2024 Paid Media Predictions

The end of a change-packed year is a great time to take a breath and check our crystal balls for what lies ahead. JDM’s performance marketing experts took a few minutes to make predictions for what the paid landscape will bring us in 2024. TL;DR: AI is the name of the game for everything from targeting to creative to ABM.

Let’s hear from our experts!

The Influence of AI in the Day to Day

Head of Performance Marketing Laura Schiele: AI will definitely be a big theme for next year. I see it influencing workflows, processes, and keys to being successful. AI will help save tons of time on manual tasks and help marketers lean into creative and messaging testing and customization; this will leave marketers more bandwidth to dive into strategic thinking, which will be where great marketers will differentiate themselves in 2024. 

Speaking of strategy, customer understanding – how to find and engage them on their terms – is more important than ever. Gathering feedback and incorporating it into your campaigns will be pivotal in 2024.

See: Meta's New AI-Powered Conversation Platform

Adapting with AI-Driven Products

Account Director Chelsea Gonzalez: 2024 is about two letters: AI! We can expect continued developments and releases of AI-driven products across search and social channels; these releases will include optimization recommendations, machine-learning targeting options, chat-based functionality, AI-developed copy and creative, predictive insights, and new automated bidding settings.

See: AI Creative in Performance Max

Stronger Paid Platform Partnerships

Account Director Natalie Hanson: I predict we’ll see a bunch of new ways for marketers to use AI to make their lives more efficient: bridging the gap with creative, helping write new ad copy, doing research etc.

On the other end of the spectrum, I see partnerships coming to the fore in the next year. We’ve seen a few examples of platforms starting to partner and work together in different ways (Google/TikTok, Meta/Amazon), and think there’s huge opportunity here for platforms to collaborate and tap into new user bases – and for marketers to start to look at things holistically more than focusing on individual channels.

See: How to Scale B2B Accounts in Google Ads

The Conversation of Cookieless Tracking

Performance Marketing Manager Nathan Murdock: I think 2024 is going to usher in cookieless tracking options for Google. They've been releasing alternative options (e.g. Enhanced Conversions for Leads) and have been working on additional total replacement options for third-party cookie tracking. They've continuously delayed additional options, however, such as Chrome cookieless, because of feedback from advertisers like us who say we need more time to fully transfer over. Given the hit-or-miss (at best) reliability of Google's options so far, they likely also need more time to build their options out, which might put release dates well into 2024.

See: Keys to Good Advertising Account Analysis

AI-Assisted Targeting Across Social Platforms

Performance Marketing Manager Michelle Ta: With the general success of Advantage+ shopping campaigns on Meta, we'll likely see the pivot towards AI-assisted broad targeting become the new normal across social platforms. Meta already expanded Advantage+ to lead and app campaign betas in the latter half of 2023, and I expect that rollout to continue to the rest of their campaign objectives next year along with similar products likely being released by other social platforms.

See: TikTok Expands Search Ads

Advanced Keyword Capabilities for Performance Max

Performance Marketing Specialist Bill Miekoski: Google has been leaning heavily into Performance Max campaigns, and one welcome development would be keyword reporting for PM. We’re currently only able to access this data from Google reps, and I can definitely see Google rolling out full keyword reporting capabilities for Performance Max campaigns in 2024 as they continue to try to entice marketers by giving us increased functionality.

See: New Search Themes on Performance Max

Whatever 2024 has in store, we’ll be sure to keep you up to date on the JDM blog – and we’ll be ahead of the curve in integrating future developments into our award-winning marketing strategies for creating and capturing demand.

If you have any questions about what’s ahead, or would like to talk about how we’re approaching initiatives like AI, tracking, and targeting in today’s campaigns, drop us a line!