5 Marketing Resolutions for a Successful 2023

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As we head into 2023, we aim to reinforce our clients’ marketing strategies to ensure their programs are even stronger, better versions of their 2022 selves.

We’ve all heard the saying “New Year, New Me,” but we would argue “New Year, Same Me… Just Better.” At Adlucent, we continuously strive to be better every day, a mantra that rings especially true in the New Year. 

2022 had its strengths and weaknesses, and several trends will continue to solidify and expand in 2023. 

Today’s blog will reflect on these trends, so we can analyze our client’s custom business goals and strengthen each marketing strategy through human ingenuity and machine learning. We promise to further understand and optimize toward customer value, not just revenue, so our clients will see success in 2023 and beyond.

What are the marketing trends for 2023?

Before we dive into our resolutions, let’s take a closer look at two factors we expect to have the most impact on marketing campaigns this year; platform automation and diverging economic conditions.

Platform Automation

• As we’ve seen over the last several years, ad platforms have persistently increased automation within their systems to improve performance for marketers. 
• While a well-designed, machine-learning-based model can account for infinitely more inputs than more manual processes, finding success is no longer just calculating an appropriate CPC (cost-per-click). Instead, it means creating a system that appropriately incorporates and values signals based on technical implementation and goal valuation.

Diverging Economic Conditions

• While campaign optimization has gotten more nuanced, we’re also seeing external consumer behavior become more complex. As the American economy capitulates back and forth from one news cycle to the next, we’re seeing a trend emerge that’s becoming known as a “K-shaped recovery.”
• Unlike previous periods of recession, where the recovery timelines tended to have similar patterns across most sectors of the economy, we’re now seeing a divergence in recovery rates where some segments are starting to trend upwards, and others remain stagnant or are steadily declining. 
• One such divide that marketers should pay particularly close attention to is household income and net worth. As inflation increases, the cost of essential goods and services cuts into the buying power of those with less discretionary income. In contrast, those whose savings and investments have increased substantially over the last two years can absorb these costs and are recovering much faster.

Our 2023 Marketing Resolutions

As marketing strategists, we aim to understand these circumstances and synthesize them into actions that drive better outcomes for our businesses and clients. We’ve come up with the following resolutions for this year that will improve performance and keep us ahead of competitors and the rest of the market.

1. Improve 1P (First-Party) Data systems
   • We will continue to facilitate more privacy-safe, first-party data utilization through audience capture and identification technology for our brands. As robust and accurate 1P data becomes ever more critical with the deprecation of cookies and other privacy-centric changes in the industry, having a MarTech (marketing technology) platform that builds this necessary data is no longer a nice to have but a must.
2. Understand Predictive Customer Lifetime Value (pCLV)
   • We recognize the importance of optimizing campaigns to the true value of a customer. This optimization means knowing at the time of the first brand interaction what we expect that potential buyer to be worth to a brand over the defined customer lifetime, not just the first order or lead. Achieving this requires the backend setup mentioned above and advanced analytics to predict value across segments and audience types.
3. Moving beyond “Hand-Raisers”
   • As conversions become harder to come by, especially on the bottom half of the “K,” it will be increasingly important to find customers in the earlier stages of the buying journey and reach them with differentiated messaging. 2023 will be a year of demonstrating value to consumers. One of the most effective ways to do this will be in more visual formats like video, or typically “upper-funnel” approaches.
   • With these moves to more demand-generating formats, we will look to balance short-term and long-term goals, emphasizing being in a strong position when more sectors see recovery improve. Balancing ROAS goals with brand awareness/engagement/recognition metrics will be critical to set clients up for long-term success without altogether forgoing immediate efficiency.

4. Run More Creative Testing
   • While performance creative has always been an essential focus for Adlucent, we see 2023 as a critical year for more frequent testing and rotation. The reasons for this are twofold and are directly tied to our trends above:
     • Advancements in automation mean there are more options and methods than ever to pair the right creative with the right user in dynamic and scalable ways that fortuitously also lighten the load on marketing teams.
     • The separation in buyer behavior means that more bespoke and specific messaging is required to connect with what matters most to consumer segments.
   • These two factors mean that effective marketers must have a robust testing plan to find the right message for the right moment. What works best today will likely change quickly, so the testing plan must be very iterative.

5. Test More Platforms
   • Lastly, we want to find the right platform mix for each of our advertisers that makes sense for their brand and target consumer. As new ad formats and methodologies emerge and continuously evolve, they present unique opportunities to find and connect with customers in relevant ways. However, only some options are the right fit for each brand, so they must be approached with careful consideration and a detailed testing plan to find out if they’re worth incorporating into your marketing plan.
   • Some of the top areas we’re looking to test in 2023 are below, so keep an eye out for more content from our team around these options as we get further into the year:
     • Connected TV (CTV)
     • TikTok
     • Retail Media Networks (RMNs)
     • Influencer Marketing

Conclusion

2023 is already shaping up to be another year for the ages. In some ways, it may be the closest we’ve been to normal since before the pandemic. On the other hand, we continue to deal with challenges and “unprecedented” scenarios. 

No matter how the year unfolds, we believe that by focusing on the strategies outlined in our resolutions, we’ll continue to build programs that better utilize the continued advancements in automation while honing in on audience segments that matter most to advertisers. We are committed to connecting consumers with brands that meet their needs, ultimately driving better outcomes for advertisers and consumers.

If you also want to set yourself up to end 2023 in a better place than you’re starting, but you need help figuring out where to begin, reach out to us today! We want to help you create a marketing strategy that gets the job done. 

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Citations:

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Brad Costella

Brad is a Senior Director of Strategy at Adlucent. He is a strategic, data-driven, solutions-focused marketing leader with 10+ years of experience in omni-channel digital marketing and customer acquisition. He has a passion for turning insights into actionable strategies that improve real world outcomes for advertisers and customers. He believes that success comes from finding and striking the sweet spot where customer's needs intersect with a brand's value and goals.