It’s that time of the year again when we look back at 2017, gaze at the things that impacted the digital marketing scenario, and look ahead into what the future holds. We predict that 2018 will bring bigger, bolder changes to the world of digital marketing. Break taboos and norms with our 10 digital marketing megatrends for 2018. Check them out, and you might have a chance of survival in the digital marketing “sharktank”.

1. Digital Marketing Megatrends
for 2018
Breaking Taboos & Norms
beaglecat.com

2. Farewell 2017, we’ve had a blast!
It’s that time of the year again when we look back at 2017, gaze at the things
that impacted the digital marketing scenario, and look ahead into what the future
holds. We predict that 2018 will bring bigger, bolder changes to the world of
digital marketing.
Break taboos and norms with our 10 digital marketing megatrends for 2018.
Check them out, and you might have a chance of survival in the digital marketing
“sharktank”.
beaglecat.com

3. Megatrend #1
Do you plan on increasing mobile marketing spending in 2018? If so, you should
know what the future holds for mobile marketing. We’re currently looking at an
unstoppable mobile revolution. According to a report done by Radicati, mobile
adoption will grow from 9.5 billion in 2015 to 14.8 billion by 2019.
Mobile adoption on the rise

4. More than 50% of internet searches are
performed on mobile.
Source: Comscore

5. 80% of Facebook’s daily active users are
on mobile.
Source: Statista
0
20
40
60
80
Tablets Feature phones Laptop & desktop Smartphones

6. The app fever continues - 90% of mobile
media time is spent in apps.
Source: Statista
Messaging/Social
12%
YouTube
3%
Entertainment
17%
Gaming
15%
Utilities
8%
Productivity
4%
News
2%
Safari
6%
Chrome
4%
Facebook
19%
Others
10%

7. Google drives 96% of mobile search
traffic, followed by Yahoo at 2% and Bing
at 1%.
Source: netmarketshare.com

8. Mobile devices make up 61.9% of paid-
search clicks in Google - an 8.9% increase
from 2016.
Source: iprospect.com

9. The number of smartphone users will go
from 2.1 billion in 2016 to 2.7 billion in
2019.
Source: Statista.com

10. Megatrend #2
Ad fraud leads the news headlines in the world of advertising. Some people take ad
fraud seriously; others claim it’s “no big deal”. Bots make money through traffic
sourcing, aka paid traffic acquisition.
The good news is savvy marketers acknowledge the power of today’s brainy
chatbot.
Do you have what it takes to adapt to the fluid ad fraud landscape and prevent the
poisoning of all areas of optimization, including brand safety, performance, and
viewability? Do you know how many of your website visitors are actually bots? The
following numbers and statistics should open your eyes and convince you that
digital ad fraud is more than a buzzword.
Digital Ad Fraud - A Big Thing in 2018

11. Advertisers might lose an estimated
$19 billion on ad fraud in 2018. It's
time to step up your game.
Source: juniperresearch.com

12. Sites built for bot fraud — aka “cash-
out sites” — account for 20% of all
domains. You can't afford to take
that risk next year.
Source: ppcprotect.com

13. 24.3% of bots are impersonators that
bypass security solutions by
assuming false identities.
Source: incapsula.com

14. A survey performed by Imperva Incapsula on
100,000 domains, highlights that 94.2% of
those websites got attacked by at least one
bot over a 90-day period.
Source: incapsula.com

15. “Bots for rent” are a thing. Now anyone can
rent up to 200k bots and engage in
fraudulent advertising.
Source: mediapost.com

16. On average, there are 8 main types of ad fraud.
CPC (search ad fraud) is one the most popular.
Source: ezanga.com
CPC (search ad fraud)
Affiliate ad fraud (CPA)
Ad stuffing & pixel stuffing (CPM)
Ad injection (CPM)
Traffic fraud
Domain spoofing
Lead fraud (CPL)
Retargeting fraud

17. Megatrend #3
The chatbot is better described as an automated messaging service that runs on
artificial intelligence (AI). Users interact with chatbots via different websites,
platforms, and social media channels to receive support on different matters or
guidance when purchasing products and services.
Chatbots “live” on platforms like Facebook and Slack, but they also operate as a
standalone interface. Conversational interfaces pertain to using messaging and
chat systems to invite prospects and customers to interact or engage in a
conversation with a chatbot.
Chatbots & the rise of conversational UI

18. Chatbots will save businesses more than
$8 billion per year by 2022, a huge
increase from the $20 million estimated
for this year.
Source: juniperresearch.com

