Five ways digital marketing is changing, Marketing & Advertising News, ET BrandEquity

The digital marketing landscape keeps changing. Here are 5 changes that my team and I have experienced in recent times. Each of these impacts the day to day work we do.

1. Volatility among the ad platforms in use

The mix of ad platforms that are available and on the ascendant or decline keep changing.

Let’s take Google Ads, the largest player. Over the last couple of years, Google Ads has unleashed disruption via machine learning (ML). Firstly, it has introduced bidding strategies that use ML viz. Smart Bidding and Performance Max. Secondly, ML is being used to create and serve the most appropriate ads for each context.

With the above changes, the old style of managing Google Ads – that was around for over a decade – has gone. Selection and optimization of keywords is no longer required. Google Ads automatically optimizes keywords, based on the bidding strategy and marketing objectives set by the digital marketer.

This change at Google Ads is the biggest one ever and it has changed the task of the performance marketer quite a bit.

Meta, which with Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads, has the second largest ad platform, is planning to make a major move in AI in the form of launching creator tools in the short term and AI personas (targeting) in the long term, reports Marketing Dive. Zuckerberg has said he wants to ‘turbocharge’ Meta’s products with AI. Tech companies like Meta and Google cater to millions of ad clients, mostly small businesses. A big constraint for these small companies in getting more out of online advertising is ad creation.

Only 40% of Meta’s 10 million or so advertisers use Reels, says The Economist. If Meta can provide AI-based tools that can create ads (with images and videos) without the