The Top 5 Digital Advertising Trends for 2023

2023 is just around the corner, and we can’t wait to see what new digital advertising trends will emerge! We’re already seeing some exciting new developments that we think will be big in the coming year.

Digital advertising is always changing, and it can be hard to keep up with the latest trends. But if you want to stay ahead of the curve, it’s important to know what’s coming down the pipeline. Here are some digital advertising trends to watch out for in 2023:

💵 Ad spending increases by 8.6%

Digital advertising spending is expected to increase by 8.6% in 2023, according to a new report from eMarketer. This comes after a pandemic-induced slowdown in 2020, when spending grew by just 5.8%. The rebound is being driven by continued growth in programmatic advertising, which automates the buying and selling of ad space. This format now accounts for more than two-thirds of all digital ad spending, and is projected to grow at a double-digit pace through 2023. Other formats that will see strong growth include video (up 19.2%) and social media (up 18.4%). Mobile spending is also expected to rise sharply, growing by 23.1% over the next two years.

🎥 Video & context advertising grows

Video is becoming increasingly popular, especially on social media platforms. In 2023, we will see even more video content being consumed by users across all digital channels. This trend is being driven by the rise of short-form video content, such as TikTok, BeReal and Instagram Stories. As user attention spans continue to decrease, businesses will need to adapt their advertising strategies to meet the demands of this new era of digital marketing. We will also see a rise in context-based advertising, as businesses strive to provide relevant and targeted ads to their audiences.

🔀 Channel variety wins as ROAS decreases

Channel mix and variety are important in digital advertising. While many people focus on Google and Meta, there are other publishers that are important to consider. Hive Social and Mastodon are two new in the game but also local publishers that are important for channel variety – such as naoo from Switzerland. Hive Social is a social media platform that focuses on user privacy and content creation. Mastodon is similar to Twitter, but it’s open source and decentralized. Both platforms offer a different experience than what you get from Google and Meta, and they’re definitely worth considering for your digital advertising strategy.

Studies show that channel variety can have a big impact on performance: publishers who use a diverse set of channels see an average uplift of up to 20% in ROAS compared to those who don’t. And we must assume this continues to grow as more advertisers will enter the game.

🤖 Publishers keep automating with AI

2022 was a big year for digital advertising. Publishers continue to utilize AI and automation to create more powerful and effective ads. Facebook’s Advantage+ and Google’s Performance max are two examples of this trend. Advantage+ is Facebook’s own AI that helps optimize ad creation and placement. Performance max, on the other hand, is a tool that automates the creation of ads. Both tools help publisher’s increase their performance and efficiency in creating ads.

The trend of automation in digital advertising is one that looks like it’s here to stay – and that’s not a bad thing! A lot of the time, automating processes can lead to better results, as well as freeing up time for publishers to focus on other things. For example, Google’s Performance max and Facebook’s Advantage+ both automate the ad creation process, meaning that ads can be created and placed without any human intervention.

🍪 Data protection and Marketing Mix modeling

As we head into 2023, it’s clear that digital advertising trends are leaning more and more toward privacy. Furthermore, with new data privacy rules and enforcements in place, the need for replacing multi-touch-attribution (MTA) as we know them today is increasing. This brings us to a conclusion that, sooner or later, marketers will need to find new ways to track and attribute conversions. 

Undoubtedly, digital advertising will change significantly in the next couple of years. As a privacy-friendly alternative, a combination of different Marketing Mix models can become a valid substitute for Multi-touch-attribution. This approach combines traditional and digital marketing elements and uses statistical data analysis to get a holistic view of the customer base. At its core, marketing-mixed modeling helps advertisers better understand where the potential of each marketing channel lies and how the different channels interact with each other. And although, at the moment, there is still a lot of uncertainty in this approach, we believe that next year this topic will be more thoroughly explored.

Get Ready for 2023

To sum up, we will see many developments and changes in the digital advertising industry in 2023. And although it might feel overwhelming at first, being aware of the latest trends will help you to boost your performance and be ahead of the competition.
On our side, we will continue providing helpful insights and tips on how to keep up with the newest trends.

Stay tuned.