Digital Marketing News and Tipis
Digital News and Tips

Digital Marketing
News and Tips

All the Latest Digital Marketing News

We designed this page to be a go-to source for breaking digital marketing news and insights. From AI, the latest SEO news, and exciting new ad products, this page is a daily briefing of the latest trends in website development, SEO, and paid advertising, designed to empower small and medium businesses.

What's Happening Added To Google Business Profiles

any businesses rely on their Google Business Profiles to reach local consumers. Unfortunately, until now, there was no way for businesses to easily share events on their Google profile.

For these businesses, Google just released a “what’s happening” feature that lets them easily promote events. Even better, it can integrate with your social media events, so it shouldn’t be too much more work.

 

Social Media AdBuying Analysis from AdWeek

Social Media Ads Miss Some Audiences

In a recent article, AdWeek suggested that advertising entirely on social media may have some shortcomings.  

While audiences for social media are admittedly large, about 10-20% of their audience is “social light” meaning they use the platform much less than their piers.  This audience often ends up missed by advertisers that only promote themselves on social media. 

To reach these consumers, the article suggests diversifying beyond social media’s “walled gardens” by using channels like Connected TV (CTV) and mobile gaming platforms. Social-light users often spend more time streaming on platforms like Hulu.  

If you’d like us to review your ad buying approach and help you find a better ROI, please contact us! We’d love to help. 

Pinterest keeps it positive

Pinterest's Positivity May Increase Your ROI

Recently, I heard a theory that caught our attention… “Because Pinterest is more positive, it’s a better place to run ads.”  

I was a bit surprised at first. Obviously they have a smaller reach than some of the other big media platforms, but that doesn’t mean it won’t have a strong ROI on what’s available. Still, it’s silly to think something like that could have a real impact the performance of ads. Or is it?

There is some precedent for this theory. Generally speaking, when readers are happy and receptive, they’re more likely to interact with ads and have higher brand recall. Since Pinterest has less political content, a frequent complaint on other social platforms, its ads might have a slight edge over Meta or Twitter/X. It’s probably not a huge difference, but a 5% change in click-throughs or CPC can make a huge difference in the overall ROI of a campaign. 

We’re keeping Pinterest’s lack of political content in mind as we plan social ad campaigns for the next few months. If you’d like to try a Pinterest campaign, we’d love to talk with you!

Happy advertising!

Meta Expands On Its AI Goals

Meta is gearing up to launch its own standalone AI chatbot app to take on the big players like ChatGPT and Gemini. 

While the quality and adoption of this rollout is still up in the air, this would be similar to what OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot.  Meta will likely also include a paid subscription service for businesses as well. 

A growing 29% of marketers worldwide are already using chatbots and conversational AI, and that number’s only set to increase. With all this potential, Meta is positioning itself for a prime spot in the expanding AI market, although they aren’t considered quite as cutting edge as some of their competitors.

Google Search has new images available on search ads

What You Need To Know About Google's New Images on Search Ads

Exciting news for us ad nerd types! Google has rolled out a new feature that allows you to add images to your Display Search Ads.  According to Google, advertisers who use image assets have seen a 6% uplift in click-through rates (CTR). However, we’re not sure most businesses will see that.

 

To start using this new feature, your account must meet a few requirements. First, it needs to be active for at least 60 days and have been spending on search ads for at least 28 days.  When adding images, keep in mind some best practices: avoid adding text to the image, don’t leave too much whitespace, and steer clear of heavily edited images.  If you follow these tips, you can maximize the effectiveness of your new ads!

If you’d like help testing these out, we’d love to talk with you!

Happy advertising!

Podcasts are a small part of audio advertising

Audio Advertising Is More Than Podcasts

We’re big believers in audio ads, for generating an emotional response for users.  Lots of people equate adio ads to podcast ads, but there are a lot of other audio platforms that have less expensive ad inventory. 

Many small and medium-sized businesses are less familiar with audio ads.  Still, they can be great formats for getting a branding lift, even locally, and ad production charges aren’t nearly as expensive as they used to be.

We can help get you running on local and national radio stations, as well as music streaming platforms like Spotify and IHeartRadio.  

 

Audio Advertising is growing

Digital Audio Advertising Is A Missed Opportunity For Many Advertisers

Digital audio ads have a powerful impact, yet many advertisers still overlook them. Ads running on podcasts and streaming digital radio content are widely regarded as highly effective, often considered personal and memorable by listeners. What’s more, they can now be purchased just as easily as ads on platforms like Meta or Google.

