November 2019 Monthly Marketing News Recap

Welcome to November 2019’s marketing news recap! Last time, we covered the retail-pocalypse, advertising on TikTok, insights on audio for brands, and more.

This month has given us a lot to be thankful for in the marketing news world. We’ll talk about drone delivery, what to expect for the holiday season, social media advertising, and oh so much more. Let’s get started!

Marketing News Highlights

The Dawn of UPS Drone Delivery

Just a few months after FedEx split its partnership with Amazon, UPS has started testing a drone delivery service. While FedEx severed its ties with Amazon and is making strides toward using its own delivery network, UPS is on a completely different path, staying with Amazon and earlier this month announcing a successful test of a drone delivery program in partnership with CVS.

The program has only tested prescription delivery so far but could branch out to other goods at CVS like shampoo and other toiletries. It’s a huge stride toward the use of drones in general as a revolutionary way to get packages to consumers more quickly than ever. It’s also a great way to help patients with limited mobility receive the medications they need and potentially provide lifesaving medications between hospitals.

According to CNET:

“While these CVS deliveries are a small first step, they point to a potentially promising future in which many more people will get their deliveries from e-commerce giants and local stores within minutes via drones, and businesses will be able to use drones to speed up their productivity.”

This is just one of several drone delivery tests, in addition to Alphabet’s food delivery via drone and several Amazon Prime Air tests.

Instagram Checkout Increases Lucrativity of Influencers

Online influencer marketing continues to grow as a key strategy for brands to make new sales. It’s especially popular on Instagram thanks to its visual nature and aesthetic focus.

The platform provides a perfect ecosystem for product discovery and commerce to thrive together, especially with its new initiatives to meet customers where they already are – Instagram – to make it easier than ever for consumers to purchase products. It’s shortening the funnel by encouraging shoppers to purchase a product they just discovered based on an endorsement from someone they already “know” and trust.

Instagram Checkout allows shoppers to buy from brands without leaving the Instagram app. By clicking a “Checkout on Instagram” button, consumers can go through the entire buying process right on Instagram. The app even securely saves payment information for future purchases in addition to providing tracking information.

Influencers whose followers embody a brand’s target audience can leverage Instagram Checkout to make their partnerships with brands even more lucrative.

More than half of the $57 billion US advertisers will allocate toward programmatic digital display this year will go to social networks, according to eMarketer. This is a huge portion of overall digital ad spend, considering programmatic advertising as a whole will account for over 83% of total digital display ad spending in 2019.

Over the next two years, US programmatic ad spending is expected to reach nearly $80 billion, and social spend is expected to continue dominating a huge portion of that. This social spend can take the form of banners, video, and other display ad units on different social media networks. Social networks are one of the easiest ways to target specific audiences at scale.

Ad performance on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, & Snapchat has proven to be even stronger than expected this year, so it will be very exciting to see how these trends continue into 2020 and beyond.

Holidays on the Horizon: What to Expect

The holiday shopping season is about to be in full swing. How much do consumers plan to spend on gifts for both others and themselves? What about non-gift holiday-related purchases like decorations?

According to the National Retail Federation, US shoppers will be spending more this year than in any year past. Holiday shopping sales have been on the rise since 2009, and the total planned holiday spending per consumer is expected to reach around $1,048 in 2019.

It should be no surprise that almost every 3 out of 4 consumers plans to use their smartphone or tablet to research or purchase. And 92% of shoppers expect free shipping. As we pointed out in our 2019 Holiday Success Plan for Brands, 80% of Cyber Week orders shipped for free last year. Consumers are growing to expect this type of deal – don’t let them down!

What may come as a surprise is that the top item on shoppers’ wish lists this year is gift cards, with 67% of women and 50% of men wishing for this gift. This is followed by clothing & accessories, books & other media, electronics, and home decor.

We can’t wait to see how the 2019 holiday shopping season shakes out. Stay tuned for a marketing news post next week recapping how our clients performed this Cyber 5!

Fresh Content

Google Smart Shopping: AI + Machine Learning for Profitable Brand Growth

The average Smart Shopping campaign increases conversion value 30%. Google Smart Shopping’s full-funnel capabilities are transforming how brands advertise. With powerful machine learning, campaigns automatically reach your target audience at the most compelling time & place. Smart Shopping is changing the game for many brands; is your brand leading the charge?

This exclusive report unveils the extraordinary benefits of Google Smart Shopping, supported by success stories and ROI client data from industry-leading brands such as PUMA, Sony, and Advance Auto Parts. You’ll uncover insight into:

Intelligently automating & optimizing your campaigns across the entire Google network
Strategies to highlight your hero products, new releases, or products that have flat-lined
The secret sauce to setting the right ROAS goals to increase your market share & fend off competitors
How to marry brand awareness with remarketing campaigns to drive scalable customer acquisition

It’s time to eliminate guesswork from your campaigns and tap into the tangible benefits Google Smart Shopping has to offer. Are you ready to shape the future of your brand? Download the report now.

Let’s Get Digital!

In today’s fast-paced digital climate, it’s hard to keep up. Where should you invest your budget? How can you improve your overall growth quickly? What trends are actually going to impact your business? Join our paid search experts Alex Wynn and Hallie Altman as they interview subject matter experts and tackle developments in digital marketing on a new hot topic each episode of our new podcast, Let’s Get Digital.

If you’re interested in discovering best practice strategies and tactics for success that will transform you into an expert of all things digital and ecommerce marketing, this is the podcast for you!

Expect personality, witty banter, priceless insights, and fascinating facts that will keep you up-to-date with emerging trends and the latest digital marketing news. Each fast-paced episode has several educational segments, packed with insights for retailers & lead gen in B2B & B2C that cover a range of services including PPC, Social Media, SEO, CRO, and Amazon Advertising.

Listen here!

Brand Attribution Marketing: Upper-Funnel Branding for Ecommerce Marketers

Upper-funnel attribution is messy. In a misguided attempt to fix this, brands often simply slice the buyer journey in half. The brand team gets the top; the ecommerce team gets the bottom. But overall marketing performance suffers when each half of the funnel is optimized in isolation. The buyer’s journey isn’t divided.

This executive guide introduces brand attribution marketing, a new model unifying brand & ecommerce marketing under a single mission: cultivating a rich relationship with your market to produce a rich long-term harvest of revenue. Some of what’s covered:

New attribution insights brands can leverage to boost performance & unify the marketing funnel
Overcoming the common ecommerce marketing weakness which cripples long-term growth potential
The essential marketing optimization shift to drive more customers and brand advocates

Fill out the form now to gain instant access to this strategic executive report!

November 2019 Marketing News: Wrapping Up

That wraps up this month’s monthly marketing news recap! Stay tuned for next month as we close out 2019 and prepare for a new decade. In the meantime, you can check out the blog posts we’ve published this month below: