2014-01-23



2013 was an exciting year in performance marketing. We took every challenge and success as a major learning opportunity to prepare us for the year ahead. We checked in with our global experts as they debated what would be the hot trends to look out for this year. In part I of our 2014 performance marketing predictions we hear from Assaf Suprasky, executive vice president of media; Keren Marom, vice president of media; Gal Topaz, director of network relations; Marc Purtell, director of SEO; and Alex Tsatkin, vice president of mobile.

Our experts dug deep to offer readers the most accurate information, so without further ado, here are our 2014 predictions.

Marc Purtell (SEO)

2014 will be the year of content. With Google search now running on the Hummingbird algorithm, Q&A type content is rising to the top of the results. This is due to the fact that Google is now attempting to detect the intent behind a search query as if the searcher were asking a human. Therefore, it’s no longer about optimizing content for specific keywords that are used as search queries, but rather understanding the user intent behind a search query and providing the user what they are looking for. New content that is meant to answer consumers’ questions should be published regularly. Existing content will need to be updated regularly to keep it fresh.

In addition to a heavier focus on new and updated content, data measurement and analysis will be fundamentally different. Google encrypting search query data came as a major challenge to many marketers who relied heavily on tracking keyword-level metrics. In 2014, we have the opportunity to mitigate the data loss of Google’s encryption by leveraging Webmaster Tools data, cross-referencing keyword rankings with page-level data and focusing more on user engagement metrics. This new way of analyzing data that focuses on the page level rather than the keyword level allows us to focus more attention on the user as opposed to the search engine, thus providing a better user experience on our web properties.

Assaf Suprasky (Performance Marketing)

Performance marketing will continue to be the “hottest” term in the online industry in 2014, as well as, years to come. Many advertisers will continue their journey in this unfamiliar territory with different levels of maturity in terms of performance readiness.

We live in an era of multi-digital channel marketing. We get to meet our users/consumers on many screens throughout the day, sometimes simultaneously on multiple screens. Only companies with a robust and comprehensive ability to utilize all these channel options will be able to provide the best service for their clients. There are three main challenges when talking about multi-channel approach:

You need the best in class technology in order to support the operation behind multi-channel marketing; otherwise the operation cost can be a deal breaker in producing a positive ROI.

Since different channels generate different quality, each channel requires different flows, creative and economy. One has to be interdisciplinary in order to tackle this challenge.

For a company offering so many channels, the marketing message might be hard to communicate, though as I mentioned before, when dealing with performance there is only  one message and one only PERFORMANCE!!, regardless of the channel it comes from.

When talking with agencies today, clients are starting to set performance goals when it comes to their media buying agency. Of course, there is a wide spectrum of performance goals, but bottom line is that any media plan that outlines strategy to reach your audience and measure basic CTR rates is not enough. Agencies are not being asked to consider performance metrics that vary from one advertiser to another. The more advanced advertisers, those who already has mileage in performance marketing, will continue the journey down the funnel and will not only set metrics, but will blend performance pricing models in with their overall marketing budget.

There are two “new kids on the block” that performance marketing advertisers and media companies will have to learn and take into account:

Mobile

Content recommendation

These two new channels offer new methods and opportunities for performance based marketers to utilize. Over the next year, more time will be spent on browsing via Mobile devices in comparison to PCs. While in the content recommendation arena, the line between content and advertising is becoming vaguer.

No matter what path one chooses, make sure it somehow relates to the new performance movement which is changing the advertising realm.

Gal Topaz (Video)

We are seeing an increase in ad dollars coming through programmatic buying. Up to 60% of video ads are going to be bought programmatically. Matomy video always enabled this buying across all of its inventory and has major ad network partnerships.  Our hope is to continue this trend across all our inventory.

Advance measurements and real data makes online video advertising more appealing to advertisers and agencies looking to optimize their cross screen campaigns. This could be achieved easily with the increase of cross platform data. As a performance company, Matomy has always enjoyed the challenge of maximizing the value of an impression for advertisers. One of our goals in video is to be pioneers in the video performance space.

Mobile video has become more standard. Up until now mobile devices have not been able to enjoy the video budgets due to high segmentation and nonstandard video formats. Recent progress in device player and file types are starting to enable more advertiser budgets spent on mobile.

Keren Marom (Media Partners)

Mobile, mobile, mobile!  Mobile activity is increasing in popularity across newcomers to the industry as well as web affiliates expanding their focus to mobile. This confirms the continued transition to mobile marketing. *Note that Matomy account managers are happy to guide affiliates on the mobile front to helping them get started.

The second trend that we are seeing across affiliate relations is global expansion. There is greater interest in global offers and hot new markets (i.e., Asian market) across many different offers and categories.

Advertisers will move toward a multi-channel marketing approach to enhance their reach and retarget their audience. Advertisers will also broaden their affiliate marketing efforts with diversified media channels, such as search, email, and display. This will enable them to more significantly impact the customer journey and better understand which channels are impacting conversions throughout.

Alex Tastikin, (Mobile)

In 2014, mobile will continue to penetrate into additional marketing channels. Email open rates can be as high as 60% from mobile devices. Facebook mobile usage reached nearly 50% this past year and even Google saw 30% of their ad revenue come from mobile. Marketers will start to embrace mobile as an opportunity to enhance their current marketing activity, instead of a stand-alone entity. Advertisers that build their funnels to account for the many different screen sizes and device types will be poised to overtake their competition.

What are your predictions for performance marketing in 2014? Share them in the comments below or tweet us at @MatomyGroup using the hashtag #performancetrends.

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