Weekly Marketing Update for Feb. 25, 2020
In this week’s digital marketing news roundup, we discuss a couple new advertising tools that present new opportunities for businesses. We also dive into a survey that illuminates the top challenges and opportunities for marketing executives face in 2020. Here are the updates:
1. Google Ads tests out new options for tracking website conversions
If you’re a business owner or marketer who is advertising products or services on the Google Ads platform, it’s now becoming easier to get an in-depth look into how your campaigns are converting (or how your potential customers are taking specific actions on your website).
Google is testing new categories that allow for more granular conversion tracking. There hasn’t been an official announcement, but it seems this new feature has popped up for a number of advertisers.
With the update that is being tested, advertisers are going from having five website conversion tracking options (“purchase,” “lead,” “page view,” “sign-up,” and “other”) to more options that are labeled as either “sales categories” or “lead categories.” See the comparison between the different sets of options below.
Current tracking options:
New tracking options being tested:
According to the example above, which was shared on Twitter, within the “sales categories,” advertisers can choose to track by “purchase,” “add to cart,” “begin checkout,” and “subscribe.” And within the “lead categories,” they can choose to track by “submit lead form,” “book appointment,” “sign-up,” “request a quote,” “get directions,” “outbound click.”
What do Google’s new conversion categories mean for businesses and marketers?
With a more detailed breakdown of their website conversion metrics, businesses and marketers can gain deeper insights into their customer journey. In other words, they can better understand how their prospects are engaging with their ads and landing pages at various stages of their buying process, whether that’s when they just want to learn about a new product or service, or when they’re taking steps to become a new customer.
With this understanding, advertisers become better equipped to improve their tactics and create ads in the future that are more likely to result in conversions and sales. We welcome changes like these that make the businesses we serve more likely to succeed in their Google Ads campaigns!
2. Snapchat introduces “Swipe Up to Call” and “Swipe to Text” ads
Snapchat has justreleased a new ad format called “Swipe Up to Call” or “Swipe Up to Text” in the US. By making it easy for a Snapchat user to contact a business directly with a simple swipe on an ad, this new format allows advertisers to speed up the customer decision-making process and capture more business.
According to Snapchat:
“Driving a user to call your business can close a purchase quickly as your sales associates have more control over the user experience by speaking with the consumer directly. More importantly, a user calling showcases a high level of consideration and intent to purchase, which businesses can capitalize on.”
Prior to its latest call and text capabilities, Snapchat already allowed advertisers to show a variety of other swipe-up prompts in its ads, including visiting a business’ website, installing an app, and extending video views.
What’s the big deal about Snapchat’s new ads?
Snapchat’s latest “Swipe Up to Call” and “Swipe Up to Text” ad format is an example of how social media platforms are thinking about the customer journey and innovating in order to drive more in-app conversions for their advertisers. It may also be an effort by Snapchat to stay competitive after seeing growth of its daily active users flattening out—especially since Snapchat has struggled to compete with Facebook and Instagram, which have both copied popular Snapchat features like vanishing images and filters.
Only time will tell how the new ad feature will pan out in terms of effectiveness for advertisers. In the meantime, it may be worth trying out.
3. Survey highlights marketing pros’ top challenges & predictions in 2020
A recent survey polled more than 50 C-level marketing consultants on their most pressing challenges for 2020, as well as their predictions for the future of digital marketing. Below are a few findings from the survey that are worth noting:
“Technical acumen” was the third biggest challenge for deploying digital marketing strategies.
Overall, the group believes that artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics will have a broad effect on marketing campaigns. They believe this to be especially true when it comes to customer behavior modeling (the practice of using a mathematical construct to predict how customers will behave in certain situations), lead qualification (the process for identifying whether a lead is a “good fit” for a business), and customer targeting (targeting marketing to specific audience subsets that match the business’ ideal customer).
The most important responsibility for chief marketing executives (CMOs) in 2020 will be “company growth strategy,” which indicates growing focus on big-picture, organization-wide strategies instead of just account-based strategies. Furthermore, the respondents believed the best way to move forward in strategizing company growth was to understand the customer experience.
The majority (80%) of CMOs expect digital marketing spend to increase in 2020, with the greatest investments being made in organic search, followed by content marketing, and email marketing.
What can businesses and marketing professionals learn from this study?
As the Internet and the the world of digital marketing rapidly evolve, one of the biggest challenges (even for marketing experts) is staying ahead of the curve with the latest developments in marketing tech. Yet, staying up-to-speed is critical for businesses and marketers who want to be able to stay competitive in their industries—especially with the rise of emerging technologies, like those that leverage AI and machine learning to glean and leverage important customer insights. As a result, when businesses choose a marketing partner, they should make sure they’re working with professionals who are able to keep up with the latest marketing technology trends and implement the most innovative solutions.
Furthermore, as companies invest more heavily into digital marketing solutions in 2020, businesses should be mindful that their competitors will be more aggressive this year in their efforts to get in front of potential customers on the Internet. As a result, business owners and marketing leaders may need to reassess their own marketing efforts and ensure they’re allocating enough budget in the right places to make their companies stand out.
Want more helpful marketing insights that you can use to grow your business? Stay tuned on our blog for our Weekly Marketing Updates!
