7 Effective Ways to Improve Page Load Speed Right Now

Faster loading pages. Boosting your site’s performance. Increasing Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix scores. Ranking better in search results. All these and more can be yours after reading our seven foolproof SEO methods to improve page load speed.

Have you ever heard the fable of the tortoise and the hare? You know, the one where the slow and steady turtle wins a race over the arrogant, speedy rabbit. Well, it’s a lie. Going slow never got anyone anywhere fast. That’s just common sense, and good business.

Okay, you got us. Maybe a few things can benefit from taking it slow, like eating, aging, and walking down steep stairs while carrying swords. But when it comes to SEO, there is nothing worse than sluggishness.

So buckle up, because it’s going to be a high-speed ride to higher rankings.

Why is Having a Fast Website Important?

Would you rather wait for more than two days for your packages, snail mail a letter instead of sending a text, or twiddle your thumbs waiting for a website to load? Of course not. Who has time for that? Certainly not Google and all the other search engines out there, not to mention your visitors.

We live in a world of instant gratification, and just a one-second delay in page response can lead to:

 

  • 7% drop in conversions
  • 11% fewer page views
  • 16% decrease in customer satisfaction

 

And with every increased second those numbers become more terrifying:

 

  • Bounce rates increase by a whopping 103% after only a 2-second delay
  • 40% will abandon a site taking longer than 3 seconds to load
  • 79% of dissatisfied shoppers with site speed are less likely to buy again
  • 44% will tell their friends about the bad experience

If you like keeping yourself up at night worrying about customer satisfaction, here’s a complete picture of the impact slow site speeds can have:

Scary, right?

So how well does your website stack up? Let’s find out.

How Can I View My Web Page Load Time?

There are several online benchmarking tools that measure how fast your web pages load. They will also show how large and resource-heavy your site is and provide suggestions for improvement. Best of all, they are free to use.

They include:

 

  • Google PageSpeed Insights – runs separate tests for mobile and desktop, segregating load time into different stages.
  • GTmetrix – provides an overview of page load time, size, and resource allocation, along with YSlow.
  • Pingdom – similar service to GTmetrix.
  • WebPageTest – less user-friendly than the others but no less insightful. Of note are its advanced options, which take into account how a site performs in different browsers.
  • Think with Google Mobile Tester – a mobile-specific version of PageSpeed Insights. It includes added insights, like competitor comparisons and conversion rate impacts.

 

When running these tests, be sure to select test locations that are closest to where your audience is physically located, which will give the most pertinent results.

Now that you know how fast your pages are loading let’s see whether you’re clocking in a good time or not.

How Fast Should My Website Load?

As a rule of thumb, your web pages should fully load in 3 seconds or less, with average pages starting to load between 1 and 2.5 seconds.

If your site speed is between 3-5 seconds, it’s not the end of the world, but your pages are performing less than desired by today’s mobile-first standards. Anything over 5 seconds is considered poor. But no matter how fast your site is performing, it could always use a Vitamin B boost – figuratively speaking of course. (Please don’t try and stuff vitamins into your USB ports.)

You should also pay close attention to your page’s Time of First Byte, or TTFB. (PageSpeed Insights and WebPageTest show this data.) TTFB is the amount of time browsers wait before receiving the first byte of data from a server. Google recommends a TTFB of 200ms or less.

Here’s more insight into load time goals:

 

 

But how do you improve your page load time to achieve this ideal of 3 seconds or under?

We’ve got you covered.

What’s the Best Way to Improve Page Load Time?

A lot of factors influence page load time. So like everything in SEO, tackling them is a process. Some methods can be done right away and have an immediate impact. Others will take time and testing to reap the benefits.

Here’s a highlight reel of the best methods:

 

  1. Enable Gzip Compression
  2. Optimize Images
  3. Enable Browser Caching
  4. Minify HTML, CSS and JavaScript
  5. Reduce HTTP Requests
  6. Reduce Server Response Time
  7. Consider Implementing a CDN

 

Bonus: WordPress Specific Improvements

On your mark, get set, boost!

