Marketing Trends From the 2019-2020 Financial Year

It’s that time of year again - business owners rushing to get technology or uniforms before the last day of the financial year to claim back. We’ve seen a lot of changes in the 2019-2020 financial year - not surprising considering the unprecedented and unpredictable volatile conditions the Australian economy has withstood in the last 12 months. Devastating bushfires, questionable policies, lower GDP results and of course, the Coronavirus, shook Australia to the core.

We’ve taken a moment to reflect on the past year, and have collated both emerging and recorded trends for Google Ads, graphic and web design, and social media, intended to give you an idea of how the marketing world has been affected in 2019-2020.

Without further ado, we give you the marketing trends of the past financial year.

If your marketing strategy could use help recovering from COVID-19, we are always here to help.

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Data and Google Ads

Google introduced a few new features within Google Ads this financial year, including the 'Refine Keywords' tool, the introduction of discovery ads, the inclusion of video into display/banner ads, and Ads Recommendations (a feature that offers advice on ad quality).

Each of these features have contributed to more effective, better targeted ads for our Google Ads clients.

During March 2020, we saw significant changes in the clickthrough rates and ad expenditure of our clients, due to COVID-19. These included:

• A huge shift in online traffic - given the amount of people working from home or unfortunately let go from their jobs, this wasn't surprising. Some of our clients even saw a jump in web traffic of up to 200-300%!
• This traffic resulted in longer page view durations (time rich), but less conversions (money poor).
• The low conversion rates meant that Cost per Click expenses reached their lowest point in a long time. Ads were much more affordable during March - May, but conversions were still low, reflecting the market conditions.
• Currently, costs to run Google Ads are slowly increasing to what they were pre-COVID, but banner ads are still incredibly affordable - 20-40% cheaper to run than previously.
• Google is constantly combing your site to rate and review the landing page experience for your ads. If your content is not of high quality or value in regards to what your ad text is promising, your quality score will stay low. So in a nutshell, make sure your website is relevant to any ads you create, and is offering valuable content to your audience.

If you want your business to get in front of an online audience, we can help.

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Client Example

One of our Google Ads clients saw sessions increase drastically in 2020 over 2019:

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Web and Graphic Design

At Moshi Moshi Marketing, we create and develop websites that are functional and logical to the end user. This year, we have been perfecting our craft and advising more businesses about why creating user centred design takes priority over personal preferences when it comes to the ‘look and feel.’

What makes a design user centred?

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Knowing Your Audience

Understanding the needs and concerns of your audience is key to creating consistently functional design. Making sure the problems faced by your audience are being solved by your site or your design material should be your primary concern.

For example, throughout the 2019-2020 Financial Year, we worked with multiple clients in the disability sector. It goes without saying that functionality was paramount to all of our design projects, requiring designing to WCAG 2.0 conditions (text to speech functionality, text resize, including image descriptions and more), easy user navigation, and clearly segmented calls to action.

If your messaging is not directly targeted to your audience, you are missing out on potential clients or customers. To find out how to recognise who your target audience is (and how to design for them and talk to them), check out our blog on Establishing a Voice for Your Brand.

Client Example

Financial Counselling Network came to us this year for a redesign of their site, to ensure their users could find counselling services quickly, attend events, and could be informed of any financial news easily. We created a smooth, fully functional website for them, with extremely easy navigation for the end user.

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Reduction and Simplicity

We've seen a shift this year towards functional minimalism in design. What this means, is cutting out any unnecessary elements in a web design or a graphic design to make the whole experience easy, navigatable and logical to the end user.

For example, take a business who's primary goal is to capture new leads or email subscribers.

To make the path to acquisition as simple and logical as possible, they should include either: the option to join an emailing list (via pop up form or an easy to see button above the fold), or the option to create an account and log in (via pop up form or title in the primary navigation bar).

Using methods like this means that goals are easily completed, with minimal effort from the user (and minimal distraction!), guiding them from landing on the site to completing a conversion (goal completion).

