How are You Moving Forward with Digital Marketing in 2022?

How are You Moving Forward with Digital Marketing in 2022?

By Karen TaylorJun 16 /2022

By the end of 2022, people around the world will have spent more than 12.5 trillion hours online. Broken down, that's six hours and 58 minutes per day for the typical internet user across all devices. What’s more, nearly three of ten U.S. adults say they use their devices “almost constantly.”

These numbers drive home the ubiquitousness of our digital world. They also speak to the fact that  marketers now more than ever must be digital marketing experts. But what does that mean? We tackled this issue in 2014, but with digital marketing constantly expanding, we feel the topic deserves an update. 

Digital marketing defined

Let’s start with a clear definition of digital marketing — particularly because it regularly gets mixed up with inbound marketing. They are two very different disciplines! 

Digital marketing refers to the tactics marketers employ online. All forms of online marketing — for example, websites, social media, email and search engines — are leveraged to connect with prospects and customers. 

Inbound marketing is a methodology. It is used to proactively reach out to potential customers with offers of interesting content and experiences. The goal of inbound marketing is to build long-term connections with potential customers by being valuable and even solving their problems.

To meet ever-increasing demands, digital marketing is continually expanding into emerging tactics. While the tried-and-true tactics are still powerful — email marketing, social media and blogging, for starters — newer, leading-edge tactics have entered the picture — for example, Connected TV (CTV) ads and shoppable videos.

Connected TV Ads — Follow the Smart Money

If you’ve relied on traditional cable television commercials to promote your brand, the future is dim. 

The smart money is now on CTV ads. Here are some reasons why. 

Every year, more households are cutting the cord on cable TV. An eMarketer report found the following:

  • Between 2016 and 2021, over 25.5 million households (50 million viewer) cut their pay TV cable accounts off.  
  • This year (2022) over 55% of the U.S. adult population will cut their cable cord.
  • By the end of 2023, fewer than one-half of households will retain a paid TV subscription, dropping the total number to 65.1 million.

As pay TV declines, CTV rises. According to the Motion Picture Association’s annual theme report:

  • In 2021, the number of online streaming platforms (video subscriptions) in the U.S. grew to 353.2 million — a 14% increase from 2020. 
  • Virtual pay TV subscriptions, like YouTube TV and Hulu, grew to 14.5 million in 2021 — an 18% increase from 2020.
  • At $40.2 billion in revenue, online video subscription revenue surpassed that of satellite TV.

It’s clear that CTV ads are the future of TV advertising. It’s now time to look for marketing opportunities on platforms like Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and Peacock, to name a few of the many digital channels available today. 

When launching CTV ads, your approach will be different than deploying traditional cable ads. Here are five best practices that will improve your CTV advertising results. 

  • Strategy. Don’t think of CTV ads as solo tactics. Think of them upper-funnel ads as a way to enhance your lower-funnel tactics and drive higher conversions. 
  • Platform. CTV ads are purchased through a demand-side platform (DSP). You need to choose the right DSP for your campaign based on a variety of factors, including technology, functionality, reporting, analytics and cost, and platform partnership. 
  • Measurement. There are many ways to measure CTV ad performance, including reach, impressions, cost per completed view (CPCV), video completion rate (VCR) and view-through conversions. One of the most important is the video completion rate, which is the number of times a video is viewed to the end. Aim for least 75%. 
  • Ad Length. Go for variety, including 15, 30 and 60 second ads, to maximize your reach, lower CPCV and improve your video completion rate.  
  • Frequency. This is how often a single viewer sees one of your ads. The rule of thumb is to set a frequency cap per person versus per device. This will help prevent viewer fatigue while still allowing your ads to reach new viewers. 

For inspiration on creating CTV ads that work, check out YouTube’s Top 10 list of the best CTV ads in 2021. The number one CTV ad is for Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital. 

Shoppable Videos — Click-to-Buy Convenience

Pre-pandemic consumers were making a slow but steady shift from shopping in physical stores to social shopping online. But during the two years of the pandemic the shift accelerated by about five years. What’s more, the volume of social sales is expected to hit $101.1 million as early as 2023. Results like these have paved the way for higher participation in one of the newest digital shopping trend — shoppable videos

Shoppable videos feature specific products and include embedded links that allow viewers to click on them, learn more about the product and purchase it immediately without leaving the video. 

The superpower of this advertising format is the video component itself. Video marketing isn’t cooling off anytime soon. In fact, over 84% of shoppers reported that they have purchased a product or service after viewing a branded video.

This Ikea interactive video is a great example of a shoppable video. While guiding viewers on how to choose items for a small space, it provides clickable elements that give shoppers details about the items being viewed, along with the option to immediately purchase them.

 

Some leading best practices for producing high-performing shoppable videos include:

Inform viewers that they are watching an interactive shoppable video. A few ways to do this include introducing the concept at the beginning of the video, adding voiceovers or narration, having a host speak directly to the viewers and announcing it in the video description.   

Include a shoppable link within the first seconds. Your viewers will be anticipating a clickable link, so give them one right away. It will enhance their interest and give them the chance to experience the feature. Then continue to add clickable links as the show progresses, even using more than one at a time now and then. 

Allow longer shots at clickable moments. Give your viewers more time to interact by extending the length of the product shots with clickable icons to a few seconds or more. 

Avoid crowding the shots with too many clickable options. It’s better to focus on a few items per shot than to overcrowd the frame. If you add too much to a frame, you risk confusing the consumer and missing the chance for them to decide they want the item. A good rule of thumb is to focus on two to three products per shot.  

Think full frame. This means shooting a product in the full frame versus getting too far away, too close or too abstracted. This will give viewers a better feel for the product and, as a result, improve sales. 

Work with digital marketing experts

While the latest and greatest digital marketing trends can present exciting new opportunities to reach consumers, they can also be challenging to produce and manage. Because you must traverse the learning curve, they can also be time consuming.Working with a digital marketing agency can help you rapidly expand your digital marketing footprint — and your pool of prospects. 

The Kuno Creative team can help in all these areas. We’ve helped companies we believe in develop their brand strategy, design websites that convert, create a content marketing plan to attract and educate buyers, and accelerate their efforts with paid advertising. Check out our case studies to see how we help our clients get results.

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Karen Taylor
The Author

Karen Taylor

Karen Taylor is a professional content marketing writer with experience writing for over 100 companies and publications. Her experience includes the full range of content marketing projects — from blogs, to white papers, to ebooks. She has a particular knack for creating content that clarifies and strengthens a company’s marketing message, and delivers optimum impact and maximum results. Learn more at karentaylorwrites.com.
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