In fact, the global digital audio ad market grew by 2% last year, reaching an impressive $29B. This spend is split between podcasts (around 30%) and streaming services (approximately 70%), with top platforms including Spotify, AudioGo, and AdsWizz. We’re also fans of the PRX podcast network; while they may charge a premium, their loyal listener base makes it well worth the investment.

Zuckerberg with Musk and Besos at Trump's inauguration

How Will Politics Impact Ads on Meta

 At the risk of diving into political matters, Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) has recently come under scrutiny for discontinuing its fact-checking efforts and donating $25 million to organizations affiliated with Donald Trump.

When Twitter/X adopted a similar approach, the platform experienced a significant exodus of users and advertisers, resulting in a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue in just one year. Since then, Twitter/X has struggled to recover. Some analysts are now speculating whether Meta will face similar challenges in 2025. In January alone, 3% of Meta’s user base left the platform, sparking concerns about a potential larger shift as the year progresses.

At our agency, we’re proactively shifting some of our more sensitive clients off the Meta platform to avoid having their ads appear near content or comments that could be considered hateful. We’re keeping a close eye on the situation and will continue to assess the impact on our broader strategy. Some brands may be comfortable staying even with the changes.

If you need assistance with planning your paid media campaign, we’d love to chat with you!

Listreaming Ads are showing a good ROI

Consider Livestreaming To Boost Your E-commerce

Livestreaming—where users or brands share content live on social media—has proven to be a powerful driver of sales. Last year, there was an impressive 29% growth in consumers purchasing products via livestreams. An additional 24% growth is expected in 2025.  This is a sign that the ads should have a strong (ROI) for brands looking to reach end consumers.

If you’re interested in exploring livestreaming ads for your business, we’d love to talk with you!

More TikTok Users Make Purchase Than On Facebook and Instagram

Tik-Tok Users Buy More

While Facebook and Instagram have a large user base and  lot of e-commerce, its good to know that 18% more TikTok users buy on the platform.  Over the last two years TikTok has rolled out multiple projects to increase the visibility of products on their platform. E-commerce companies and influencer have noticed it, and increased their offerings.  This doesn’t mean your company is guaranteed to get a better ROI by using TikTok ads, but it probably makes it worth reconsidering adding them to your media plans and testing out your results.

If you want help with your media buying, we’d love to assist you! 

Digital Marketing Trends for 2025 Small and Mid sized businesses

Big Trends for 2025 - Inflation and the Economy

While we typically focus on digital marketing trends, we recognize that in 2025, many are closely watching inflation and the broader economy.  Many regional and small-to-mid-sized businesses have been hesitant to fully embrace digital marketing in recent years, largely due to economic uncertainty.

As we move into 2025, many of the supply chain and employment challenges have stabilized, and the stock market has shown solid growth. However, significant uncertainties remain about the future direction of the market, particularly concerning housing costs, inflation, and consumer confidence. Any substantial shifts in these areas could potentially slow business growth in 2025. Moreover, with new tariffs on the horizon, economists are predicting an increase in average consumer costs. Only time will tell how these factors will evolve, but we think it’s wise that companies factor in potential shifts in their planning for the foreseeable future.

2025 Digital Marketing Trends

Big Trends For 2025 - Social Related Commerce

Social commerce is changing the way we shop, with platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook making it easier than ever to discover and purchase products directly within their apps. TikTok’s launch of TikTok Shop and Instagram’s integration of shoppable posts are creating seamless shopping experiences, while Facebook’s Marketplace and Shops continue to drive sales among older generations. Additionally, many brands are seeing solid ROIs from producing shoppable content.  This can add up to ver real revenue for commerce companies.

If you’re a shopping brand and you don’t have this on your strategic roadmap for 2025, you might want to revisit shoppable content and make sure you aren’t missing out.

At an aggregate level, U.S. digital shopping is projected to grow by 10%, much of that coming in social media. Additionally, consumers increasingly use social media for customer support, making social platforms an essential part of the customer service experience, so you may want to expand your social support presence as well.

AI in Marketing 2025

Big Trends for 2025 - AI Produced Content

In 2025, AI-driven content creation is set to become a game-changer for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). In fact, a majority of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) consider it one of the most important trends for the year ahead (eMarketer). Tools like Canva, HubSpot, and MailChimp that have embedded AI, are already making it easier than ever for businesses to create high-quality website content, ads, images, and even videos—often with minimal effort.

AI-powered features on these platforms are streamlining content creation, enabling businesses to produce engaging material quickly and affordably. This trend levels the playing field, allowing SMBs to compete with larger brands without requiring a huge investment in content production.

