We’re willing to bet the world of online marketing is going to look very different one year from now. The industry has already shifted at a phenomenal pace in 2015, and we’re convinced 2016 is going to be more of the same.
1. Stronger Social Media Integration for Ads
We think there’s huge potential for social media networks to introduce cross-platform advertising. What this means is that you may be able to run the same ad across Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Google Adwords, and more in 2016. We already saw the beginning of this in 2015 when Facebook allowed your ads to run on Instagram.
What does this mean?
This would be incredibly beneficial for both advertisers and the networks. Businesses that advertise will be able to have much greater reach for their ad without having to manually set up dozens of different campaigns with different networks. Social media platforms will see more advertising money as it gets more profitable for advertisers. If all goes well, it’s a huge win-win for everyone.
2. More Sophisticated SEO Strategies
SEO is becoming increasingly complex every year. It’s getting harder for unscrupulous businesses to cheat the system. In the past, you could get away with shady tactics like keyword stuffing or abusing guest blogging. Nowadays, it is much more difficult to do. In order to reach the front page (and stay there), you’ll have to play by Google’s rules. We expect these rules will continue to evolve in the New Year.
Remember, the ultimate goal of SEO is for Google to provide the best possible result for every search. In an ideal world, the first thing you search for on Google will be what you’re looking for. Google is trying its best to make that happen by rewarding high quality content that is linked to by other high quality websites.
What does this mean?
Quality will be the most important measure of success. We’ll continue to see a strong preference for media, like images, videos, and a solid amount of copy per page. For a comprehensive look at what could be coming in the new year, take a look at this great SEO prediction list by B2Community’s Soumya Nair.
As a consumer, this is fantastic. As a business trying to get noticed online, it means you have a lot of work ahead of you to stay in Google’s good graces.
3. The decline of organic social media reach
Many of our clients are baffled by the lack of reach on their Facebook posts. For example, if you have 1,000 followers, your average post will not reach all 1,000 of them. If you’re lucky, you’ll reach over 100. The more people like, click, comment, or share your post, the more people will see it.
Facebook and Twitter throttling organic views has been old news for years now, but we think the trend is going to continue forward. After all, the less views you get for free, the more tempted you’ll be to advertise.
We seriously don’t see this trend reversing anytime soon. Everyone wants their images and videos to be a viral hit without spending a dime on advertising, but it’s not that simple.
What does this mean?
If you want to get more traction on social media, prepare to spend more money than you ever have before. We’re not saying it’s impossible to have a major social media following without spending money, but be prepared to put in a lot of work.
These are just our thoughts and predictions for the 2016. What do you think will change in the New Year?