If you're chasing design work to be done, or ready to revamp and update your website, we can help.

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Client Example

The Hollow Beach Bar were a client of ours this year and we've had a fantatsic time working a longside them to rebrand their business. Part of this rebrand included introducing posters into their marketing materials to highlight specific daily deals available. We kept these simple and uncluttered, with only the required information displayed for easy legibility from a distance.

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Social Media

Social media is constantly changing. One thing that is changing for the better is the priority of personable, real human stories and connections over business posts. Now more than ever, it's important to take stock of what you're putting out there - is it valuable content, or is it irrelevent and tone deaf?

From Facebook's algorithm to new Instagram features, here are the highlights you should take from the latest year.

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Facebook's Key Changes

Pre-COVID, Facebook was updating semi regularly - a change to the algorithm here and there, a focus on personal profiles over business, limits being introduced on corporate ad expenditure... the usual. But then came COVID-19, and the race to be leaders in the world of social media meant that Facebook updates have been happening quickly and frequently.

New features such as the 'care' reaction, 'donate to a charity or cause', and the addition of 'Facebook rooms' are all changes implemented as a direct effect of Coronavirus.

From a marketing point of view, Facebook Shops introduced more features, such as a larger variation of page templates to choose from, and an easy 'click to purchase' option, leading users directly from Facebook to the related checkout page of the organisation/business.

Ads across the social platform have also been affected:

• We found that brands that continued posting to their social channels during COVID-19 (without being tonedeaf or offensive) are performing better now than those who stopped all communications.
• Due to a lot of ad approval process changes and staff still working from home, ad approvals were delayed more than usual.
• Facebook created a ban on any ads and commerce listings that intended to capitalise on fears related to the virus.
• Unfortunately, many businesses suffered financially as a result of COVID-19, and their marketing budgets were the first thing to go. The drop off in competiton, combined with the influx of traffic on social platforms meant that paid advertising costs on Facebook dipped to new lows. While things are steadily returning to normal in the South West, ad expenditure on Facebook is still lower than in previous years.

Other important updates from 2019-2020

• The ability to convert 2D images to 3D was introduced.... I swear, my feed has been filled with these for months now, I'm done. In my opinion, unless you have an awesome landscape shot, keep it 2D. 3D selfies are terrifying.
• The new look of Facebook is clean and round (have you noticed the lack of sharp corners in the new design?), which is quite nice to look at, but much trickier to find your Business Manager area. If you need help finding your Business Manager area, get in touch!
• Stories that are posted from Instagram became intergrated with Facebook Stories (if you allowed the function).
• Badges and stickers pertaining to COVID-19 relief and supporting small businesses became available.
• IGTV ads became previewable in your social feeds..... but the IGTV feature is still not hugely popular in WA yet.
• For those of you in ecommerce, Instagram rolled out a lot of new features this financial year to help you market your goods - from 'shopping tags' to Instant Experience ads, to Instagram Shops: the option to make the user journey easier is becoming increasingly avaialble.
• And of course, the importance of personable, valuable content has been a progressive change this year on Facebook and Instagram.

If you're tired of trying to manage your social channels on top of managing your business, we can help.

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Client Example

I have been managing the social channels for Enable Western Australia, a not for profit disability service provider in South West WA. We maintained an active voice throughout COVID-19, and lightened the mood with fun competitions, activities for isolation, and art projects.

We've seen engagement skyrocket for this client, and have introduced a new Instagram page for them as well.

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Conclusions

• Web traffic is slowly going back to regular levels.
• Design is still moving towards being user centred rather than just 'looking good'. We create fully functional designs that look great and appeal to your market, not just to you.
• Social media platforms are placing more and more value on genuinely valuable content over business posts just promoting themselves. Take the time to give your post schedule a proper audit, and make sure your messaging is both human and consistent.

If you need assistance with anything we've mentioned here, please get in touch with our team of experts.

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