Three Performance Marketing Trends to Watch in Q1

Welcome to Q1 2023! While the year has only just begun, there are a number of trends picking up steam among marketers. But, which trends are here to stay, and which trends will fizzle out? Our experts have surfaced three key trends for Q1 2023 so that marketers can effectively leverage the latest innovations in the marketing landscape.

1. ChatGPT enters the marketing landscape

ChatGPT is the latest innovation within automation. Founded by OpenAI, it’s taken marketers by storm — including Ryan Renyolds. The actor asked the AI to draft an ad script for Mint Mobile, which is owned by Reynolds, which provided interesting results. This generative AI system can be used to answer questions, create original written work, or provide instructions with the ability to mimic human writing patterns. The AI chatbots are designed to interpret and understand natural language, and generate responses to text inputs. As AI models have become more sophisticated, the systems are increasingly able to interpret complex meaning and reply with natural language. This is what makes ChatGPT stand out among the rest. Its ability to mimic human writing patterns opens many doors for marketers to elevate their brand’s success. However, legal and quality concerns have already been circling this technology.

Potential uses and utilities for marketers

Enhance or replace customer service representatives without having to sacrifice quality
Create quality content that can be leveraged on websites and in ad copy
Expand the search results with quick answers created by ChatGPT
Fundamentally change the search experience by replacing links with conversation

Current limitations for marketers

Information may be Inaccurate as there are no guardrails on where the technology is sourcing answers
Lacks the capability of producing real-time results and therefore may provide outdated information
Results may be biased as ChatGPT was trained by human input
Ethical and legal concerns have already sprouted regarding ownership of the materials produced
The technology must be monetized to remain available for public use

2. Google Automatically Created Assets beta

Google has surprised marketers once again. It released a new beta that automates asset creation (think headlines and descriptions) for search ads. These Automatically Created Assets (ACA) are a campaign-level setting for responsive search ads. ACAs take signals from ad landing pages, relevant web pages in the same domain as the ad landing page, existing text ads in the same ad group, and keywords in the same ad group. This addition is further evidence of Google’s push toward automation. But, what does this mean for marketers?

Potential benefits for marketers

Lowly regulated industries, such as ecommerce or retail brands, will be able to easily implement this tool because specific verbiage is not required
Campaign performance may increase, with evidence showing that an average of 2% more conversions at a similar cost per conversion were generated when using this technology
Additional relevance is infused into headlines and descriptions to better match unique search queries; for example, after implementation in nonbrand campaigns for a client, click-through rate increased 16% in a one-week period

Current limitations for marketers

Brands operating within highly regulated industries such as law, financial services, or healthcare should steer clear of this technology because brands aren’t able to ensure the information being shared is precise and accurate to meet industry standards
Marketers have less control during the creation of the asset, which may make it difficult when they want to produce specific content

3. Partner integrations within The Trade Desk

As a programmatic partner of The Trade Desk, we are excited to share some expanded capabilities within the platform! This advertising hub has expanded its gaming marketplace and increased ad opportunities with web and mobile game publishers. Additionally, they have continued to grow their retailer relationships and integrations to dominate the global retail data marketplace. This provides many new advertising opportunities for marketers within games and retail data opportunities with retailers.

Potential benefits for marketers

Gaming integrations

With 22+ gaming publishers integrated into the platform, this continues to provide marketers direct access to platform buys
Reduces the need to commit to contracts with gaming publishers

Retailer integrations

Supplies data directly from retailers to enable marketers to reach known audiences based on their purchase behaviors to understand how to best capture and convert consumers
Connect media spend to online and in-store sales with data partners to drive campaign performance and ongoing optimizations

Current limitations of partner integrations within The Trade Desk

Gaming integrations

There may still be requirements for marketers to work with some gaming vendors directly in order to customize the campaign buy within The Trade Desk
There still may be vendor spend minimums to work with a partner

Retailer integrations

Certain measurement deliverables and insights may have an additional cost
Retail vendors may have creative requirements regarding where ads can drive users

So… now what?

As we all dive into the new year, there are many ways brands can take advantage of emerging trends to elevate their marketing efforts. We encourage marketers to explore one of the three new opportunities outlined above that aligns with their business. Unsure of which would best fit your business? Let our