Welcome to the last Digital Marketing Insights that covers 2024. Instead of highlighting only within December, we’ve taken all the most important insights from the year and boiled it down into one post.

Overall Marketing Trends

• Direction of Digital Marketing
  • Overarching strategy rules all. Very few conversations are focused around in platform performance and more about the bigger picture. Driving down to MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio) and specifically focusing on driving NEW customers. Users interact through more channels now more than ever, making it that much harder to say if platform ROAS is truly indicative of its performance. So get rid of the conversations on platform ROAS and think big, marketing is more than just what’s happening in Google Ads or Facebook on their own.
• Biden Officially Signs Law to Ban TikTok in April
  • TikTok was threatened to be banned back in April which came to fruition on January 19th, 2025, only to have a quick turnaround within the day to get reinstated.
• SearchGPT Launched in October
  • Although this hasn’t significantly changed the game for SEOs, I do believe that this will continue to adjust how users search over time which will require content to be adjusted accordingly to be more specific and longer tail focused. Seer Interactive did a recent study showing that there’s a clear correlation between ranking high in Google and receiving mentions in SearchGPT.
• OpenAI Sora Released in December
  • Several other tools have been released that perform better, but this was a massive release to open up the realm of AI video creation. Creative is going to evolve VERY quickly in 2025.

• June 2024: Search CPCs Rise Again – And CVR Falls
  • Just like 2023, we’re once again seeing CPCs increase year over year, while CVR continues to decrease across most industries. This is likely related to more competition entering the market, the rise of Performance Max and/or competition increasing their bids – with some speculation that Google is increasing bid floors. Interestingly enough, CVR increased year over year by around 112% for the apparel/fashion & jewelry industry.
• August 2024: Google Ads Launches New PMax Reporting & AI Tools
  • Google enabled asset-level (image, headline, etc.) conversion reporting for all PMax campaigns, alongside individual placement reports to allow advertisers to get a better idea of what’s working and what’s not. This is a massive win for us as we now get to see what’s working other than what’s getting impressions.
  • They will also be rolling out more generative AI capabilities on top of the ones that already exist, such as more image editing capabilities and integrations with image-creation/editing platforms like Typeface and Canva.
• September 2024: Federal Judge Ruled That Google Violated Antitrust Laws
  • In a first of many potentially pivotal rulings coming down the pipeline, a federal judge ruled that Google has violated antitrust laws, specifically in regards to Google’s exclusivity deals with Apple and Android.
  • We expect no immediate impact in this case as there will be appeals and a legal battle is likely, but if the same sentiment continues, we can expect within a couple of years for all major tech giants to undergo massive changes to their structure and a much more crowded ad tech market.
• October 2024: Google Phasing Out Video Action Campaigns By Q2 2025
  • Google Ads is making a major shift by phasing out Video Action Campaigns and transitioning advertisers to the new Demand Gen campaigns by Q2 2025. This change promises improved ad performance through multi-format options and expanded placements across platforms like Discover and Gmail.
• October 2024: Google Experimenting With More Mobile Shopping Ads
  • Google is testing a new feature in mobile search that displays over 10 Shopping Ads, with some users seeing up to 18. This move underscores the growing importance of Google Shopping for businesses looking to boost revenue and performance. As more users rely on mobile search for product discovery, having a strong presence in Google Shopping becomes crucial. This test offers more opportunities for visibility, but it also ramps up competition.
• November 2024: 5 Big New Features Coming To Google Ads In 2024
  • Google recently made some big waves at DMEXCO, one of Europe’s largest digital marketing events, announcing several highly requested updates coming to Google Ads in 2024. These new features focus on giving advertisers more control, while also leveraging AI to optimize assets and performance. From better reporting in Performance Max to new tools for creative pinning and negative keywords, these updates are designed to make managing Google Ads campaigns smoother and more effective. 

• Amazon Accounted For 40.9% Of Total Retail Ecommerce Sales In 2024
  • Amazon’s total share of ecommerce sales saw a 9% increase from 2023, where it held 37.6% of total retail ecommerce sales. The company’s success can largely be attributed to Prime memberships and its associated perks. 
• Amazon Introduced A Handful Of New Fees
  • Fees have skyrocketed for sellers in 2024. In the past, Amazon would introduce maybe one new fee in a calendar year, hoping to not upset the delicate seller ecosystem. In 2024, they introduced inventory placement fees, jacked-up 4th quarter fees, and the low inventory fee.
• Amazon Launched Rufus 
  • Rufus is an expert shopping assistant trained on Amazon’s product catalog and information from across the web to answer customer questions on shopping needs, products, and comparisons, make recommendations based on this context, and facilitate product discovery.
• Amazon Rolled Out 5 New Visual Search Features To Enhance Shopping Experience
  • Amazon has introduced five new visual search features: visual suggestions showing images while typing, adding text to image searches, a ‘More Like This’ feature to find similar products, product videos in search results, and a ‘Circle to Search’ tool to isolate items within an image. These innovations aim to make shopping faster and more enjoyable, contributing to a 70% increase in visual searches year over year.
• Amazon’s Prime Day Generated a Record-Breaking $14.2 Billion In Sales
  • Amazon’s Prime Day event clocked record sales this year, as U.S. consumers spent $14.2 billion across July 16 and 17, according to Adobe Analytics. This marks an 11% jump from last year’s $12.7 billion total.

