Digital Advertising Trends in 2021 Marketers Should Know Of

Simranjeet Singh • September 4, 2021

Key Points

  • Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, people have had to change the way they made their purchases. The rate of in-store shopping continued to decline because of health protocols. On the other hand, online shopping has become everybody's go-to. Thus, all businesses had to ride this wave of change. To keep up with the rapidly rising online competition, marketers need to know about the digital advertising trends of today.
  • Keep in mind that there are 4.66 billion people who are active on the internet as of the start of 2021. That's almost 60% of the global population! If you want to reach a big audience online, now is your chance. With the right digital marketing strategy, hundreds, if not thousands of people can turn into prospect clients daily.

So, what modern methods should you apply in your business to achieve such feats? Read on to find out.


Top 7 Digital Advertising Trends of 2021

1) Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing image

Influencer marketing is when a company works with an online influencer to promote one of its products or services. In 2021, this approach to advertising is getting bigger than ever.


According to different experts, influencer marketing is currently the fastest-growing avenue for acquiring new customers. This means that it's more efficient than email marketing, organic and non-organic searches.

 

However, this can be expensive, particularly if you plan to work with top-notch influencers with millions of followers. Do your homework and pick the finest option for your budget.

Advertising Without Cookies image

For many years, cookies have been considerably effective when it comes to advertising. They are used for tailoring user experience, targeting an audience that has related third-party cookies, and monitoring how an ad impacts a third-party domain.

 

The flipside of cookies is that they collect so much information on a user that it is deemed an invasion of privacy. Consequently, many governments were alarmed, and Google took action. The multinational tech company announced that by 2022, all third-party cookies will be removed from Chrome.


As a result, advertising will need to be more inventive in their data collection methods. Other means, such as Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication, are being introduced as alternatives. Before the due date, other options will surely emerge.

3) AI

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become one of the most substantial digital advertising trends as it can do tasks faster and with fewer errors when compared to humans. Also, marketers at the start of the pandemic had to do more with less.


Marketing required tools that would allow them to complete all of their regular activities while conserving resources. And AI was one of the best ways to do it. But even as the current state of businesses has become more relaxed, the demand for artificial intelligence did not decrease.

 

One task many marketers find difficulty in doing is segmentation. It's essential, but it's hard for many. AI is significantly more efficient at dissecting and analyzing behavioral and demographic data. They can learn the preferences of a user without a missing a detail.

4) App Personalization

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If you want to market an app, you need to make it stand out as much as possible. But today, both the Play Store and the App Store are crawling with apps built by different developers for different companies.

 

Fortunately, artificial intelligence can be of help here. AI can process enormous volumes of data using deep learning and machine vision. This is where AI and app personalization can work hand-in-hand.


 It's crucial to provide users with personalized experiences. That's how AI can boost an app's performance. Customers nowadays want brands to appreciate their cooperation and provide constant support to have a positive experience.

5) Interactive content

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Not only does interactive content increase engagement, but it also increases user satisfaction. As you want to establish good relationships with quality customers, this should be a primary factor to consider.


Examples of these are surveys, quizzes, polls, giveaways, contests, and more. This form of content fits into the bigger trend of personalization. Users sense a more personal connection to the brand when they can answer questions for themselves or have their opinions heard. Another bonus for using this method is it helps you with search algorithms because they can extend the amount of time a user engages with your brand.


Technically, interactive tools have been around for a while now. But it's only recently that it's been considered by many as a good way to practice digital advertising.

6) Mobile Advertising

Mobile Advertising image

Remember the statistics at the start of this article, where 4.66 billion people around the globe are active internet users? Well, the 4.32 billion of that population access the world wide web through their mobile devices. That number is only expected to rise in the coming years.


In recent years, the amount of wealth spent on mobile advertising by companies has grown drastically. This surge coincides with the rise in ad space bidding, signaling the start of a new age in mobile advertising.


Because users tend to go for the most convenient option, mobile advertising will be intertwined with other trends. With this, marketers are moving away from disruptive techniques like push notifications, organic customer outreach, and encouraging native advertising.

7) Ad Blockers

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This trend is unlike the others listed before it. It's a setback for digital marketers. The number of people online that make use of ad blockers has slowly but steadily built up. When you run ad campaigns, you will encounter this problem one way or another.


Because of these advertisement barriers, the key source of traffic for many marketers is being cut off at the root. This doesn't even exclude pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. If your ads do get intercepted by ad blockers, the best thing you can do is adjust your strategy.


You don't have to convince prospects to change the way they want to surf the web. That would be a big waste of time. Instead, modify your ad budget to accommodate alternative, more profitable efforts, such as the digital advertising trends mentioned above.

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