The Top Social Media Marketing Trends for 2020
Remember when social media was a marketing trend itself? How times have changed. The world now lives on social, and marketers with it.
While there is a lot more than just social media going on right now (we’re looking at you, martech and SEM), social media still plays an outsized role in the marketing department. Aside from ads and mailing lists, it arguably is the way that most businesses reach consumers.
With that in mind, here are five of the biggest social media marketing trends going into 2020.
Trend #1: Tactics Before Channel
A tactic first, channel second mentality for social media is crucial heading into 2020. Forget about the channel for a moment, and focus on the message.
“If you have a DTC cosmetics brand and you’re still thinking about how Pinterest performs vs. Facebook or Instagram, you’re missing the point,” says Brittany Blanchard, vice president of account services for performance marketing firm Metric Theory.
“Your target demographic is on all of these social media platforms,” she says, “and while the platform they’re on may influence their propensity to buy in that moment, what you know about them from a demographic perspective is much more relevant to the creative you choose to show them and how valuable their impression is to you.”
It’s important to understand attribution models and performance variations of each platform, she notes, but don’t let that get in the way of getting in front of your target audience with compelling creative at the right time. Tactics matter more than channel this year.
Trend #2: Facebook is Dead, but LinkedIn is Rocking It
Forget Facebook. Unless your audience is decidedly not related to business, LinkedIn is a far more enticing social platform for your marketing spend.
“Right now, LinkedIn is taking off,” says John Lincoln, CEO of marketing firm Ignite Visibility. “It has great reach, and the platform is predicted to grow over five percent each year through 2022.”
The number of US adult users increased by 8.8 percent year in 2019, according to a recent report by eMarketer. Even with slightly slower growth expected over the next few years, LinkedIn is predicted to grow by an additional 6.2 percent in 2020, hitting the 62.1 million user mark. And unlike Facebook, LinkedIn is very marketer-friendly — as you’d expect from a business-oriented social network.
“Facebook, on the other hand, is generally worthless unless you are a celebrity, have a [big] ad budget or manage a vibrant group,” Lincoln says. “The reach has really gone down. We are still having success with the channel, but they are deliberately putting brands on the backseat.”
Trend #3: Personalized Ads
Retargeting social media ads isn’t enough in 2020. With social platforms widely used for marketing, personalization is becoming critical for conversion.
“I think personalization is the name of the game for social media advertising heading into 2020,” says Blanchard. “Many advertisers are still showing the same creative to remarketing and prospecting audiences, or targeting age demos differently but not customizing their creative accordingly. Companies that start to do this more effectively in 2020 will see stronger engagement and direct conversion performance coming from social media advertising.”
Facebook also now enables the creation of dynamic ads that are personalized for the specific viewer, a trend that other social networks likely will match in the near future.
“Dynamic ads debuted last year on Facebook, and they are the platform’s machine-learning ad unit,” explains Alex Membrillo, CEO of Cardinal Digital Marketing. “Dynamic ads deliver a personalized version of the ad to everyone who sees it based on the ad type they are most likely to engage with.”
Since dynamic ads are known to deliver increased return on ad spend, campaigns that leverage them will be a growing trend for 2020, according to Membrillo.
Trend #4: Micro-Influencers
The role of influencers in social media marketing isn’t going away, but it is shifting.
That’s because marketers, armed with better data, are increasingly niching down their campaigns and targeting ever more precise audience segments. This and the focus on authentic, purpose-driven marketing is leading marketers to micro-influencers that have smaller followings but reach a niche audience with higher levels of authority.
“Many brands are moving away from mass-appeal marketing, and are looking for influencers that better represent their buyers,” explains Membrillo. “For example, brands may choose to engage with ‘real’ moms opposed to celebrity moms.”
Popular national brands that had micro-influencer campaigns in 2019 included Coco-Cola, Audible, Mattel, Banana Republic and Sephora, among others.
Trend #5: Instagram Stories Advertising
While Facebook is making life harder for marketers, it is making it easier on its sister platform, Instagram. IG launched several new advertising options over the last couple of years, and advertising on Instagram is expected to continue growing and performing well in 2020.
“This advertising option is performing well, in part due to the 500 million Instagram accounts using Stories on the platform,” says Membrillo. “Additionally, Instagram reports that one-third of the most viewed stories come from businesses. So advertising in IG Stories will be a growing trend for businesses with targeted demographics on Instagram.”
IG also debuted its checkout feature last March, which gives online retailers a way to connect with users on Instagram.
“The feature allows users to make purchases from Feeds or Stories without leaving the Instagram platform,” enthuses Membrillo. “Businesses using Shopping on Instagram (which also requires having a Facebook Shop account) can tag up to five products per image. The tags include product details and pricing. Users can select what they want to buy and complete the purchase seamlessly within Instagram.”
Since this is a relatively new feature, not all brands currently are taking advantage of this option. But expect to see businesses using Shopping on Instagram en masse this year.
Social continues to be where it is at for marketers.
