5 tips for leveraging digital trends across Australia & New Zealand for 2021

As key markets within the Asia Pacific region, Australia and New Zealand are widely considered mature, first world countries which have technological and digital trends that represent that. As with many markets around the world, COVID-19 has had a strong impact, accelerating many digital trends over the past 12 months, meaning we’ve seen a significant change in how consumers in Australia and New Zealand interact online.

In this article, we explore some of the digital marketing trends impacting Australia and New Zealand for 2021 and provide you practical tips on how you can leverage these trends to maximise your organisation’s digital performance and budgets.

Source: Digital 2021, We Are Social and Hootsuite Report (Jan 2021)

As part of the research conducted by We Are Social & Hootsuite within the Digital 2021 report, there were a number of key behaviours and digital trends identified globally that the Australian and New Zealand markets both ranked high for and had significant percentages of the 16-64 age bracket engaged in.

Source: Think With Google

As two countries that have a big percentage of its population streaming TV content over the internet, connected TV inventory is therefore a major opportunity for advertisers to reach their audience with their digital ads. In addition to this, our recent article explored the different streaming services that have become popular across the APAC region, read the article to learn more.

As inventory that is only available through Google (DV360 or Google Ads), YouTube is the second largest social media platform and second largest search engine in the world, and with such strong reach rates for YouTube across both Australia and New Zealand, advertisers should be using YouTube as a core channel for reaching their audience.

It is however, also important to recognise that both Australia and New Zealand also have high rates of around 2/3 of the population paying for digital content which is typically ad free. Therefore, it is crucial for advertisers to have a thorough understanding of their audience and which channels they engage with and when to best inform when and where they should be incorporating digital advertising.

With the fact that “integrated campaigns are 31% more effective than non-integrated campaigns” (Think With Google), when leveraging video campaigns, a platform like Display & Video 360 (DV360) can be effective in managing the frequency capping across not just your YouTube or connected TV inventory but across all your video inventory and other channels. Allowing you to maximise when your digital ads are seen at the right time and by the right people.

Source: Think With Google ANZ Retail Guide

By using paid search ads you can reach various people in Australia and New Zealand when they are researching products online before making a purchase. This is further reinforced by the fact that “76% of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase” (Think With Google).

In addition to this, with the high reach rate of Facebook, it is an ideal platform for advertisers to reach their desired audience with a range of different demographic targeting options as well as other targeting capabilities such as look-a-like audiences which are similar to similar audiences in the Google Marketing Platform.

Importantly, with Search Ads 360’s social integration feature, you can consolidate audiences and insights across both search and social in the platform for more effective advertising across both channels. It also allows advertisers to reach their audience at different stages of the customer journey with demographic targeting on social a more top of funnel activity compared with the intent of search based ads.

Source: Think With Google

While there is an increasing amount of users globally using mobile when interacting online, the fact that over half of Australians and nearly half of Kiwis still use computers to make purchases along with the rate of smart  home device ownership rates in Australia highlights the importance and relevance of optimizing your site and app for multiple devices. Marketers and advertisers need to be in sync with ads that are also optimized for multiple devices so the experience for the user is seamless and best practice which can in turn lead to more conversions.

With nearly 2/3 of Australians concerned about misinformation and ‘fake news’ it’s important to manage exactly where your digital ads appear. Research from DoubleVerify and Harris Poll (2019) has identified that “65% of consumers (globally not in Australia or New Zealand) would be likely to stop using the brand or product if they viewed the brand’s digital ad next to false or inflammatory content,” therefore, using brand verification is crucial to protect brands from damage.

The Google Marketing Platform has a number of built-in ad verification features including adblocking, viewability, blacklists, whitelists, content labels and classifiers and geotargeting verification to ensure that your digital ads only appear next to content that you have deemed appropriate for your brand. In addition to this, you can also leverage third-party verification services like Integral Ad Science or DoubleVerify to add additional layers of protection for your inventory.

With the same research from DoubleVerify and Harris Poll (2019) identifying that “87% feel that brands bear responsibility for ensuring their ads run beside content that is safe”, it is important for advertisers to take control of where their content appears to avoid any potential damage to their brand, something we explored in our blog on verification strategies in the GMP.

With concerns about the use of personal data across both Australia and New Zealand (roughly 40% of the population each respectively), it is important for marketers and advertisers to ensure they communicate with online users how and when their data will be used and given the option to opt-out of their data being used by marketers.

While there has not been any new legislation introduced within these markets like in Europe (GDPR) or California (CCPA), there has long been an expectation within these mature markets that their personal data will be handled appropriately and it will be communicated how and when personal data is used by the advertiser.

Importantly, for advertisers using Google products, the Google Marketing Platform does not collect PII (personally identifiable information) and for attribution purposes, Google’s Consent Mode uses modeling for data of individuals who do not consent to have their online activities used.

With a number of global digital trends, including the use of video across YouTube and online TV streaming, the use of personal data, eCommerce adoption among others, having a strong impact in Australia and New Zealand, you can use the tips identified in this article to take advantage of the digital trends for 2021 and better leverage your digital activities to achieve better performance from your digital budgets.

For support on any of the trends discussed above or more information about how you can use the Google Marketing Platform to leverage these trends in your advertising mix, contact the experts at FiveStones today.