Dramatic Digital Marketing Changes in 2022

Read Time: 3 mins 46 sec. 

2020 and 2021 could be described as the building block years for digital marketing trends in 2022. They created what a lot of businesses and brands would define as a permanent change to the way we do things. 2022 will hold as many, if not more, dramatic changes.  

2020 & 2021 Retrospect 

2021 could be called the year of endurance as we continued the remnants of 2020. In 2021, social media usage grew dramatically, along with the adoption of automation as it improved our efficiency and results.  

Consumers being locked in their homes for most of 2020 created advertisement fatigue. Brands had to be innovative about how they reengaged. The changing work landscape to remote and hybrid work models was only the beginning for digital marketers.  

As the pandemic situation continued, so did the market. For example: 

• COVID-themed ads declined from 18% in the second quarter of 2020 to 12% and 11% in the third and fourth quarters according to Nielsen.  
• Facebook was reported to have around 2.89 billion monthly users in the second quarter of 2021 and growing according to Statista. 
• The plan to remove cookies in 2020 (also known as the “death of cookies”), which tracked data to tailor a more personalized experience for you, set up its more complete phase-out for 2022.
• The continued development of Google Analytics 4 to measure website and app performance. While Universal Analytics is not going away anytime soon, GA4 is the future of analytics. The sooner you can start learning how it works, the better. 

There is no reason to expect the rapid marketing technology evolution to slow in 2022, especially with the announcement of Meta in 2021, the parent of organization of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp among others.  

We can help you prepare for 2022

2022 & the Future of Digital

One of the things we can expect to see more of in 2022 is the evolution of Meta. The new company’s focus has been described as bringing the “metaverse” to life. The metaverse is defined as a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions, or projected into the physical world.  

The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg defines it as the next platform. “The next platform will be even more immersive – an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build,” he said.  

“With Meta, what I think is happening is they’re trying to pull together WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook and have those social experiences make sense in a virtual, metaverse world,” said Edwin Acevedo, Senior Analytics Manager at TruStar Marketing. Based on Meta’s vision we expect to see more news and development on Meta in 2022.  

User privacy continues to be an evolving issue. With the changes in privacy laws advancing both in the U.S. and internationally, the world of digital marketers has changed forever.  

Automation continues to morph and improve. However, changes in privacy law are affecting how we as digital marketers receive and interpret data from all corners of the digital marketing space.

Other thoughts for digital marketers this year: 

• Search engine marketing specialists (SEM) need to continue to be proactive with the evolving change and find new ways to engage with their audiences. Related tracking and analytics need to advance rapidly to accommodate cookieless changes. Shifting to GA4 is necessary.  
• Search engine optimization specialists (SEO) should consider focusing more on the user experience and less on quick fixes. Ranking in the top 3 continues to be of massive importance.  
• Google will favor websites optimized for both desktop and mobile. 
• Website speed continues to be a crucial factor for Google ranking and user experience. 
• Great marketers will continue to build the foundational tools in digital marketing, while wisely choosing the specific channels on which to focus first.  

Finally, job diversity and specialty in digital marketing should continue to grow. One of the best plans moving forward is to upskill current employees. This helps you keep up with competition and stay relevant in the 2022 tech landscape. We can expect to see more niche specialists being groomed for each channel, over more “general” digital marketer demand. As platforms, channels and tech expands in utility ad sophistication, so will the need for focused specialists. 

 

TruStar Marketing fuses the art and science of marketing to improve business. We focus on tracking and analytics to improve your return on investment. We remain committed to this challenge for 2022 and stay on top of martech tools to help deliver the results businesses need. If you would like to learn more on how we can help you improve measurable marketing results contact us today.