• March 2024: Meta experiences a global outage. 
  • On March 5, 2024, Facebook and Instagram experienced a global outage lasting over two hours, affecting hundreds of thousands of users. The disruptions began around 10 a.m. ET, with many users reporting being logged out and unable to access their accounts. Meta attributed the issue to a technical problem and confirmed that services were restored later that day.
• June 2024: TikTok filed their open brief in court. 
  • In June 2024, TikTok filed a legal brief challenging a U.S. law that requires its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app by January 19, 2025, or face a ban. TikTok argues that this law violates free speech rights and unfairly targets their platform while ignoring other apps with significant operations in China. 
• July 2024: Meta announces that detailed targeting exclusions will be removed. 
  • On July 15, 2024, Meta changed how ads were targeted by removing detailed targeting exclusions. This decision was based on data showing that campaigns performed better without them. As a marketer, you had to adjust how you chose your audience to keep your ads working well. Learning the new tools became key to staying successful with Meta ads.
• August 2024: Meta announces it will be rolling out 3rd party integrations with tools like North Beam. 
  • Meta is making it easier for you to use third-party tools, like Google Analytics, to check how well your ads are doing. They’re also testing a new feature called “conversion value rules,” which lets you decide what counts as a valuable result for your business. This means you can set your ads to aim for goals that matter most to you, like getting more sales or reaching certain customers. 
• August 2024: 2024 Meta Ads Data shows clicks and conversions up with costs down 
  • In 2024, Facebook ads became more effective and affordable for advertisers. Click-through rates and conversion rates increased, meaning more people clicked on ads and took desired actions. At the same time, the cost per click and cost per lead decreased, making advertising on Facebook a better deal. This trend suggests that Facebook remains a strong platform for reaching your audience efficiently.
• September 2024: TikTok launched search ads campaigns.
  • TikTok officially rolled out its Search Ads in September 2024. This move allows brands to appear in search results when users look up specific keywords. Think of it as a blend between Google’s search ads and TikTok’s discovery-based content. The platform’s strength lies in its highly engaging video content, which now serves as the basis for targeted, search-driven ads.

• Google had 4 core algorithm updates in 2024 & 3 spam updates
  • In 2024, Google introduced seven major algorithm updates, focusing on enhancing search quality, promoting original content, and reducing spam. These updates had significant impacts, benefiting high-quality websites while pushing low-value and spammy content further down in search rankings. The rapid pace of updates underscored Google’s commitment to refining user experience and improving the relevance of search results.
• AI Overviews shook up Google Search
  • Google launched AI Overviews in May 2024 to provide concise answers directly in search results. This feature aims to enhance user experience by delivering quick, relevant information but sparked concerns about reduced website traffic as users might not need to click through to external sites.
• Google started cracking down on ‘Parasite SEO’ practices
  • Google intensified its efforts against ‘parasite SEO’—the practice of publishing unrelated or low-quality content on reputable sites to exploit their ranking signals. In November 2024, Google updated its site reputation abuse policy, clarifying that any form of such content, regardless of the publisher’s involvement, would be considered a violation. 
• There was a surge in AI-generated content across the web
  • The year saw a substantial increase in AI-generated content, with many marketers leveraging AI tools to produce articles and other materials at scale. This trend led to concerns about content quality and authenticity, prompting Google to refine its algorithms to better assess and rank AI-generated content.
• Forums like Reddit & Quora saw massive increases in traffic as search results shifted
  • In August 2024, Google’s core update led to a significant increase in Reddit’s visibility within search results. Reddit ascended to become the third most visible site in Google’s U.S. search rankings, trailing only Wikipedia and Amazon. This surge is attributed to Google’s algorithm adjustments favoring user-generated content, inadvertently boosting Reddit’s prominence. The development has sparked discussions about potential conflicts of interest, especially considering Google’s recent investment in Reddit.
• There was a big increase in searches made without a click
  • A 2024 study by Rand Fishkin revealed that nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click, with 58.5% in the U.S. and 59.7% in the EU. Additionally, almost 30% of clicks direct users to Google’s own properties, such as YouTube, Google Images, and Google Maps. Consequently, only about 36% of clicks lead to external websites, indicating a significant shift in user behavior and search engine dynamics. 
• Google Shopping received a ‘for you’ feed of products
  • In October 2024, Google introduced a personalized feed within its Shopping platform, utilizing AI to recommend products based on users’ recent searches and YouTube activity. This feature, accessible on both mobile and desktop, presents a tailored shopping experience similar to the “for you” pages on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

• Shopify Checkout Extensibility
  • Shopify made some changes to their Checkout.Liquid which required many businesses to make adjustments to allow further customization. The next wave of accounts will be impacted on 8/28/25 and should be ready to make changes sooner vs later.
• Universal Analytics Data Was Wiped on July 1st
  • Rest in peace.

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That wraps up our Digital Marketing Industry Insights for this month! Keep an eye out for these updates every month, and if you have any questions, email us at info@digitalposition.com.