19. RickClick.io leverages the power of AI to
craft customized websites. Website
designers have nothing to fear. At least,
not yet!
Source: chatbotsmagazine.com

20. A Grand View Research report estimates
that the global chatbot market could reach
$1.23 billion by 2025.
Source: businessinsider.com

21. A survey performed by Oracle on different
marketing specialists in France highlights that
80% of respondents have already used
chatbots for business, or are planning to do so
by 2020.
Source: oracle.com

22. Chatbots + Virtual Assistant = Conversational UI
30% of digital marketing professionals are estimated to leverage
conversational UI to engage with customers online in 2018.
Source: oracle.com

23. Megatrend #4
The digital marketing scenario continues to advance in 2018. As we switch from
traditional business models to business automation systems, it’s safe to say that
digitizing your processes gains momentum. Next year we expect even better tools
to populate the digital marketing scenario in an attempt to streamline the way we
advertise online. Marketing automation without artificial intelligence (AI) is like
dancing without music. It works, but it doesn’t have the same effect.
With more advanced tools comes great responsibility, which means the time to
prepare your marketing team for a digital transformation is NOW.
Digital marketing automation gains momentum

24. From $220 million in 1992, digital marketing
automation is worth $1.65 billion today.
Source: statbot.co

25. According to a market share analysis on Alexa’s
top 1k websites, Marketo is the best marketing
automation software.
Source: technologyformarketing.co.uk
Marketo
24%
Adobe
22%
Eloqua
13%
Pardot
10%
Bounce Exchange
9%
Hubspot
4%
Others
17%

26. Managing social media just got even more
interesting!
Introducing Buffer for Video, the first social platform that allows native video scheduling.
Source: buffer.com

27. Social listening tools powered by Natural
Language Processing (NLP) technology improves
customer service by 21%.
Source: marketingprofs.com

28. Email marketing segmentation continues to rule
email marketing campaigns by 80% in 2018.
Source: adestra.com

29. 73% of businesses are already prioritizing email
optimization for mobile.
Source: smartinsights.com

30. Megatrend #5
The launch of RankBrain, Google’s new machine learning tool, left us
wondering what impact would machine learning have on SEO (search
engine optimization). Together with AI (artificial intelligence) and deep
learning technology going mainstream, it’s no wonder the digital
marketing scenario will change in 2018.
Machine learning, AI & deep learning technology

31. In 2018, content-rich campaigns and customer
journeys will be better defined by AI-powered
personalization platforms like Blueshift.
Source: blueshift.com

32. PPC advertising goes AI in an attempt to find the
best-paid channels to deliver ads to your
selected target audience.
Source: frank.ai

33. By 2018, Gartner predicts, 20% of all business
content will be authored by machines.
Source: gartner.com

34. Marketing automation drives a staggering 14.5%
sales productivity thanks to AI - which can
understand who your prospects and customers
are, and where they come from.
Source: statsbot.io

35. With over 3.25 billion photos/day sent across
the most popular social media channels, the
demand for AI-powered image recognition
software continues to increase.
Source: martechtoday.com

36. Megatrend #6
In 2018, we expect traditional ads to go extinct. A recent study done by
Hubspot highlights that 64% of people use adblock services to prevent
annoying ads from interfering with their browsing experience online.
The online advertising industry, together with publications that rely on
ads to generate revenue are compelled to rethink their options for next
year. It all depends on consumer behavior. They key to combating ad
blockers lies in the “pay to play” type of ads, aka native ads.
ShareThrough gives a very simple, yet comprehensive definition to native
ads: “a form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural
form and function of the user experience”.
The death of banner ads & the birth of native ads

37. - Hubspot
51% of people use ad blockers to be in full
control of their online browsing experience.
Source: hubspot.com

38. By 2020, ad blockers might cost advertising
organizations that refuse to adapt, a whooping $35
billion/year.
Source: digiday.com

39. The key to fighting ad blockers lies in native ads.
Source: nativeadvertisinginstitute.com

40. - Business Insider
Native advertising will drive 74% of all ad
revenue by 2021.
Source: businessinsider.com

41. Megatrend #7
It’s been 20 years since Bill Gates predicted that content will be king on
the internet. And yet, some still underestimate its importance in the
digital marketing realm. According to Altimeter, 70% of marketers still
don’t have a consistent content marketing strategy set in place.
The good news is, the remaining 30% are savvy businesses. They
acknowledge that the only way to bridge the gap between the top and
the bottom of their marketing sales funnel is with transparent,
customer-centric content.
Social media content, the backbone of your digital
marketing strategy

