Performance Marketing: The World is Changing – Are You Keeping Up?

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” ― Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

A new wave of digital marketing trends is entering the global scene and 2020 will be the gateway that connects them to brands who embrace innovation and adapt to it.

To help, let’s discuss the Top Five Trends for 2020:

1. Omnichannel Approach for Advertising Campaigns

Omnichannel or multi-channel marketing is a key approach this year. When creating advertising campaigns, brands should focus on:

• AI: It’s more than just a tired buzzword, it’s now a big thing in the digital marketing world; transforming the scene by creating tools that can increase efficiency (such as automation) and optimize the user experience.
• Voice Search: Gone are the days when smart speakers like Google Home and Alexa will only answer to your daily weather forecast inquiry. According to Comscore.com, voice search is getting so strong that 50% of online search is predicted to come from voice search results in 2020. Question is: how will brands and affiliates monetize that?
• Podcasts, Videos, and Live Streaming: Brands need to repurpose their content and share it through all relevant social channels to maintain traffic, by leveraging Facebook ads and remarketing tools. Podcasts are growing and you can find one on nearly any topic now, complementing your blog. Also, Google doesn’t penalize duplicate content, so more the reason to simulcast live streaming of the same video or podcast on different social channels.
• Mobile Publishing: It shouldn’t come as a surprise that mobile will make up most of all online traffic in 2020 and the upcoming years (Source). Thus, brands need to adjust and be mobile-friendly. To do so, optimizing content and making sure your affiliate management platform is mobile-responsive will be of utmost importance. We’re also looking at a new frontier of publishing partners, the rise of mobile publishers. These publishers have tools that save shoppers time and money (E.g. Honey, Wikibuy, Piggy).
• Subscription Boxes: This business model is in a rapid state of expansion with the rising influx of brands that offer them to consumers, covering a wide range of verticals and categories.

2. Branding: Personalization is the New Conversion Rate Optimization

In a world that is changing by the minute, where brands are competing aggressively for their audiences’ attention, how can one get noticed? With Personalization.

Personalization helps brands break through the noise and capture the attention that could lead to a converting consumer. Be creative and focus on what consumers need to feel emotions when connecting with your brand.

• First, look at comments and questions in social channels and forums like Reddit and Quora to find out what people are saying about your brand.
• Second, read about the ‘’brand queries’’ and try to figure out how to help people solve their problems by personalizing the experience.
• Third, understand who you are talking to and create a message that resonates with the targeted person, by being creative and bold. The key here is to differentiate as a brand.

By responding to brand queries, you can obtain valuable information including the lead type and what they thought of the conversation. This establishes a deeper brand connection through more one-to-one engagement with your audience and help improve your CRO.

3. Futureproofing: Creating Marketing Strategies with Longevity

Online marketing technology has developed significantly from the early days of Performance Marketing with the rise of new affiliate platforms, networks, and tracking tools. Brands need to choose wisely through the variety of platforms that provide efficient attribution tools and tracking solutions to manage their affiliate programs while protecting consumer privacy.

Platforms and networks that help brands manage their affiliate programs, will become more accessible and will provide affiliate partners a more seamless and dynamic environment.

Brands will be encouraged to move away from reliance on traditional browser-based tracking methods to have greater insight into consumer behavior. Solutions like ‘’server-to-server tracking’’ will assist in dealing with the consequences of adblockers and browser tracking preventions. This will help brands accurately track their online campaigns and interactions.

However, increasing data privacy regulation continues to shape worldwide markets in 2020. Brands will need to focus on adapting tracking solutions and marketing efforts that respect consumer privacy without degrading the user experience. Access to valuable data and understanding consumer insights will be important as brands look to offer favorable shopping experiences.

4. Peer-to-Peer: The Next Generation of Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing will continue to be strong in 2020 evolving into what consumers are looking for: authenticity. Most Millennials and Gen Z are preferring peer recommendations over celebrity endorsements because they are regarded as more authentic. Peer-to-peer (P2P) marketing is predicted to become the fastest-growing social marketing channel for brands.

Peer-to-peer marketing is a method that involves customers engaging other customers through recommendations. (Source)

As a brand, you need to get in on the P2P act by teaming up with genuine influencers that can help build consumer trust. A way to prepare for this trend is by motivating more consumers to become brand advocates who can speak positively about the brand on social channels. They need to be rewarded for driving brand awareness as well as new consumers to the brand’s website.

Comments and conversations will be the ultimate measure of influencer engagement on social channels like Instagram, who is testing the removal of ‘’likes’’ and video views. Brands will need to share more consumer-generated content to increase conversions.

5. Consumer Megatrends will have the Biggest Impact on Performance Marketing

Disruptive technologies in e-commerce are here to stay, so brands need to take a deep look into what drives consumer buying to develop strategies that resonate with them now and in the future. Trends become megatrends when large groups of people engage in certain behavior.

Some of the emerging megatrends in 2020 are:

• Connected Consumer Experience: Using technology to make incremental improvements to our lives by crowdsourcing an idea or problem.
• Virtuous Living: Making a difference by being socially and environmentally conscious, supporting global social causes.
• Experience More: Increased desire to engage with a brand that has proven authenticity.

To target an audience that is influenced by these megatrends, brands need to re-think the linear marketing funnel and create digital marketing strategies that respond to a more dynamic and unpredictable customer journey. They need to focus less on selling and more on ways to provide solutions to their audience, by engaging with them in unique ways.

How to keep up in 2020?

Stay ahead of the digital marketing revolution by being aware of the up and coming trends, getting better at your competencies, adopting progressive changes, and advancing your brand with the latest technological developments.

To thrive in the fast-paced online landscape, brands need to revisit their performance marketing strategies and adapt them to the new trends.

Performance Marketing agencies, like AIM, combine innovation with advertising by helping brands and affiliates grow, creating mutually beneficial opportunities for both. Agencies can assist brands and affiliates with new trends and keep up with the ever-evolving industry.

Have a chat with us to find the ways we can help you keep up by developing new strategies and grow your business in 2020 and beyond.