The year 2017 witnessed a lot of activities ranging from new products to ads updates to targeting changes on the search marketing front. Let’s have a look the paid search changes that will matter the most as experts share the SEM trends to watch out for in 2018-
SEM Trends 2018
Himanshu Arora, Co-Founder, Social Panga
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Visual Search (Video or Image)
As our searches are becoming more visually focused. My 2018 search strategy needs to focus on how my consumer is searching visual content, not just text. The visual content could be images or videos. With visual content, the user tends to have deeper connect, and the recall value is much higher vs. the text-based content. This is driven by the fact that mobile users with there smartphones tend to spend more time on video consumption than on any text-based content.
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Machine Learning: Personalization & customer-focused content
With mobile device getting a preference for all the connected activities, targeting to the most limited circle & personalizing your search will be the trend to look at in 2018. Through machine learning, all the search engines are taking a leap forward in making the searches super personalized & helping users find contextualized results. The rise of voice search & digital assistant is driving this wave of customer-focused content & it is only possible through machine learning & artificial intelligence.
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Native Ads
As most users find banner ads as disruptive & irritating, native ads will drive push marketing in 2018. As per the research, CTR rates for mobile native ads is 4 times higher than the non-native display ads. Higher the CTR’s, better is the ROI for my digital campaigns. Native ads seamlessly blend with your content that users will not be able to differentiate between an ad & the content.
Ravi Soni, Co-Founder, Obbserv Online Services Pvt. Ltd.
1.) Mobile first has an important focus on the upcoming digital marketing approach.
- Whenever a customer feels the need to inquire about something, an astounding 96% of users reach for their smartphones to conduct the required research at that very instant.
- Compared to just a year ago, smartphone users are significantly more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile sites or apps customize information to their location.
2.) Location customised targeting is emerging
- Nearly one-third of all mobile searches are related to location. Nearly two-thirds of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile sites or apps customize information to their location
- Smartphone searches related to furniture “near me” have grown 85% year over year.
- users are more likely to purchase the landing pages customized with their locations.
3.) Right Now focused Campaigns
- Mobile searches related to “same-day shipping” have grown over 120% since 2015
- Travel-related searches for “tonight” and “today” have grown over 150% on mobile.
4.) Google Shopping
- Google shopping is really starting to dominate and will continue to grow well into 2018.
- Showcase Shopping ads have been designed to meet the needs of today’s mobile shoppers while giving businesses the opportunity to sell more products
- Over 40% of shopping searches are for broad-match terms, according to Google’s research. Showcase Shopping ads let advertisers display a collection of “living room furniture,” for example, and help consumers decide what to buy.
Gaurav Arora, Co-Founder, Social Panga
1. Mastering the voice search
2. Going beyond search engines
3. Perfecting the Localization