1. Enable Gzip Compression

Compression shrinks the size of your web page files allowing for faster downloading. It’s one of the easiest and quickest ways to improve page load time. Using Gzip for compression is the standard, although Brotli is another well-known method. When enabled, Gzip can reduce the size of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript by as much as 70%. (Run a Gzip test to see if you have it enabled.)

Most WordPress all-in-one performance plugins have the option to enable compression automatically. For those more hands-on or using a different CMS, you can also enable compression manually by adding some code to your .htaccess file.

2. Optimize Images

Some of the most common culprits contributing to large page size are images. As a rule of thumb, your images should be optimized and properly sized according to the following:

  • Under 100kb
  • Set to the exact size they will be shown
  • Saved as JPG (unless transparent, in which case use PNG)

With image compression comes a loss in quality, so don’t let your need for speed ruin the quality of your site’s aesthetic. But at the very least, if your site has a width of 600px, don’t upload a photo that is 2500px wide.

Optimize images before uploading them using photo editing software like Photoshop (paid) or GIMP (free). For added compression, you can also use an online optimizer like TinyJPG. As a secondary option, if using a CMS like WordPress, both Smush.it and EWWW Image Optimizer are good supplemental plugins. Some plugins also allow you to enable a Lazy Load feature that prioritizes above-the-fold content and only loads your images when a user scrolls by them — drastically reducing requests placed on your server.

3. Enable Browser Caching

Every time a visitor returns to your site, their browser re-downloads files such as images, scripts, and stylesheets. That is unless you have enabled browser caching.

With browser caching, static files are stored on your visitor’s browser. So the next time they visit your site, there’s no need to download anything again, and everything loads much faster.

If you’re using WordPress, caching is very easy. Plugins like W3 Total Cache and WP Rocket can walk you through all the necessary steps and practically set it up for you. Just be sure to use only one of these plugins at a time. Enabling caching manually is a little more involved.

4. Minify HTML, CSS and JavaScript

Minification removes unnecessary or redundant code without affecting performance. This includes removing code comments, spacing, lengthy function names, and so on. All things which are invisible to the user, but weigh down your load time.

WordPress plugins like WP Rocket, WP-Minify, or W3 Total Cache are an ideal way for novice web developers to achieve minification. For other CMS and advanced admins, you will need to perform manual minification. Some tools that can help include:

 

 

5. Reduce HTTP Requests

This is a big one. And it can get complicated. But don’t let it scare you. Reducing page requests is the holy grail of page load optimization. (You should strive to keep the number of HTTP requests under 50.)

There are a lot of methods to streamlining these requests, as well as speeding them up. So many, in fact, that we created a special “Reduce HTTP requests like a boss” tutorial.

6. Reduce Server Response Time

Changing servers is not something you should do lightly or on the fly. But your hosting server plays a key role in load time, so understanding whether you have the best setup goes a long way.

Above all else, check with your provider to make sure your servers experience sufficient uptimes, provide enough bandwidth, and are located near your target audience. If not, then it might be time to consider switching to a different hosting service.

Some other key things to consider:

PHP Version

If your site is PHP-based, you’ll want to use PHP 7 or higher. The easiest way to learn which PHP you’re currently using and upgrade if needed is to call your hosting provider. Though please note, changes in PHP can conflict with some WordPress themes and plugins. Luckily, you can easily reverse your server’s PHP if anything seems amiss.

HTTP/2

HTTP/2 is a server-side protocol that vastly improves site speed and efficiency. Not all sites use HTTP/2 when they could. To check if your server supports HTTP/2 use this online tool. Then contact your hosting provider to review your options.

Hosting Type

Most small businesses use less expensive shared hosting servers (like BlueHost, GoDaddy, and HostGator). Larger businesses that see lots of site traffic typically require more robust virtual private servers (VPS) or direct servers to deliver their content. Decide which category you fall under based on budget and performance.

7. Consider Implementing a CDN

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are great for web pages serving diverse international locations or who are looking for an added speed boost to their regular hosting service. These third-party, paid services not only offer HTTP/2 support but vastly reduce request times by hosting your files across a large network of global servers.

Some notable CDN options include:

 

 

Not every site needs a CDN (despite what GTmetrix might tell you), so we recommend implementing the other methods on this list first. If afterward, your page load times are still lagging, then consider a CDN as a viable option.

