Top 8 Digital Marketing Trends You Will See in 2024

Global digital marketing trends and strategies continuously evolve. Before you are even aware, a new digital marketing trend will arrive. If we could use time travel, every digital marketer would jump to the new year to find clues on what’s next in digital marketing. Since that isn’t possible, we still live in an age of predictions.  We have to settle for forecasts of what might come to be and build a case for what digital marketing in the year 2024 will look like. These are our projected digital marketing trends for the coming year of 2024.

Over the past year, there have been significant changes that have occurred in the digital marketing space: the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Google is finally going to trial, Apple’s iOS 17 introduced more “privacy-centric” features that upended the targeting and tracking environment, the EU’s issuance of multi-million-dollar fines against Criteo for GDPR violations, streaming TV outselling linear TV in viewership, the collapse of MediaMath, Amazon’s impending launch of ads on Prime Video, and, finally, Disney and Spectrum agreeing to a new model for linear TV programming and ways that content providers and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) can work together.

As the year comes to a close, here are our predictions about what marketers can look for in 2024.

1. MORE DIGITAL TV INVENTORY AND BETTER MEASUREMENT

The traditional linear TV viewership will continue to decline as consumers rapidly transition to subscription-based and free, ad-supported streaming services. Amazon’s inclusion of ads to its Prime Video programing as more consumers adopt ad-supported streaming subscriptions to save money, is only the beginning of a coming glut of connected TV ad inventory to flood the market.

Although measurement and attribution will come to sharper focus with a seemingly endless supply of connected and streaming TV ad inventory, it won’t be enough to just deliver ad impressions and completions. Marketing budgets are constricting across myriad sectors.  Marketers will demand strong returns on ad spending, as measured through results of brand-safe environments, or publishers and streamers.  They will find that more eyes on streaming content don’t necessarily translate to more revenue. Look out for the further implosion of CPMs and the following industry consolidation.

2. FIRST-PARTY DATA IS FINALLY CROWNED KING, WHILE THE COOKIE IS DEPOSED

After years of premature talk about the cookie’s imminent demise, in 2024 we’ll likely see cookie-based advertising strategies finally take their final bow. Chrome, Safari, and Firefox limit the marketer’s ability to leverage third-party cookies.  Additionally, national and regional governments will introduce more and more privacy-centric regulations, increasing the need for first-party data.

For advertisers and marketers that have been developing subscription offerings, newsletters, and tools to collect consumer data and build sophisticated content taxonomies to deliver meaningful contextual offerings, 2024 will likely be the year this investment foresight will pay off. For those marketers who haven’t made these investments, they should expect a year of scrambling and reacting as that train continues barreling down the tracks of the industry in the new year an for a long time to come

.

However, there are unique challenges carried by first-party data in digital marketing as privacy becomes something consumers expect and demand and governments (over)regulate. The glory days of the Wild West in leveraging consumer data secretly are completely gone. 

3. INCREASED PRIVACY REGULATIONS—AND ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

As many firms started to learn in 2023, GDPR was just the start when it comes to governmental agencies focusing on consumer privacy. As is common, the European Union did lead the charge, but the regulations will sweep the world from the European continent.

In the past, legislation and regulatory frameworks had little to no substantial enforcement. As the record fine collected against Crieto shows, the EU is once again leading in showing that violating the rules should and does have consequences. We in digital marketing should anticipate more fines and more investment in privacy compliance and audits in 2024.

4. NEW SELF-SERVICE AD OFFERINGS TO CHALLENGE THE META/GOOGLE DUOPOLY

Despite what they seem to think, Meta and Google are not the be-all-end-all of digital marketing, combined the two have nearly a 60% market share. But what has given Google and Meta this huge market share isn’t “best-in-class” product offering but the democratization of advertising tools and a lowering of the barrier to entry for even the smallest of local businesses. No longer are the days of advertising needing a six-plus-figure budget. As we enter 2024, expect other platforms such as Amazon, Microsoft, TikTok, Hulu, and Disney to embrace the self-service advertising model.

Microsoft’s advertising partnership with Netflix and their ability to play the long game means that despite years of trying to create an advertising business that has left them underperforming , the year 2024 may be when Microsoft’s advertising business grows.

5. COMMERCE AND RETAIL MEDIA EXPLOSION

Despite the fact that first-party data is king, commerce and retail media are the larger kingdom. Publishers should be taking note as retailers like Target, Kroger, Walmart, Amazon, and others make forays into the world of retail media to capitalize their first-party data and to diversify their revenue streams. We expect to see an emphasis on commerce marketing from social platforms and connected TV platforms.

We did see TikTok Shops launch in 2023, but 2024 may be the year shoppable TV arrives at the mainstream conscience, through Roku, Peacock, and similar streaming services. It’s completely workable that the streaming services will be offering more than just impressions in an effort to drive revenue and position themselves as significant media platforms. 

As we look forward to 2024, there’s only one factor that’s certain: In digital media and advertising, change is the only constant. Organizations and brands that aren’t prepared to change with the times will find themselves falling behind or constantly playing catch-up.