Online marketing trends 2023

New year, same trend reports. At the end of the year, we often look back on the past year. But why keep dwelling on the past when we can also look ahead? So that’s what we’re going to do. We’re diving into the expected online marketing trends of 2023. You understand, of course, that we don’t have a crystal ball in which we’ve already seen all the events of 2023. But we can at least make an educated guess based on reliable research and various articles. In this trend report, we’re going to talk about search engine advertising, search engine optimisation and social media.

SEA trends

No more smart shopping, local campaigns and expanded text ads. In 2022, we lost a whole lot of handy functionalities within Google Ads. But was it only bad news?

Fortunately not. Smart shopping and local campaigns have been replaced by the so-called Performance Max campaign, and expanded text ads have now become responsive ads. This way Google makes it even easier for us to switch to automatic ads. Still, it feels a bit like we’re gradually giving away more and more control, and it’s just a matter of time before Google has automated the entire process. There have also been substantial shifts within automatic bidding strategies.

What do we expect in 2023?

In 2023, we expect a number of important changes. During the annual Search On event, Google announced that the search results page is becoming a lot more interactive and user-friendly. These kinds of substantial changes, combined with small updates, can have a big influence on your SEA strategy. But which changes are really going to make an impact?

1. Broad keywords, the new normal

The recommendations in your Google Ads account are already eagerly pushing you to convert your exact keywords into broad keywords. Google indicates that it’s essential to work with broad keywords, especially if you use smart bidding strategies. Broad keywords help Google’s algorithm learn faster.

If you’re not yet working with broad keywords, we definitely recommend at least running a campaign alongside your current campaigns. This way you not only help Google, but you also learn a thing or two yourself about relevant search terms and demand in the market.

2. Performance Max is hot and happening

You could write multiple books about the criticism expressed regarding the introduction of the Performance Max campaign. This was mainly because it’s not possible to exert much influence on the campaigns yourself. Optimising doesn’t seem possible, and making reports based on the results even less so. So why was it introduced anyway?

Google is working hard to make things as easy as possible for you as a user. They do this by automating all parts of Google Ads as much as possible. This takes a whole lot of work off the end user’s hands. The Performance Max campaign is a good example of this. As marketers, we can’t really see what’s happening behind the scenes, but it’s incredibly easy to set up. Fortunately, Google also keeps regularly updating this type of campaign, and there will undoubtedly be more insight into how it works.

3. Lower Click Through Rates

Google is increasingly trying to answer users’ questions itself. This means it’s no longer necessary for users to click through to a website. The expectation is therefore that this will affect the CTR of your ads. Users will click on an ad less often when the answer they’re looking for can be found underneath this ad.

Advertisers will therefore need to take a lower CTR into account. But don’t despair, because there are still plenty of gains to be made. Make sure your ads stand out and that you make use of images.

SEO trends

In principle, I could copy the SEO trends of 2022 one to one and we’d still have a relevant trend report. 2023 is once again all about content and optimising the mobile user experience. So is there really nothing else to write about?

In 2022, a number of important updates were rolled out by Google. Think of the helpful content update and the Google E-A-T update. Both updates are fully focused on content and its quality. So this doesn’t bring any other topics with it, but that certainly doesn’t make it any less important. The updates bring significant changes with them.

Expectations for 2023

For now, 2023 will therefore largely be dominated by the two updates mentioned. Marketers will have to adapt to the new rules. I’ll go through the biggest changes with you.

1. Google helpful content

It’s no longer a surprise that good content is indispensable for any SEO strategy. But you can no longer get away with pumping out content in bulk. To prevent irrelevant websites from ending up at the top of the search results, Google has rolled out the helpful content update. This update means Google focuses more on content that actually adds value for the customer.

Where marketers used to sometimes write for the search engine, this now needs to be completely reversed. The focus of the texts needs to be on the visitor and the value the text adds for this visitor. Original and quality content gets more room in the search results and will be judged better by Google.