Larger companies are also embracing AI, with enterprise platforms like Salesforce rolling out AI features to enhance personalization in messaging and offers. These innovations are helping brands deliver more tailored experiences to their audiences, driving better results.

For SMBs working with agencies or in-house teams, AI offers significant benefits: reduced production costs, higher-quality content, and faster time-to-market. If your costs are rising, or if your team is struggling to transition to AI-driven strategies, we’d love to talk with you!

2025 Digital Marketing Trends - Dissolution of Big Tech - Amazon, Google, Meta

Big Trends for 2025 - The Dissolution of Big Tech

In 2025, government-driven efforts are expected to start to break up Big Tech, likely reshaping the digital landscape. Amid rising concerns over monopolistic behavior and data privacy, major companies like Google are being forced to separate their core services. One of the most significant moves will likely be Google spinningn off it’s Chrome Browser into an independent entity.  This will disrupt a lot of the unified digital ecosystem marketers have relied on for years.

This fragmentation means a large number of marketers will no longer have a one-stop shop for ads, data, and targeting.  Most analysts think this will likely spawn some innovation and new players in the space.  Companies that advertis on digital will need to be ready to shift their spending accordingly, in order to make the most of their ad spend.  Similar changes may happen with Facebook and Google! 

You can keep an eye on this page to stat up to date on these break-ups and how the market adjusts.  

If you’d like help plannign your digital strategy for 2025, we’d love to talk with you!

2025 Digital Marketing Trends

Biggest Digital Marketing Trends For Small and Medium Businesses In 2025

As we enter 2025, we’ll start to share what our team thinks will be the most important digital marketing trends for businesses to monitor. In the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at the potential dissolution of big tech, the proliferation of AI produced personalization, social-related commerce growth, and obviously inflation and the overall state of the economy. 

DOJ Breaking Off Chrome From Google

It’s hard for most business owners to keep up on the ins and outs of the Department of Justice’s actions against Google. One detail worth paying attention to though is Google will likely be forced to sell its Chrome browser and mobile operating system business. They’ll likely also be required to stop paying other companies, like Apple, to make Google their primary search engine. This is a BIG source of Google’s traffic and could radically shift their operations. 

We could start to see new competitors and innovations in the space, as quickly as mid-2025.  Our larger partners may want to plan to include monitoring this in their 2025 strategic plans. There may be inexpensive customer acquisitions possible.

If you want help with your GoogleAds campaign, we’d love to help you.

 

Google Chrome and Google Ads
TikTok's new search ads

Walmart Outpaces Amazon In Retail Ad Revenue

We all know that Amazon is the default leading platform for advertisers to run shopping ads for their products.  In 2024 though, Walmart grew significantly faster than Amazon. In 2023, about 24% of advertisers ran on Walmart but in 2024, that number shot up to 46%, indicating that a large number of buyers are finding traction running ads there.

If you’d like help deploying Amazon or Walmart ads for your products, we’d love to talk with you!

Google AI search results

Google's Performance Max Ad Product Might Not Have the Best Return For Your Company

Google’s Performance Max ads are one of the most popular types of campaigns for eMarketers. It’s usually a pretty solid ad unit, but recent research has shown that standard shopping campaigns provide a 7% higher return on ad spend (ROAS) than Performance Max campaigns. That’s significant! It’s likely because they generate 3% less in sales per click than standard shopping campaigns, but cost 4% more (as of this quarter).

These numbers do fluctuate over time, but for the moment, it might make sense to keep your Google campaigns off of the Performance Max ad product, to make sure you’re getting the best results for your marketing spend.

Where In The Marketing Funnel Do Marketers Use YouTube?

 If you’re reading this, odds are you know about the marketing funnel, which represents how customers go from awareness of a product or service to conversions. With this in mind, advertisers use different platforms to reach customers at different times. 

YouTube, one of the largest video advertising platforms, was recently reviewed to see where advertisers found the platform most helpful.  51.4% of advertisers on the platform use it for top-of-funnel outreach.  Building awareness.  26.5% use it for bottom-of-the-funnel conversions, and 21.9% use it for a mixture. This seems to indicate that the platform excels at building awareness.

Marketing Funnel
Marketing Funnel
TikTok's new search ads

TikTok Has A New Search Ad

TikTok has released a digital ads product called “TikTok Ad Campaigns” enabling advertisers to run keyword-targeted ads. This is believed to be an effective ad platform based on user surveys, so it may be worth including in your next campaign, especially if you’re having good luck with Google Search!

If you’d like help adding this to one of your campaigns, we’d love to talk with you!