42. The content marketing industry is expected to
reach $300 billion by 2019.
Source: pointvisible.com

43. Social media content amplification is the key to
successful native advertising.
Source: nativeadvertisinginstitute.com

44. According to SmartInsights, storytelling is the key
to a successful content marketing strategy.
Source: smartinsights.com

45. And yet, only 20% of average consumers read the
full text on a web page.
Source: bufferapp.com

46. Visual content is 40 times more likely to get
shared on social media than other types of
content.
Source: bufferapp.com

47. Ephemeral content takes social media by storm.
Instagram Stories hits 240M daily active users.
Source: bufferapp.com
0 M
50 M
100 M
150 M
200 M
250 M
Snapchat Instagram

48. Efficient user-generated content generates 6.9x
higher engagement than brand-generated content
on Facebook.
Airbnb is one of the many companies on
Instagram that relies in proportion of 99%
on user-generated content.
Source: slideshare.com

49. Megatrend #8
A digital marketing megatrend for 2018 has the customer at the forefront.
According to Forrester, by 2020, 80% of a customer’s buying process will
happen online. Next year, the interest to delight the customer will increase
by 42%. The main reason businesses invest and manage customer
experiences is to improve customer retention.
2018 will be the year of the customer

50. Customers will have even bigger expectations
from brands by 2018. 75% of consumers expect a
lively, consistent experience every time they
engage with a website/brand online or on social
media.
Source: salesforce.com

51. 2017 was the year of micro-influencers. 2018 will
be the year of integration. Integrated influencer
marketing strategies will set the bar for average
and top-notch digital marketers.
Source: starngage.com

52. By 2018, Gartner predicts that more than 50% of
organizations will redirect their investments to
customer experience innovations.
Source: gartner.com

53. Megatrend #9
Measuring the efficiency of a digital marketing campaign is a marketer’s
core challenge. 46% of companies argue one of their biggest concerns is to
prove their marketing activities have a viable return on investment. The
problem with “digital analytics” is that most marketers associate them with
metrics tools, such as Google Analytics. This is about to change in 2018.
Although web analytics provide you with sufficient data and insights into
your website’s performance, it pays to dig a little deeper and understand
that the data you need to estimate the impact of your marketing campaigns
has to be more in-depth.
Analytics 2.0

54. 51% of the world’s marketers expect that the IoT
will revolutionize digital marketing by 2020.
Source: i-scoop.com

55. 2018 will mark the “death of organic reach” on
social media. Content optimisation
accompanied by a smart paid social strategy
will be the key to a successful digital marketing
campaign on social.
Source: talkwalker.com

56. Real-time analytics and marketing automation will
prevail in 2018. Brands will have to automate their
processes for a faster connection with buyers on
social.
Source: talkwalker.com

57. The battle for the best social media analytics tool
continues.
Source: toggl.com

58. 42.9% of social media managers are currently
buying social media monitoring tools to engage
with customers on a more personal level.
Source: kissmetric.com

59. As social media platforms evolve, their
business-specific features and analytics tools
will become more detailed and valuable to
brands.
Source: forgebit.com

60. Megatrend #10
Video marketing is expected to go mainstream in 2018. One of
2017’s best examples of video marketing done right was GoPro’s
idea to turn live videos into genuine works of art.
Video marketing goes mainstream

61. In the digital marketing scenario, a video is
estimated to be worth 1.8 million words.
Source: kunocreative.com

62. According to Wyzowl, 63% of businesses use
videos as marketing tools.
Source: kunocreative.com

63. 92% of people who consume mobile videos
are more than willing to share them with other
people.
Source: kunocreative.com

64. Simply Measured argues that video is shared
1,200% more than both links and text
combined.
Source: kunocreative.com

65. On average, organizations publish 18
videos/month. In 2018, there will be pressure
on in-house video marketing teams. 85% of
businesses will need in-house staff &
marketing resources to compete with the best.
Source: marketinginsidergroup.com

66. With 85% of Facebook videos being watched
without a sound, soundless video content is
an interactive content marketing strategy that
gains dominance.
Source: digiday.com

67. Conclusion
With digital technology increasing in sophistication, the core scope of brands
and businesses should be to engage and interact with their audience on a more
personal level. 2017 brought tremendous change in digital marketing. But as the
year comes to an end, it’s time to think of the future. Dream less, do more. The
time to incorporate digital technology into your strategic planning process is
NOW.
beaglecat.com

68. Your digital marketing partner
beaglecat.com

69. www.beaglecat.com
@IBeaglecat
ioana@beaglecat.com