The new financial year in 2024 will be a tough time for marketers. Are you ready?
Brace yourselves for the new financial year 2024. This is going to be a really tough year for marketers. From the dominance of AI-driven search results to the inevitable surge of political advertisements, and the impending deprecation of cookies by Google, these are not challenges to be taken lightly.
When the going gets tough, we encourage you to be brave and rise to the challenge. This is a true test of the resilience and creativity of marketing professionals. Do you have what it takes? Here’s a roundup of some of the most challenging hurdles you’re likely to face this year, and how Flourish can help you overcome them.
Combatting Google's Deprecation of Cookies
Google’s decision to disable third-party cookies in the second half of 2024 has sent shockwaves through the marketing industry. The changes will impact most ad campaigns and around 32 million Chrome users worldwide. Without relying on consumers’ search history, some companies will be left floundering, with ad placement becoming less targeted, and much less effective.
As CRM specialists, we’ve been ahead of the game without relying on cookies for a long time. We’ve written before about the importance of gathering and utilising first-party data such as, purchase history, customer feedback, and demographic information, and now, it’s more crucial than ever. To adapt to the disablement of cookies, marketers must prioritise collecting and leveraging the company’s own customer data to maintain brand awareness and engagement.
The ‘Enhanced Conversions’ feature in Google Ads will play a pivotal role in your targeting strategy. Ensuring proper setup and meticulous data collection is the key to understanding customer behaviour and preferences. This shift towards first-party data not only enhances targeting capabilities but also establishes a more direct and personalised connection with your audience.
The Dominance of AI, and the Decline in Site Traffic and Search Volume
In a busy and increasingly competitive digital world, with more divided, fatigued audiences, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a complete game-changer. Now the advent of AI-driven search results is shifting Google search away from users’ fingertips. This directly impacts website traffic, as users can obtain answers without visiting a specific site. This shift means less new user acquisition and a dynamic decrease in early journey traffic. So, what can we do about this?
To overcome this challenge, instead of solely relying on traditional SEO tactics, why not optimise for AI-driven search features too? Crafting content that caters to quick, concise answers and leveraging schema markup is a great way to boost visibility in AI-powered search results. Additionally, diversifying marketing channels and exploring alternative platforms can help reach potential customers who don’t use traditional search engines.
Navigating Ad Space Flooded with Politics
Around the world, 2024 marks a year full of political elections. This means that parties will be battling it out for voters’ hearts and saturating the advertising landscape with political campaigns.
This influx of political ads will not just increase competition for ad space, it also elevates the CPM (costs per mille), making it more challenging for marketers with limited budgets to make a meaningful impact.
To survive the political storm, a strategic and data-driven approach will be a lifeboat for marketers. Identify and capitalise on advertising opportunities that are less affected by political campaigns. This might involve exploring niche platforms, adjusting ad schedules to non-peak political hours, or focusing on content marketing and CRM to maintain audience engagement without relying too much on paid advertising.
Shifting social media landscape
While we’re on the subject of exploring niche platforms, we need to address the elephant in the room. Social media landscape is shifting fast. Not only have many social media platforms introduced new features and interfaces, but the sites themselves and the way that consumers use them are changing too.
The pace that the social media scene is changing is unprecedented and presents a formidable task. Since changing hands, Twitter has been rebranded ‘X’ by its owner Elon Musk. With the introduction of many new platforms such as Threads, Kick, and Mastadon, some users are moving away from things like Facebook, X, and Instagram in favour of the latest social innovations to hit the growing digital landscape. Audiences leaving ‘traditional’ platforms in favour of the new ones, means that there will be changes in the tone and content type required within your strategy. Marketers will need to take a new approach to social media strategy and content planning, but also measuring and attribution.
How else can marketers overcome the marketing challenges of 2024?
The answer is to have a solid CRM strategy. Get personal with your data, to deliver targeted ads that stay relevant, and keep on top of the latest tech innovations like the ones mentioned above – to ensure you’re prepared before the time comes.
Get in contact with the experts at Flourish for a CRM strategy and support that will keep you ahead of the curve. Drop us an email: [email protected].
