The Q3 and Q4 2024 Marketing Landscape is Going to be Brutal.
Here’s How You Can Get Ahead of the Changes.
In recent years, marketing has become more challenging than ever, and the second half of 2024 is set to heighten these difficulties to unprecedented levels. Expect a surge in political and big business ad spend pricing out smaller organizations, tighter restrictions on creative, shrinking marketing budgets due to economic shifts, and lower conversion rates as ad platforms struggle to adapt. But there’s good news: by taking a few strategic steps now, your organization can successfully navigate these changes.
Emphasize a lead gen and owned list strategy
Plan to complete creative WAY earlier than you expected
Increase your focus on analytics and optimization
1. Emphasize a lead gen and owned list strategy
As ad platforms become more competitive, having a list that you can email, text, and directly target is going to become even more important. The Meta algorithm is changing by the day. Organic reach is WAY down for most accounts. Cost per conversion is WAY up across nearly every major advertising platform. Instead of using paid social campaigns to primarily drive sales, donations, or traffic, focus on generating leads and nurturing them. The social media tides are ever changing, so focus on what you CAN control. Lead gen strategies are more of a slow burn, but once you have someone’s contact information, you are no longer at the mercy of the social media algorithm.
2. Plan to complete creative WAY earlier than you expected
During the last federal election, Meta implemented harsh deadlines on submitting creative for review in paid campaigns. They haven’t released their deadlines yet for 2024, but they could come at any time and lead to tight turnaround times for marketers. You need time to launch and optimize campaigns before the lockdown period- which will prevent any further changes to campaigns in political or social issue spaces. Even if your organization is not political, if your content deals with any issue that could be defined as “national” or “social,” no matter how distantly, your ads and boosted posts are likely to be impacted by these restrictions.
- Take the time NOW to map creative and design work for the rest of the year and begin executing it so that when deadlines are announced, you still have time to launch and optimize campaigns before it’s too late.
- All major social media platforms are increasing their AI screening processes to prevent the spread of misinformation. It’s strategic to use some AI in your creative, especially when it comes to making more technical changes like adjusting specs and layout, but make sure you’re still including original creative. You’ll want to incorporate enough margin into your timeline to revise assets that get rejected for relying too heavily on AI.
3. Increase your focus on analytics and optimization
Most experts agree 2024 is going to be the most expensive American election of all time. A huge portion of that spend is going to take place on social media, and most social platforms utilize a bidding system for ad placements. What does that mean for your organization? You’re about to be a smaller fish in an even bigger pond. The best way to prevent a dramatic drop in impressions and performance is to make sure you’re appeasing the algorithm in other ways that matter: mainly, producing high quality campaigns and organic content your audience WANTS to interact with.
- Make sure you’re closely reviewing your ad account performance and earning that coveted “high performing campaign” distinction for as many campaigns as possible. Shut down or optimize low performers.
- Stay on top of organic trends. Focus on content that will drive shares and comments- not just likes.
- Install a website analytics tool that provides heatmaps and recordings (we recommend MouseFlow for smaller budgets and Full Story for more intense analytics) and regularly review the results. Make changes now to your funnel to increase conversion rates.
We’ll be candid: navigating your marketing strategy in the second half of 2024 is going to be challenging. The more preparation you can do now, the better, and we’re here to help. We manage millions of dollars of marketing budget for nonprofits and social good organizations, giving us a front row seat to the changes and trends as soon as they happen, and we’re excited to pass that insight on to you.
For a short time, our team is offering free audits of your organization’s marketing strategy. Meet with us for 30 minutes and we’ll create a fully custom 10 slide report about what’s working and what’s not, along with key strategic insights to help you get to the next level.