Bonus: WordPress Specific Improvements

If you’re using WordPress, several other factors could be contributing to your page load time. You’ll want to address each of these along with the other methods listed above.

Reduce Plugins

Plugins are awesome and can do a lot to improve the speed of your site. (As we’ve seen above.) But the wrong plugins can have the complete opposite effect. Having too many plugins installed can cause issues, slowing down your site’s performance drastically.

That’s why it is important to:

 

  • Routinely maintain and update your plugins
  • Routinely remove any unused or unnecessary plugins
  • See if there are faster or lighter alternatives
  • Identify plugins whose functionality overlaps
  • Eliminate plugins for tasks you can do manually

 

For example, if you have a Google Analytics plugin installed, you’d be better off manually adding the snippet, using Google Tag Manager, or using the Insert Headers and Footers plugin (which is smaller in size).

To help locate problem areas, there’s a wonderful plugin assessment tool called Page Performance Profiler that can tell which plugins are hurting page load. (Don’t forget to remove it once you’re done.)

Clean Your Database

Over time WordPress databases can get cluttered with saved drafts, post revisions, and other stuff you don’t need. Occasionally cleaning this mess can help speed your site up. Some all-in-one performance plugins come with this capability (like WP Rocket), or you can use the WP Optimize plugin.

Update CMS and Theme

Make sure you’re always using the latest versions of both your theme and WordPress install. (Don’t forget to backup your site before doing so.) If, after updating and making all the changes above your site is still sluggish, you may want to consider trying a new theme altogether. While themes make your site look great, they can bring a lot of baggage with them that slows down your site. Find a theme that works best for you.

Page Load Time Is More Important Than Ever

In case you haven’t heard, Google completely mobile-focused these days. And it’s not about to back off anytime soon. Which is why it is so important that your pages load as quickly as possible.

Let’s face it. We all have short attention spans, and they’re growing shorter by the second. If your page doesn’t load fast enough, there are plenty of cat videos out there that will. So what are you waiting for? Time is of the essence. Start implementing these page speed & page experience improvements today. Because SERPS (just like cats) wait for no one.

Reduce Budget Waste: 7 Audiences to Exclude From Your Google Ads Campaigns Today

Word to the wise: Less is more. Especially when it comes to your paid media ad campaigns. Just ask negative audiences. Being less is basically their thing, and it’s what makes them one of the most powerful targeting tools around. But are you using negative audiences in paid media as well as you could?

Let’s find out.

Paid media advertising is all about relevancy. The more relevant your messaging, the more likely your ads will get clicked. The more relevant your keywords, the more likely your ads will appear where they should. The more relevant your audience targeting, the more likely your ads will find the right people. Anything you can do to refine your messaging, hone your keywords, exclude negative audiences and focus your targeting will pay off big time.

When it comes to audience targeting, this means that for every group of people you want to target, there’s a whole lot more that you don’t, which is exactly why every ad campaign should include negative audiences in some form or another. If your campaign doesn’t, then your ads are just wasting money.

So make every click count with more relevant audience targeting. To help, here are seven audiences that should be excluded from your paid media campaigns today:

  1. Current Customers (or Everyone Else)
  2. Current Employees
  3. Job Seekers
  4. App Audiences
  5. Non-Engaged Visitors
  6. Overlapping Audiences
  7. Convertors

Before exploring this list of audience exclusions further, let’s breakdown how negative audiences are defined and the different ways to implement them effectively. After all, a little negativity can be a good thing.

What is a Negative Audience?

Negative audiences are groups of people you want to exclude from being targeted by your advertising campaigns. They eliminate individuals who are not a good match for your ads. Whereas reaching specific target audiences with your ads is important, it is just as vital to exclude unrelated, unprofitable audiences.

We’ll cover how to set up negative audiences using Google Ads and Facebook Ads, but you can similarly exclude audiences on almost every ad platform, including LinkedIn.

Why is Using Negative Audiences Important?

Building audiences is an important part of a good paid media strategy and typically involves adding any people whose interests, behaviors, and past interactions indicate they are most likely to engage with your ads and convert on your landing pages. However, only building out these audiences and not focusing on excluding those that won’t convert usually casts too wide of a net.