Do you still have a website with a lot of texts written for the search engine? Then it’s time for a thorough clean-up. When your website has many pages with low-quality content, the entire website is penalised for this. This means the website ranks a lot lower. So make sure you take a critical look at your website and search for texts that could have a negative influence.

2. Google E-A-T update

Although the update has been rolled out for a while now, it’s definitely still worth mentioning again. In 2023, we expect to see the influence of this update reflected more and more. Combined with the helpful content update, it’s becoming increasingly easy for Google to penalise bad content.

In this case, E-A-T has nothing to do with eating, but stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Don’t ask me to pronounce these words, because then we’ll still be at it an hour from now. This update was created to help fight against “bad” and “cheap” content. This bad content could still be shown high in the search results through strong backlinks. With the E-A-T update, Google wants to push this worthless content way down.

Basically, the update mainly focuses on important topics like medicine, politics, finance and safety. This is to fish as much fake news as possible out of the search results. All websites dealing with one of these topics are looked at critically. But the fact that these topics now get priority doesn’t mean other websites aren’t looked at. The E-A-T update affects all content that’s findable on Google.

3. Google product review update

Yep, we’re going to talk about something else after all! Google has namely rolled out an update that rewards high-quality reviews. This update means good reviews with valuable content help your website get judged better. On the other hand, websites with less valuable reviews aren’t penalised.

Are you already working on acquiring reviews yourself? Then try to get extensive reviews. These reviews get rewarded and give your website a boost in the search results.

Social media trends or content trends after all?

Your success on social media stands or falls with your content strategy. So instead of sharing three so-called social media trends that won’t quite help you, this year I’ve chosen to share a number of content trends. Good content is simply the foundation of a working strategy. And content goes beyond just social media. Actually, everything you put out is content. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the content trends for 2023.

What are we going to see in 2023?

Perhaps not entirely a content trend, and therefore not given a special mention, but still something to take into account: the threat of recession and rising costs. Pretty much everything costs more money nowadays, and that’s also being felt in the wallets of many entrepreneurs. Keep in mind that there’s a possibility businesses will spend less on content creators.

1. Doubts about social media marketing

The hype around social media marketing is steadily declining. There are especially big doubts about its effectiveness. We’re dealing with declining reach, algorithms that change every few months, and rising advertising costs. What really works?

More and more businesses will therefore take a good, hard look at the role of social media in their content strategy. This could well mean businesses want to put less and less effort into organic content and ads on social media. But on the other hand, it could also lead to a revolution within content marketing. Perhaps everything will shift towards zero-click content and entertaining content.

2. Zero-click content

Social media algorithms often favour content without external links. Because this content doesn’t lead people away from the channel. Marketers have been trying for a while now to find workarounds, for example still trying to pull people to the website via comments. But what happens if we leave out the link entirely?

We’d of course lose part of the website traffic, but is that such a big problem? With zero-click content, you focus entirely on offering value and holding your followers’ attention. This probably only benefits the quality of the content. Click-free content does need to be approached differently than other content, though. It needs to offer enough value on its own, without the support of a website. If you succeed at that, you know you can achieve the same as content with a link.

3. Entertaining content

Content needs to offer value to the reader. What that value is going to be is up to you. Do you want to inform, activate or entertain? We’re increasingly seeing people choose the entertaining variant. This comes back more especially due to the explosive growth of TikTok and Instagram Reels.

This entertaining content comes out in video form 9 times out of 10. And especially short videos, at that. This content can be deployed on more and more channels and is therefore also being used more and more often within businesses. There are regularly businesses that go viral because they posted a fun video with colleagues. This is how entertaining content can lead to a substantial boost in reach and brand awareness.

And now it’s your turn again

I can well imagine you’ve already forgotten the first trend. It’s quite a hefty chunk of information to take in all at once. I can also imagine that far from all the trends will be relevant to your business. So take a good look at what you could apply and where you think you could still gain something. So now it’s your turn to deploy these trends for your own business. What are you going to get started on?

p.s. Should you have any questions or comments, feel free to get in touch with us.