Five trends for online advertising strategy in 2018

One of the first and most-agreed-upon trends discussed was that brands are going to stop relying so heavily on agencies in 2018 for media buying. Instead, participants said, marketing heads are now hiring online advertising experts to be part of the in-house team.
The reason for this, according to attendees, is that the quality of the traffic and leads are higher from internal campaigns and so the cost-per-acquisition (CPA) ends up being lower than those from agency-led efforts.
Participants felt that agencies still have a role to play in the media buying process, but they want their agency partners to diversify and improve on what they can offer.
Marketers, it seems, are no longer willing to pay a premium for a routine ad-buying strategy.

Another interesting trend was that brand marketers are looking for new content for their online advertising campaigns.
Some attendees said that they will be leveraging 3rd party content in their ads, such as news articles from major publishers, as it has more authority than the run-of-the-mill brand message.
Others said that their online advertising will include more branding content and thought-leadership pieces, and have fewer direct-selling ads. Some said that they struggled to get buy-in for these types of ads, though, as they do not improve their KPIs.

Another challenge which marketers will take up in 2018 is to get on better terms with their legal and compliance departments.
Part of the reason this is a trend for the coming year is that (as per #1) many brands are moving online ad buying in-house, and so the marketers themselves will be directly accountable for the ad content. But another reason for this trend is that marketers, especially in the banking and insurance space, feel that they could do a lot more with digital ads if only legal and compliance understood the online advertising market a bit better.Some attendees suggested that brand marketers should look to find a champion in either legal.

Finally, many marketers lamented that their online advertising efforts were not widely appreciated at their company. The reason for this, one admitted, was that digital lead generation rarely turned into actual sales.
Finally, many marketers lamented that their online advertising efforts were not widely appreciated at their company. The reason for this, one admitted, was that digital lead generation rarely turned into actual sales. Finally, many marketers lamented that their online advertising efforts were not widely appreciated at their company. The reason for this, one admitted, was that digital lead generation rarely turned into actual sales.

It can be difficult to keep up to date with all the key ad networks that digital marketers use daily. Networks are updating all the time with fresh new features and add-ons, so we’ve compiled a list of the most recent and important ad network updates that have been added or will be implemented in.
So, you’ve decided to start your own digital marketing agency, and want to get it off the ground. Or, maybe you’ve been in the business, but really want to start getting things booming. Running a business is no easy task,

Econsultancy would like to thank our table host clients for guiding the discussion about what marketers should expect in online advertising in 2018.
We'd also like to thank all of the marketers who attended The meeting and shared their valuable insights. We hope to see you all at future Econsultancy events!