Targeting too many people can result in wasted clicks and budget, high cost-per-click (CPC), and high cost-per-acquisition (CPA).

Properly incorporating a negative audience into your targeting refines your paid media campaigns, so they reach only the audiences that are most relevant to your business and ads. Thus, reducing costs and increasing the likelihood of attracting quality engagement, clicks, and conversions.

How to Exclude Audiences in Google Ads

Excluding specific audiences in Google Ads is as easy as one-two-three!

After signing into your Google Ads account:

1. Select Audiences from the left sidebar

2. Select the Exclusions tab

3. Hit the big blue  button

 

Voila! You’re primed to exclude audiences in Google ads. Now optimize your audience exclusions list using these options:

1. Choose to exclude from a “Campaign” or “Ad Group” using the drop-down

2. Browse for the audience you want to exclude

3. Pick between demographic, affinity, in-market, and remarketing options

4. Check the box next to an audience to exclude; select as many as you want

5. Hit Save

 

Difference Between Affinity Audiences and In-Market Audiences

When you search for an audience in Google Ads, you’ll notice some greyed text above each result reading either “Affinity audiences” or “In-market audiences.” Which one you choose will further refine targeting for your ads but in different ways.

Affinity Audiences

Affinity Audiences in Google Ads target potential customers to build brand awareness. These customers are likely to have a strong “affinity” for your ad since it is contextually relevant to their lifestyle, buying habits, and long term interests.

When you exclude an Affinity Audience, it is because you don’t want your ads mistakenly targeting people that might seem interested in what you’re selling, but are actually not. A great example is excluding “Soccer Fans” when your ads have something to do with American Football.

In-Market Audiences

In-Market Audiences in Google Ads target people who are actively searching or looking to buy a specific product or service like those you offer. While Affinity Audiences focus more on long-standing brand loyalty, In-Market Audiences focus on those most likely to make an immediate conversion.

Exclude an In-Market Audience to prevent your ad from making people think they can get what they want from you when they cannot. For example, if you’re selling Super Bowl tickets, you should exclude people searching for “Soccer tickets.”

How to Exclude Audiences in Facebook and Instagram Ads

There are a few ways to exclude audiences in Facebook Ads, as well as multiple layers of exclusions that can be added to your campaigns for a more nuanced targeting. For instance, you can exclude specific people who have interacted with your site when creating a custom audience, and then add additional exclusions to that audience according to their interests and behaviors when creating your ad. Below are tutorials on how to do both.

Create a Custom Audience with Exclusions

1. Sign in to Facebook Ads Manager

2. Select the hamburger dropdown menu (three horizontal lines) in the upper left corner

3. Select “Assets” and choose “Audiences.”

 

4. Hit the blue “Create Audience” button and start a Custom Audience

5. Choose the source for your audience (“Website” is the most commonly used)

6. Select the “Exclude People” blue link (you will need to have a pixel added to your site first if it is not already added)

7. From the dropdown choose who to exclude, such as those visiting specific pages or taken a specific action on your site

8. Finish creating the audience as normal

 

Exclude Audience During Ad Creation

1. In ads manager, select the green “+ Create” button to start building a new ad

 

2. While on the “Ad Set” section of ad creation, scroll down to “Audience”

3. Choose a relevant custom or lookalike if you have one

 

4. Under “Detailed Targeting” select Edit and then select “Exclude People”

 

5. Choose any demographics, interests, and behaviors you want to exclude

6. Finish creating your ad as normal

 

7 Audiences You Need to Exclude from PPC Campaigns

Now that we know how to create a negative audience, let’s identify who you don’t want to target.

Current Customers (or Everyone Else)

One of the most important steps in creating a winning ad audience is to answer one question: Do I want this ad to reach my current customers or not? If you want to say both, then your campaigns are likely not specific enough. If you answered one, then you need to exclude the other audience.

If your goal is to raise brand awareness or perform lead generation, you most likely want to exclude your current customers and leads. A great way to do this is by uploading your existing prospect and contact email lists into your ad platform.

On Google Ads, you can do this using Customer Match and setting your list as a negative audience. On Facebook Ads, you can do something similar by uploading a Customer List to create a Custom Audience. (Facebook also makes it very easy to exclude your followers as well, or target only your followers.)

