is the #1 platform where marketers plan to invest in the next 12 months, followed by
YouTube and Instagram.
• Brands that leverage video generate 41% more web traffic than those that don’t
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Video Advertising Fast Facts

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Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented reality (AR) may be a new concept, but it has the potential to accelerate past online, TV,
and print advertising. According to a report from The Drum AR captures audience attention for an
average of more than 85 seconds and improves click through rate by 33%. AR delivers an experience
that other channels can’t compete with, making it very likely that more brands will soon be incorporating
the format into their marketing strategies.
AR has already been used in many successful marketing campaigns. Amazon’s Augmented Reality
experience allows users to view thousands of products in their homes prior to purchase by simply using
the camera on their mobile devices to virtually simulate an object in any location. The technology can
be found on many other furniture retailer websites such as Target, Wayfair, and IKEA.
Shopping for a new piece of
furniture? Amazon’s Virtual Reality
experience allows consumers to
simulate how a product would look
in your home before you buy.

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Some brands are using AR to create amazing and often unexpected user experiences. For example,
Pepsi placed AR technology on a London bus shelter that made virtual objects appear real to viewers,
including flying UFOs, a giant laser-shooting robot and a tiger.
According to research from Vibrant Media, 67% of media planners and buyers want to incorporate
more AR ads into their campaigns to enhance user experience. Apart from the high demand for AR
advertising, Vibrant Media discovered that 49% of media agencies believe this new approach to
marketing could prevent ad blocking.
With user experience a top priority for advertisers, it is likely more brands will publish content similar to
Pepsi in the near future, possibly using digital billboards instead of bus stops, with experiences
tailored to the location.
Augmented Reality (AR)

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• The current value of the AR market stands at $3.5 billion.
• 70% of consumers believe AR can help them learn new personal and professional skills.
• 88% of Mid-Sized Companies Are Already Using AR in Some Capacity
• 32 % of consumers use augmented reality, and 73% of mobile AR users reported either high or
very high satisfaction with mobile AR experiences
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AR Fast Facts

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When Innovation is a constant force driving the evolution of the digital media ecosystem. Advertisers must
understand the nuances and key trends impacting the market in order to capitalize on the vast
opportunities available through digital advertising. Advertisers can stay ahead of the curve in 2020 by
paying attention to a few key insights into the digital media space and how it will continue to evolve in the
coming year.
Looking for expert advice to help you build your company’s digital media plan? We’re here to
help. .
Conclusion