Reddit Traffic growth continues

Reddit Outpaces Social Media

For those of you who watch the audiences on social media, recent data from Comscore reveals that Reddit is outpacing social media competitors like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram in user engagement. The platform’s monthly time spent surged from 215.2 minutes in June 2023 to 243.0 minutes in June 2024, reflecting its increasing popularity. This is a growing platform to explore and it can target without cookies. 
Have Older Content On Your Site? Google has shared strategies that can help your SEO
Lots of business sites have helpful content or documentation that might be starting to show its age. Rather than taking this content offline, Google shared ways businesses can still use it to get a healthy SEO lift.
Increase your search engine traffic with old content
Digital advertisers are missing their audience

Americans Spend 59% Of Their Time On the Open Internet, But Advertisers Are Missing Them

According to recent research by The Trade Desk (one of the largest media buying organizations), advertisers are disproportionally focusing their advertising on other channels, indicating there may be an opportunity for savvy buyers to find discounted ads on the open internet. 
Digital Marketing Trends 2024

Our Biggest Digital Marketing Trends for 2024!

It’s hard to believe, but 2024 is here, and it’ll bring BIG changes for businesses that run active websites, paid ad campaigns, or invest in SEO.  Read our article on the biggest opportunities (AI) and the biggest risks for ad buyers (google will loose the ability to target based on cookies). Here.
“Content marketing is really like a first date. If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date.”
– David Beebe
Sam Altman out at OpenAI
Twitter Issues Impact Advertisers

Should Your Digital Marketing Campaign Include Twitter?

When planning on buying digital ads to promote your business, social media is worth considering. Most leading platforms offer the ability to run visual ads and target audiences, but being familiar with the audience makeup on each platform can still help you make the best choice.

It’s not about being present everywhere; it’s about connecting with your desired audience where you can achieve the highest ROI. Targeting them on the optimal social media platform can help make your campaign a success.

You can read up on the demographic breakdowns here.

Avoid SEO mistakes

Avoid Negative ROI On Your SEO

One of the questions small businesses have is, whether it’s safe to use an overseas company for SEO. Unfortunately, while their costs are low, that doesn’t mean you’re likely to find a strong ROI, and a high percentage of businesses end up with little to no results even after months of work.

While exceptions exist, the most common issues seem to be:
  • – Ongoing language issues
  • – Link and content spamming reduces SEO
  • – Content creation is an ongoing challenge
  • – Quality issues and rework needed
  • – Lack of understanding of your business model
  • – Inability to provide custom solutions
  • – Fraud

At Visionary WebDZ, we focus on developing a deep understanding of our client’s business model and brand, and approach link building and content creation strategically to provide real results.  Contact us here to get started today!

New TikTok Ads released to the US

TikTok has officially launched TikTok Shop in the United States, giving a new in-app shopping experience to its users. This feature allows individuals to purchase products that were featured in live videos, on their personalized “For You” page, or on brand profiles. For content creators, TikTok Shop presents a lucrative opportunity for commission-based marketing partnerships with brands. 

If you want help setting up Social Media ad campaigns, we’d love to talk with you.  Please reach out here!

TikTok Shopping Ads
Twitter Issues Impact Advertisers

Should Your Digital Marketing Campaign Include Twitter?

In the last week, Disney, IBM, Apple and Lionsgate all suspended their advertising on Twitter.  With all the hubbub surrounding Twitter, we think it’s time for local and small businesses to consider alternatives. Read our full take on it here.

The AI industry had a huge shake-up over the weekend.  One of the worlds leading AI companies, OpenAI, unexpectedly fired their CEo, Sam Altman.  Regularly viewed as one of the top AI visionaries, Altman’s termination caught analyst by surprise, and there was pushback on OpenAI’s decision, with some stockholders immediately calling for his reinstatement.  Instead, it looks like Altman will be working with Microsoft’s AI team moving forward.  

Sam Altman Out As the CEO for OpenAI

Sam Altman out at OpenAI

Tips On Meaningful SEO Content

Alan Admason - author, branding expert

Wondering how to create content that ranks high on Google and actually engages your audience? First, let’s talk frequency. Google loves fresh and meaningful content. To stay in the search engine’s good graces, aim to publish content at least once a week. Maybe more. Consistency is key.

Your content should also not just exist; it should provide value and answer the questions people are actually searching for. Understand the search intent and craft your content to actually address it. Make it engaging, easy to read, and interactive. Working with your targeted SEO buzzwords is important for sure, but there’s no substitute for interesting and helpful content.

Posting your marketing/SEO content in meaningful locations is also key. Don’t just post on your site, find meaningful discussion groups or related websites that get traffic focused on your topic, and you’ll be on the right path to increasing your website traffic.