If you want to target your current customers, odds are you don’t want to reach all of them. In those instances, use negative audience exclusions in Google Ads to segment your current contacts according to where they are in the sales funnel. For example, if you want to remarket to only leads who have not yet made a purchase, you can use your existing contact lists to exclude everyone else.

Current Employees

You’ve probably been in this situation before. You’re perusing the Internet or stalking people on Facebook when all of a sudden one of your company’s ads appears. It’s an exciting moment, right? Wrong.

It means you’re wasting money.

There is no reason why you should target yourself or fellow team members in a paid media campaign. To prevent this from happening, add yourselves as a negative audience in paid media campaigns. In the “Detailed Targeting” section of Facebook Ads use the “EXCLUDE people who match at least ONE of the following” to do this. Select Demographics>Work>Employees and type in your business name. Repeat for any variations or abbreviations of the business name.

On LinkedIn, excluding current employees is particularly easy as you can stop targeting specific companies (like your own) and their employees.

Although not foolproof, building a negative audience around current employees can help cut back on false-positive results. But if by chance an ad does slip through the cracks, remember, no matter how tempting it may be: DO NOT CLICK YOUR OWN ADS.

Job Seekers

Job Seekers are one of the most notorious audiences to muddle up campaign performance, especially in industries like home and health care. Job seekers are looking to convert you, not the other way around. Most likely, they care more about applying to an open position, then making a purchase or signing up for a service. So don’t waste your spend on targeting them.

Reduce job seeker inquiries in your paid media campaigns by excluding searches and interests related to “job,” “careers,” or specific job titles. Google Ads has an In-Market Audience especially for employment that you should exclude. Other, more involved, methods would be to exclude people who visit the job opportunity web page on your site, or if you link to third-party job sites and track which of your visitors are also interested in those.

Of course, if the purpose of your ad is to hire people (which is common on LinkedIn), you may want to reverse the process and exclude non-job seekers from your audience.

App Audiences

If your business offers an app, it is important to understand when and how your app audience is using your site. A lot of times, companies fail to cross-reference app analytics with site analytics (you can set up both within Google Analytics) to ensure they are not mistakenly targeting people who have already downloaded an app.

Like with any tracking, you can also segment by app actions. So if your paid media campaign goal is to convert freemium app users into premium app users, exclude all users who have already upgraded to a paid account.

Non-Engaged Visitors

Remember the movie Minority Report where Tom Cruise uses futuristic psychic sci-fi technology to locate crimes before they happen? Well, you don’t need to wait for the future to take advantage of that tech for your business. Event tracking is an incredibly powerful tool in Google Analytics, that, when paired with Google Tag Manager, can predict the future by monitoring user intent, just like Tom Cruise.

Scroll Depth trigger measures how users engage with your site by tracking how far they scroll down or across your pages. Set up this trigger in Google Tag Manager and record it as an event in Google Analytics. Then go to “Audience Builder > Conditions” in Google Analytics to create an audience around this event. In your remarketing campaigns, exclude anyone from this audience who didn’t move much around your pages —  they probably do not intend to buy what you’re selling.

You can use the Element Visibility trigger to a similar effect.

Overlapping Audiences

If you run a lot of paid media campaigns, chances are your ads will sometimes reach the same people. While ad overlap may be okay in some instances, most times doing so is counterproductive and a waste of ad spend. A perfect example occurs when performing a retargeting campaign for a specific group of people who you don’t want to see all your non-retargeted campaigns – diluting the effectiveness of your messaging.

On Facebook, one way to ensure this doesn’t happen is by creating a custom audience that excludes those who visited your site within a certain timeframe, say 60 days. You could also create an ad that excludes specific retargeting audience that you previously built as custom audiences.

In Google Ads, you can exclude retargeted audiences by utilizing the “Remarketing and similar audiences” option.

Convertors

Exclude converters wherever it makes sense to do so. This doesn’t apply to just customers, but anyone who has performed a conversion-related action who you don’t need to see your ad anymore.

