With inflation dictating drastic changes in advertising budgeting, the immense rise of AI, and privacy laws changes, marketers haven’t had an easy entrance in 2023. Needless to say, following the right direction became crucial for this year's success.
The fast-paced evolution of the AdTech industry made us wonder what should we expect in 2023 and what should we pay attention to in order to stay ahead of the curve in Paid Social. Last December we attended an event where we had a chance to talk with the best Dutch marketers, and ask them what are their thoughts and predictions for 2023 and we got some golden nuggets to share.
Here are valuable insights gathered.
Creative relevance stays imperative
When asked what’s their hunch for 2023, a lot of interviewed marketers instantly said: content will be a lot more personalized. Fierce competition in advertising alongside inevitable ad fatigue rose the bar when it comes to personalization. It has never been this important to find what triggers your audience.
As a founder of Maatwerk Online, Nick Heurter said: personalization ensures that you have recognition among visitors, while recognition ensures higher CTR and more conversions.
Generic ads are dead, and contextualization became the indispensable ingredient of all successful campaigns. Pauline van Miert from Adwise also claims there’s so much marketing going on that it became more important to anticipate fast changes and learn how to differentiate yourself from other brands.
Trends are showing that contextualization now also stands for choosing the right channels to get in touch with your audience and making sure that your ads fit in. The advice from Bianca Bergshoeff, from Maatwerk, is to hop on this fast train and find a way to adjust your strategy, adapt to new channels, and understand what’s changing within your target audience.
Personalization also stands for localization. Adjusting your creatives to resonate with your local audience. This is the winning strategy for all brands working in different countries.
Use the potential of AI in Paid Social
The end of 2022 came with a bang: everyone started talking about ChatGPT and its capacity. But that’s just the most obvious fraction of innovation that has been going on for quite some time.
The rise of AI gives us no choice but to find a way to leverage it. That’s how artificial intelligence became an important tool for Paid Social.
Marketers Matthijs Schakenbos and Jeffrin Don both claim that advertising in 2023 is going to be AI-driven. That means unlocking AI-generated content, using AI for better targeting your ads, personalizing your messaging, alongside optimizing your campaigns in real time.
Advertisers who find ways to take advantage of AI whilst keeping ads genuine and authentic will certainly make their way through.
The video takes it all
Short-formatted videos reshaped not only Paid Social, but also the whole advertising. This format is becoming increasingly popular thanks to the rise of TikTok, but also YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels.
Videos are playing a huge role in engaging your audience and connecting with them on an emotional level. They tell the story fast and vividly, that’s why they are great for showcasing both products and services.
If you had been struggling with making your ads pop in 2022, the right path to stand out would be leveraging video formats.
Manage your data wisely
With privacy policy changes advertisers keep facing challenges: data is an essential part of targeting and retargeting, but also for creating personalized experiences. That’s why in 2023 it is essential to select just the right data and use it to make advertising effective.
Standing out with the right data means understanding what you need to spark your audience’s curiosity, and to understand the system.
Omnichannel presence is becoming a necessity
Your audience is not limited to one channel only. So the key to keeping standing out is to understand where your audience spends most of their time, and find the fastest route to get there.
Omnichannel campaigns can be hard to manage, but when executed right, they can do wonders in terms of connecting with the audience. So if you have been postponing omnichannel presence, 2023 is the best time to step in and try telling your brand’s story on multiple channels.
Omnipresence not only improves performance in the short term but also helps to build a strong and recognizable brand for long-term success.
Creating demand for your brand also means standing out from the crowd. This is common advice but the biggest question is: how to achieve that? Here's what Celine Merkx from Fingerspitz has to say about that:
Make Hunch your ally in 2023
Executing omnichannel campaigns, while keeping content personalized and engaging, while producing both image and video assets - it seems nearly impossible for one team to manage. That’s why you’ll need to expand both marketing and design teams in order to achieve marketing excellence.
Or you can choose a far more cost-effective solution, and leverage a platform that will not only save you money, but it will save a lot of time that you can spend in creating the message you want to communicate.
Hunch can help you automate the whole media buying process. From importing the right data to feed, using that data to personalize creatives, scaling creative production, and launching the campaign.
Let’s meet and find the perfect solution for your business.
