The Mary Meeker KPCB internet trends report is one of the most read slide decks in the world. Every year Ms. Meeker covers the most notable stats and trends in tech.
If you’re an e-commerce brand looking to find customers online we’ve compiled the most important takeaways from her recent report:
-
- Mobile ads surpassed desktop ads for the first time in 2016 (following the traffic trends). Think mobile first.
- Online ads become increasingly measurable and actionable. This also exposes some ads as not effective. You can’t hide behind funky ratings measurements anymore.
- Ads are becoming storefronts i.e. leading directly to sales. The content is the storefront, the ad is also the place of transaction. Prime examples: FB ads and emails which lead directly to purchase actions/pages bypassing homepages.
- Google & Facebook control 85% of online ad growth. This means that of every new dollar allocated to online ads, 85 cents go to the Big G and to FB. Brands that can find niche audiences elsewhere might face less competition.
- The top challenge in social advertising is measuring ROI. This has been the case since social ads started. What exactly do ‘likes’ mean for your ROI? What about comments? Apparently, we still don’t know.
- Ad blocking is growing. People are increasingly savvy about finding what they want and blocking what they don’t want to see.
- Targeting is getting better across platforms as the main competitors (again Google, FB) invest more in data, dashboards, and targeting options. This is good news for advertisers and in a way, for consumers too who can expect more relevant ads.
- Most successful ad formats (only the ones relevant to e-commerce): Product Listing Ads on Google (PLAs), Targeted pins (Pinterest), FB contextual ads (incl Messenger ads), goal based ads (Snapchat), preroll skippable ads (Youtube).
- Another very interesting trend that e-commerce sellers have definitely already noticed: “Collaborative ad creation” meaning a combo of social + user generated content. For example, using an instagram post by a customer as an ad. Currently can be seen mostly on Instagram but also other places.
- Lastly, a trend we were built to address, the bar is rising for customer service due to the power of social media accountability (positive & negative). Providing faster/better access to support online is the top step customers want from companies. Real time customer conversations are rising rapidly.
The best way to address this need is of course to start texting with your customers. With texting you can be there when they’re online and offline and you are immediately accessible without having to employ full time support agents to man a live chat slution. Keep the relationship going and meet customers where they are. Don’t end up an unfortunate story on Mary Meeker’s slides for 2018 like this one:
-
Want to learn more about texting with customers? text us or set up a demo
- Check out post number 2!