Marketing has changed a lot in the last 10 years.
It might not feel that way. Most of the major players are the same as they were in 2014. Facebook and Google already dominated social media and search, and YouTube was the destination for video content. Content marketing was the main method of building business.
But when you look closer, you’ll be surprised at how digital marketing has changed in the last 10 years … and what it means for you.
>1: The rise of video (especially short-form)
Video existed in 2014, but it was much smaller than it is today. Mr. Beast in 2024 has triple the audience of the entire top 5 channels on YouTube in 2014, with 312 million subscribers as of July 2024. The biggest channel in 2014, PewDiePie, had 28 million. In the last 10 years, YouTube went from useful platform to dominant cultural force.
And though long-form video matters, short-form is even more important. TikTok is the biggest platform that didn’t exist in 2014. Sure, there were short-form video apps (Vine famously launched the careers of a number of popular entertainers), but they didn’t occupy the same place in the zeitgeist that TikTok does today. And it’s not alone.
Since TikTok found success, Facebook and YouTube have created similar features in Reels and Shorts, which are also popular. Between all of those platforms, short-form video drives much of the social media marketing today.
Today, video’s rise means that social media video is the primary avenue of content discovery.
>2: Google’s fall from grace
Google still dominates search in 2024, with 90% market share worldwide and over 60% of all referral traffic. But cracks are showing. In 2014, it was the primary discovery tool. Now, people use Google as their destination after they discover content elsewhere. This is an important distinction.
Google was riding high in 2014. It had just dealt with some of the worst black hat SEO offenders; most queries guaranteed you a good answer. Google My Business was brand new. The “E-A-T” guidelines which explained how to create content for Google had just leaked to marketers, who were using them to create content that Google liked. The future was rosy.
Today, the Internet is buried in content, and the general consensus among users is that Google is just … worse at sifting through it.
Opinions on why are varied. Some make the case that an increased focus on ad revenue is to blame, with Google prioritizing time on page over effectiveness. Others think it’s the increased “SEO-ization” of the Internet, where what gets you noticed on Google no longer matches what’s most effective for humans, as brands have flooded the Internet with lookalike content from their blogs and article archives. Whatever the reasoning, the top of the page is more crowded; you often have to scroll below the fold to get traditional organic results instead of ads, products, images, videos, or local map results.
In 2014, Google was the dominant force in Internet discoverability. In 2024, it still has control of most of the Internet. Despite social media taking the discovery crown, Google search is the most important platform for your business today. Discoverability and SEO are harder than they’ve ever been, but there’s value if you can find a lane. Now, though, video search, Google My Business, product search and PPC are more likely to get you noticed than traditional SEO.
>3: The growth of social media
Social media has been around for a while, but it’s driving traffic now on a scale that was unthinkable in 2014. Daily usage has gone up almost 40 minutes per day since 2014 to over two hours. Total social media users worldwide had just hit 2 billion in 2014; in 2024, that number is over 5 billion. Social drives most of the world’s Internet traffic.
People don’t just want “an answer” to a question; they want information from a person they trust. Social media has tapped into that need for community to create new avenues for discovery.
In 2014, advertising on many platforms was in its infancy; Instagram and LinkedIn had both just launched their paid media programs. Algorithmic timelines like TikTok weren’t yet a thing. Back then, social was more about community — connecting to other people that you knew. Content came second.
Today that equation is flip-flopped. Most social media is driven by content and advertising first, community second. Platforms like TikTok and its competitors on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube will take the accounts you follow into consideration, but they’re more concerned with your interests than your connections and constantly recommend new content that will keep you on the platform so they can show you more ads.
Shopping and selling were not main social media functions in 2014, either. In fact, almost no social media platforms supported eCommerce natively. Today, many of them do. Instagram and TikTok in particular push for shopping through the platform; in fact, TikTok actually calls itself a selling platform.
To sum up: in 2014, social media was about community. In 2024, social media still includes community, but it includes selling, content, social media advertising and many more functions. Strong content is the key to social media success in 2024, and it’s now a portal through which people interact with your business.
>4: The dominance of mobile
Nowhere is the change from 2014 to 2024 more dramatic than in mobile browsing.
In 2014, only 27% of web traffic was mobile.
In 2024, almost 60% is.
Mobile is so important now that Google not only started indexing the mobile version of a site as the primary version, it recently moved to “mobile-ONLY” indexing. It doesn’t even care about the desktop version of a website anymore.
Non-responsive websites exist but rank poorly. Every website needs to be responsive across a wide variety of screen sizes and input methods. And even if you fix your website, most mobile traffic takes place through individual apps, not browsers. As one eMarketer study noted, about 90% of mobile usage is through apps.
This is the biggest change in Internet usage in the last 10 years. It’s driven the rise of podcasts (easy to consume on the go), the rise of short-form video (digestible on small screens, usually subtitled for those without earphones) and the rise of social media (app-driven, easily accessible). It’s driven the rise of local SEO (Google My Business combined with location services, map apps) and the combination of apps with real-world applications (geocaching, Pokemon Go and its competitors, location check-ins). It’s driven the downfall of text-based content (harder to read on small screens).
In 2014, when someone found you on the Internet, they probably found you while they were sitting at home or at their desk at work. Now they could be anywhere. Everything you create has to have that knowledge behind it.
What the Changes from 2014-2024 Mean
There are a number of changes that we haven’t covered — the rise of privacy legislation, the prevalence of disinformation, VR, cyberbullying, AI, and more. We’re only focusing on the most important pieces for digital marketers.
What is clear through all of these changes is that digital is no longer a sideline. It’s everything. With social and mobile taking over, there is no aspect of most people’s lives that aren’t affected by digital.
People are still people; marketing’s foundational principles (right product, right place, right time, right person) haven’t changed. But the way that we apply them is constantly changing. A look back at the last 10 years shows that. Today, you must keep mobile Internet and social media in mind when you create content. Don’t create like it’s 2014 or you will fail. Stay up to date with what’s working. And if you need help, that’s what the Dispatch is for.
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Best Regards,
David Brandon
Copywriter
Rainmaker Digital Services