When it comes to the most up-to-date, on-the-nose information that empowers the digital community, the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting never disappoints. And this year’s takeaways are no exception.
How will digital marketing change in 2017? According to the IAB, there four significant ways:
1. Spending on cross-channel measurement and attribution will increase. In its comprehensive Outlook for Data 2017 report, the IAB revealed that the digital marketing industry’s eyes will be squarely on cross-channel measurement and attribution. In fact, over two-thirds of those surveyed stated that they had spent more last year on data and related services, while 71 percent said that they plan even bigger spending budgets in the year ahead. Ever the bellwether, Facebook has already expanded measurement tools to help advertisers verify outcomes and added more measurement partnerships in an effort to improve cross-channel comparability and third-party verification.
2. Efforts to eradicate fake news will continue. Over the past few months, controlling news quality has become one of the top concerns for those who value content integrity. Leading the way has been Facebook’s platform updates, which have recently seen the inclusion of new signals into News Feed that are designed to identify and rank authentic content. In addition, the social media giant has made improvements to its Trending feature. Under these changes, Facebook now determines trends based on the number of publishers posting about the same topic. In addition, every topic is coupled with a headline from a published article.
3. Attribution and identification will improve. Currently, digital media is in the process of moving away from last-touch attribution and embracing multi-touch attribution. Thanks to multi-touch attribution, advertisers will be able to measure more accurately the value of each customer touch point that leads to a sale, and, ultimately, influence consumer spending.
4. Digital storytelling will continue to evolve. Thanks to immersive content and the consumer’s unprecedented ability to create and access video — wherever, whenever — using social media to communicate a digital storytelling experience will continue to expand this year. On the horizon lurk virtual and augmented reality tools that will help further enhance the storytelling experience. In the meantime, Facebook’s live video, 360 photo, and game-changing tools Creative Hub and Canvas are welcome distractions.
This post is based on an article first published by Facebook on February 16, 2017 entitled, “4 Ways Digital Marketing is Changing in 2017.” Read the full article here.