Co-regulation to fight extremism online, digital marketing spends predicted to shift into new mediums, and an enhanced Google Shopping experience in this week’s Marketing in the Digital Age.
Google Enhances Its Shopping Experience
Summary: Google Shopping got a new look yesterday providing new ways to find and compare millions of products from thousands of stores. It allows customers to buy them online, in a nearby store, or directly on Google. “Google also extended its Showcase Shopping Ads, an ad format that includes lifestyle imagery, to let people shop seamlessly from Google Images, YouTube, and its Discover news feed.”
Opinion: Great move by them as Amazon continues to heat up the shopping experience off its platforms.
Digital Marketing Spend to Reach $146B by 2023
Summary: According to a Forrester report, digital marketing will reach $146B by 2023 representing a 9% compound annual growth rate. It is predicted that search ad spends will shift to voice and voice activated queries for the likes of Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant within the coming years. Amazon has also taken away some share of the market for search from Google.
Opinion: The shift makes sense and will be interesting as it’s another area to learn for digital marketers. There will be key questions that can be extracted from current search ads, like how can an ad rank better, what keywords will trigger an ad, and many unanswered ones that make digital marketing the ever-changing landscape that it is.
Summary: People were able to view the vicious terror attached on mosques in New Zealand for 17 minutes. Tech giants Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have banned together to join the Christchurch call, which is an effort between world leaders and tech companies to fight extremism online.
Opinion: Tech giants, and social media even more so, need some form of government regulation. I think the reason it hasn’t happened is because governments are intimidated by the platforms. The idea of regulating what you don’t understand is daunting. This effort of co-regulation of government and tech may be the first step towards progress in fighting the much needed fight against extremism online.