This is very common in multi-stage sales funnels, where you have several micro-conversions (like a form fill or account creation) that lead to a bigger macro conversion (like a purchase or download). In such cases, you will want to exclude convertors at the top of that funnel from any remarketing efforts focusing on macro conversions, and you’ll want to exclude any convertors towards the bottle of the funnel from your initial lead generation and awareness campaigns.

Google Ads provides the ability to easily select “All Convertors” when building audiences. However, you will likely only want to exclude specific conversion sets. Event and goal tracking in both Facebook Ads and Google Ads make this very easy, where you can cherry-pick which convertors you want to exclude from targeting in your PPC campaigns.

Get Creative with Negative Audiences

The possibilities for negative audiences are almost endless. There’s always some way to refine your ad targeting further. The examples we listed above are some key audience exclusions you can implement in your Google Ads right now. But they aren’t the only ones. In fact, the best negative audiences will be specific to your business and industry and are ones only you can find after testing and analysis.

If you’re having trouble figuring out what those are, get creative and try blocking audiences that might not seem obvious at first.

Facebook’s interest-based audiences are a cornucopia for creatively building negative audiences. For example, if you are selling a high-end product or want to avoid penny pinchers, try excluding people interested in “free” stuff, or those that are members of cheap deal-hunting groups. If you’re an online site and don’t deal in cash, try excluding those who shop with “primarily cash.” Exclude “hometown” or “current resident” if you want to target tourists.

Trust us, once you start down the road of negative audience brainstorming you’ll snowball into a wealth of possibilities.

Hindsight is Always 2020: How to Win in the New Year with These Up and Coming Trends

Welcome to a new decade! Crazy, right? Where does the time go? Well, according to YouTube, most of it was spent watching a guy dance Gangnam Style and a 10-year-old cowboy yodel in Walmart. And with that, here we are, the year 2020. Welcome to the future!

Did you know it was predicted that by 2020:

 

  • We’d be vacationing on the moon (via com, 2010)
  • We’d vote in presidential elections from our homes (via Wired, 1999)
  • The letters C, X, and Q, would be excluded from the alphabet (via Ladies Home Journal, 1900)
  • Drinking coffee would no longer be a thing (via Nikolas Tesla, 1937)
  • Neither would eating or going to the bathroom (via Ray Kurzweil, 2005)
  • Taco Bell would be the world’s only restaurant (The Demolition Man, 1993)
  • Paul Rudd would age a day (via logic)
  • Robots would wipe out most of humanity (via The Terminator, 1984)
  • Humans would live to be 200 … and the world destroyed (via Nostradamus, 1500s)

 

Welp, turns out those never occurred. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some big things in store in the days ahead, especially if you are a digital marketer.

So let’s take a look at what’s really going to happen in the coming year. Here are the most important digital marketing trends of 2020 you need to be aware of.

Trend 1: Old Trends Will Continue

In the grand scheme of things, not a whole lot changed between December 31st, 2019 and January 2020. That’s because, for the most part, change doesn’t happen overnight.

So it only makes sense that a lot of the digital marketing trends that were big in 2019 will continue onwards into 2020. We’re talking about stuff like voice search, geofencing, rich schema, featured snippets, chatbots, mobile speed, user experience, long-form content marketing, artificial intelligence, the list goes on.

Heck, some of the marketing trends that were big way back in 1920 will continue onwards into 2020. (We’re looking at you Personalization.) That’s because a lot of times, it’s easy to confuse a “trend” with best practice. Really, the best “trends” are merely new means of capitalizing on the timeless fundamentals of a sound marketing strategy. So in that regard, consider the trends that follow as weapon upgrades in the fight against Digital Darwinism.

What’s Digital Darwinism?

Here’s how digital analyst Brian Solis describes it:

“Each business is a victim of Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to exploit it. Digital Darwinism does not discriminate. Every business is threatened.”

Yeesh, that sounds a bit bleak. But don’t worry. We’re not heading towards a digital dystopia. In fact, the trends below show quite the opposite. We’re moving into an exciting new frontier. So let’s see how some of these cool upgrades, both old and new, will impact your future marketing efforts.

Trend 2: AI-Based Automation

We know everyone’s been saying it for a while now, but this time it’s for real: in 2020, robots will finally rise and take over… but in a good way.

