Much has been said after Meeker released her annual report, which offers insights into trends in the current marketing landscape. Meeker’s insights have actionable implications for marketing managers across all industries.

Many marketers consider Meeker’s report a must-read. We know it’s hard to keep on top of marketing trends so we’ve selected a few slides (of the 355 slides on offer) to focus on.

We share 4 insights on how you can integrate these trends into your marketing plans.

4 Insights To Integrate Into Your Marketing Plans

1. The Rise Of Mobile Advertising

• Online ads are becoming store fronts. They are actionable and measurable.
• Ad growth is driven by mobile.
• Growth is accelerating in online advertising.
• Mobile spend surpassed Desktop spend in 2016.
• Advertising spend continues to shift to usage (as it should) and mobile continues to gain share.
• Internet advertising dollars will exceed tv advertising dollars by year end 2017.

What does this mean for marketing managers?

• If you haven’t already, your marketing strategy should have a mobile first approach to stop your customers being wooed elsewhere first.
• Desktop ad growth is remaining steady. Mobile has plenty of opportunity.

2. Mobile Ad Blocking

• Ad blocking continues to grow, users increasingly opt out of stuff they don’t want.
• China and India are fast-growing markets, opting out of mobile in significant numbers.

What does this mean for marketing managers?

• Online ads must be relevant to customers.
• More and more customers will get ad-blocking software to block out ad noise.
• 81% of customers mute video ads so you need to be authentic, entertaining and relevant with the sound off.

3. Measurement Is a Triple Edged Sword

• Ad measurability can be triple-edged: when things are measured, people don’t always like what they see, users don’t always like data collected
• Advertisers like measurable engagement metrics but find ROI metrics challenging.

What does this mean for marketing managers?

• Facebook targets their users for ads really well, but users are now wary about how they’re being targeted. Be conscious of stalker tactics otherwise you’ll scare off customers.
• Marketers are always asked to prove the efficiency and ROI on ad spend. With customers moving across platforms easily, it can be hard to track and measure these channels within analytic systems. Attribution is always hard to explain to anyone who doesn’t understand the buyer journey.Investigate marketing technology systems that can help you measure more effectively. (Google Analytics, MOZ, HubSpot).

4. Ad and Content Formats That Work

• Leading platform ad offerings - are rapidly improving back-end data, front end management tools, and targeted delivery of ads users increasingly want
• Ad format doing particularly well include the following:
  • Product listing ads (in Google) - driving clicks to product pages;
  • Targeted pins from Pinterest driving product discovery and purchase;
  • Contextual ads from Facebook driving direct purchases;
  • Goal based bidding ads from Snap driving user action;
  • Geo-targeted local ads (Google) driving foot traffic to stores; incentive based and skippable video ads creating positive interactions;
  • In-App ads with dynamic creative (Vungle) driving higher in-app install performance; in-ride / in-hand recommendations (Uber, Foursquare) location + route + destination + time of day + an offer;
  • Hyperlocal targeting (Nextdoor, xAd) from home (neighbourhood) to work (commute).

What does this mean for marketing managers?

• Test different platforms to monitor the best conversion results.
• Experiment with incentive-based ads to increase acquisition.
• Leverage user-generated content to drive higher engagement.
• Use messaging apps to increases customer service expectations.
• Experiment with video ad formats, notably Mobile App Reward, Social Click-To-Play and Skippable Pre-Roll.

So Where To From Here?

• Mobile is the growth story for nearly every company right now and needs to be the centre of your strategy.
• Understand and serve the buyer journey of your customers.
• Test new channels, stay relevant and entertaining.

You can read Mary Meeker’s full presentation on Internet Trends 2017 here.