Raleigh Digital Summit

We like to share upcoming digital events that look helpful and the Digital Summit in Raleigh next week looks like a good one! You’ll hear how some of the industry greats, like Spotify, Amazon, and HelloFresh are approaching the rapidly evolving areas of AI, MarTech, and Podcasting. Check it out if you’re in the area. They also offer remote viewing after the event.

digitalSummit Raleigh
Most people in the digital are aware that Twitter (now X) has been in meltdown mode since Elon Musk bought the company. It seems like every week there’s another scandal involving the company, including a threatened major lawsuit from Germany for allowing illegal hate content. Additionally there are numerous outstanding lawsuits alleging the company unfairly targeted minorities and people with disabilities in mass layoffs. In another hard to believe move, Twitter/X is suing a respected American non-profit organization for reporting a significant increase in hate speech measured on the platform.

Whether you’re for or against Twitter/X that’s still a lot of concerning press. With that in mind, it’s not surprising that Twitter/X’s valuation in the market place is tanking. Techcrunch recently reported that the company’s valuation has dropped an astonishing 56% in one year. While there’s valid debate on how to properly assess the value of the company, there’s no questioning they’ve taken a major hit in advertiser loyalty and brand perception in the last year.

Read the TechCrunch article here

Twitter’s valuation drops a shocking 56% in a single year

Alan Admason - author, branding expert

“Branding is about signals — the signals people use to determine what you stand for as a brand. Signals create associations.”

Allen P. Adamson

Instagram is rolling out in-app AI Image Editing

AI is continuing to find its way into new platforms. One of the ones we’re looking forward to is Meta’s upcoming plans to roll out AI-powered image editing. A new Instagram tool, called “restyle”, allows users to give their images a fresh look. This includes new backgrounds or artistic themes (impressionist anyone?). They currently plan on including labels indicating the content was created with AI. We’re looking forward to seeing how advertisers incorporate the new tool into their social media presence!

In this blog post, one of our digital experts, Ross Yaeger, breaks down how businesses can utilize inexpensive AI tools to quickly create marketing content, without making embarrassing mistakes or sounding like a robot.  Read all about it here.

social media ad costs

More Ads Are Coming To Amazon Prime

If you haven’t heard, Amazon is warning Prime users to start expecting more ads in early 2024. The ads are expected to run on movies and TV shows on its streaming platform. While user response is TBD, it’ll open up a ton of ad inventory to advertisers, and Amazon is currently pitching the platform to media buyers. We’ll be watching to see how the prices and ad performance score.

We're Getting Excited!

At Visionary WebDZ, we don’t just brew up digital magic; we’re getting into the Halloween spirit! We thought it would be a blast to share some spooky snapshots of our team’s little ghouls. Let’s inspire each other to make this Halloween unforgettable.

Wishing all our cherished clients, partners, and followers a hauntingly good time ahead! May your day be filled with sweet treats, not tricks!

The recent breakthroughs in AI are a real game changer.  It makes certain tasks simpler and gives creators more tools to draw upon.  Unfortunately, the quality of editorial writing, which is key to most of our clients, is suspect, to say the least.  While AI is no doubt amazing, factorial errors, awkward tones, slang, and dialects still abound, and sometimes it just sounds too commercial to truly create a connection with customers.

Still, according to Marketing Dive, 57% of enterprise marketers use AI in their email already and another 25% have plans in the immediate future. Many of them are using it for audience segmentation and sorting, not just content creation.  99% of those surveyed said their experience has been extremely or somewhat positive.  Wow.   Maybe I shouldn’t be so supposed though, even with AI’s current challenges, it’s still helpful, and I use it at least once a week for marketing.   It just has to be used with caution.

Ross Yaeger  

57% of enterprise marketers use AI in email campaigns 

(MarketingDive.com)

 

 

social media ad costs

Social Media Advertising Costs Decline

In the ever-evolving world of digital advertising, there’s some news that most businesses will love. Social media ad prices have been steadily decreasing throughout 2023, making it more affordable to reach your target audience. If you haven’t tried advertising on social media, or it’s been too expensive, now may be a great time to give it a shot!

AdWeek New York

Who else is getting excited for the AdWeek New York conference?! October 16-19th.

“Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.”

David Ogilvy

digital marketing agency

Committing To Excellence

During some recent strategic planning, we identified several “core values” that we think embody how we approach our work. We’ll share a bit about these over the next few months. The first one we settled on is “Commit to Excellence”
At Visionary WebDZ, excellence is a way of life and something we always strive for. We’re thrilled to share this with our clients and partners, and we try to bring it to every project. Contact us if you’d like to work together!