Gartner analysts predicted that by 2020, Ai technologies would be in almost every new software product. Predictions like this have led to the likes of Techgrabyte proclaiming:

“Artificial intelligence is the biggest commercial opportunity for companies, industries, and nations over the next few decades… AI latecomers will find themselves at a serious competitive disadvantage within the next several years.”

Here are several examples of how AI will improve the way you do business:

  • Automated SEO – Machine learning software that can provide better insight, automation, and personalization for SEO strategies. SEO AI, like our TitanBot, allows digital marketing teams to see how search engines index content in ways humans can’t, identifying opportunities for improvement and helping better predict outcomes.
  • 24/7 Communication – Using AI-based tech like chatbots to talk in real-time, day or night, with customers or site visitors. They provide prompt customer service, automate repetitive tasks, and immediately meet customer expectations. By 2020, chatbots will power 85% of customer service, and by 2022, they will be saving businesses over $8 billion annually.
  • Programmatic Advertising – Offloading ad-buying decisions to an AI bot related to ad placement, performance tracking, customer targeting, real-time bidding, and media channels lowers acquisition costs and frees up time so you or your agency team can handle more important tasks.

AI also supports big data with predictive analytics that pool from online search patterns and social media use to help brands learn more about their audiences and create more personal experiences at scale.

And that’s the key.

Because AI automation should not supplant the human aspect of digital marketing, but supplement it. So don’t worry, the robots will not take over our jobs. But they will help reduce costs and spur growth. AI tools will eliminate much of the grunt work so your team of awesome humans can streamline workflow and concentrate more on what really matters — engaging with people.

Speaking of which…

Trend 3: Hyper-Personalization

Some trends never go out of style. Creating a personalized customer experience has been, is, and should always be at the core of any marketing strategy. So when you hear someone proclaim “personalization” is the next big thing as if it’s something new, please feel free to roll your eyes.

That said, in 2020, personalization will only grow more important. Today’s consumers are bombarded with information and marketing messages from multiple channels like never before. Amidst all that chaos begging for attention, the best brands will stand out by forging a real connection with individuals — emphasis on the word individual.

Just consider that 63% of consumers say they are annoyed by generic advertising, and 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with brands providing personalized experiences.

Advances in technology and data collection (thanks to AI) are furthering the levels of personalization possible by brands. Merely having the name of a recipient auto-populate within email blasts is no longer going to cut it. Every aspect of business, from content to design to product recommendations, and everything in-between, needs to be hyper-personalized to each individual.

Take these companies who are winning the personalization game:

 

  • Amazon – Every inch of Amazon’s pages are tailored to show you what they think you want based on your search and buying patterns.
  • EasyJet – Launched an email campaign using customer travel history to share personalized suggestions on where they might like to travel next. Over 12 million unique emails were sent, garnering 25% higher CTR than non-personalized emails.
  • Target – Assigns each customer a personal tracking Guest ID that allows for a personalized analysis of demographic and buying behavior to predict future purchasing needs, and then send out coupons and deals related to those specific needs.

These companies are setting a precedent that consumers across the board are coming to expect from their interactions with brands. Follow their lead and give the people what they want — an experience that speaks to them.

Trend 4: Immersive Video Marketing

The end of the last decade saw a mounting swell in video-based marketing strategies. These strategies are based on creating informative, personable, and immersive viewer experiences.

On one end exists vlogging, where YouTube, Instagram Stories, and Snapchat provide videos that encourage engagement through shared experiences. This is proving especially useful in building product awareness. Just ask any parent who still can’t figure out why their kids are so mesmerized by watching someone else open up toys.

On the other end exists dynamic content that allows the viewer to influence what’s happening rather than just sitting by passively watching. These include:

 

  • 360-Degree Videos – Customers interact with a brand and their offerings from every angle imaginable
  • Live Videos – From interviews, seminars, product demos, and behind-the-scenes glimpses; viewers spend 3x longer watching live video on Facebook than pre-recorded video
  • 1:1 Videos – Personalized “face-to-face” messages in place of a call or email

 

From an SEO perspective, Google is fully aware that people would much rather watch a compelling video than read static words, so they may push pages that include videos higher in rankings.

Trend 5: Micro-Influencer Marketing

Word-of-mouth has always been one of the strongest marketing tactics. But few could have guessed that social media “influence” would become one of the hottest and most profitable commodities in the digital marketing landscape.

Influencer marketing — Using key figures to amplify your brand messaging to a larger market — has become so successful that the big-time influencers (think the Kardashians) have formed huge enterprises just off of sponsored word-of-mouth. But turning influence into big business is a slippery slope, which is why so many digital marketers are now turning to micro-influencers.

Micro-influencers are smaller to mid-sized online personalities with niche followings. In addition to being more affordable, micro-influencers tend to come off as more authentic and relatable than bigger, celebrity influencers. For example, the British supermarket chain, Iceland, switched from using celebrities in their ads to teaming up with the YouTube community Channel Mum and other real-life moms to promote their brand.

Since micro-influencers target smaller, niche audiences, they tend to produce better engagement rates. A study from Adweek found that micro-influencers (categorized as accounts with around 30,000 followers) had 60% higher engagement while being 6.7x more cost-effective than those with higher follower counts.

Trend 6: Social Commerce

Getting social media followers to make purchases has always been one of the biggest obstacles faced by e-commerce sites. But recent advancements in social commerce have set the stage for an online selling explosion in 2020.

Social commerce refers to buying products directly through social media posts or ads without having to leave the site or app. The trend got its start with Pinterest’s shoppable pins and Instagram Checkout. With shoppable posts, e-commerce brands can shorten the sales funnel, decrease cart abandonment, and give consumers instant access to the products they want, especially ones shared by social media influencers.

In the upcoming year, expect to see a lot more of interactive, social commerce posting.

Trend 7: Voice Search

Voice search was a big thing in 2019. And it’s only going to get bigger throughout the next decade. The increasing popularity of voice search is causing brands to rethink their digital marketing strategies entirely.

Just consider that it was predicted 50% of all searches would be made via voice by 2020. While we’re not quite there yet, smart speakers are one of the fastest-growing technologies out there and are playing an increasingly important role in providing information and managing our digital lives. We’ll soon be hard-pressed to find someone not using voice assistants like Siri and Alexa.

Certainly, voice search will present new challenges to companies, but with those challenges come even greater opportunities.

Brands that learn to optimize, advertise, and deliver value-based audio content via voice search will have a leg up on the competition. Here are some already leading the charge:

  • Purina – Helps people answer pet-related questions via “branded skills”
  • Domino’s – Makes ordering pizza as easy as talking out loud
  • PayPal – Lets you send money to friends or businesses without having to pick up a phone or open your wallet

The smartest brands will realize that tapping into voice search is about creating a more connected brand experience through improved consumer interactions. Those who do this well will find voice search to be a lucrative ad channel. Companies can also get ahead by optimizing content with voice search in mind. Pretty soon, we’ll all be working on VSEO — voice search engine optimization.

Trend 8: Better Analytics

Don’t get us wrong; Google Analytics is amazing. But in this vast and fastly growing omnichannel marketing world, it will no longer be enough.

The average consumer engages with a brand on up to 6-8 touchpoints before making a purchase. Cross-tracking all that activity is a challenge, especially within the limited scope of Google Analytics. As the likes of voice search enter the mix and make the customer journey even more complex, brands will need to find more modern ways to analyze behavior.

This trend will likely veer towards a more comprehensive all-in-one analytics approach. One focused on gaining overall business intelligence to make brand-centric decisions, like improving the lifetime value (LTV) of customers, rather than looking solely at means to boost conversions within each separate channel.

One of our favorite data visualization tools (which is also free-to-use) is Google Data Studio.

Taking this a step further is sentiment analysis. Also known as “social listening,” sentiment analysis uses data-collecting tools and algorithms to quantify the reactions people have to a product or service — all to better understand how consumers perceive brands.

Conclusion

The future of digital marketing is bright. Which is why we’re excited to see where the industry will go in 2020 and beyond.

For any digital marketer, change goes with the job description. If you can adapt to these developments, you can help your business grow even stronger into the next decade.

We’re here to help you embrace it and stay ahead of the curve. Together we can keep pace with your customer’s ever-changing behaviors and evolve your business to use these trends in turning your brand into a 21st-century rock star.