2021 was a whole new level of unexpected! Happily all that’s behind us now, as we’re getting ready to enter a new year. And we can’t stop but wonder: What will make the difference in 2022 for publishers? How will the industry respond to new challenges? And how can publishers prosper in 2022?
Clearly, we checked with our top traffic acquisition team leaders, senior managers, partners, and publishers. And you’re in for a revelation!
From lifestyle to remote work, and distance learning we’re starting to see new trends. And personalized customer experiences became a must. Although we’re not yet displaying a different background and customized content for each user, we’re getting closer to it by the day.
But enough chit-chat. Let’s see the main trends that will completely change the way publishers run their websites, in 2022.
Trending Website Types
With the pandemic, the preferences of the consumers started changing. More were drawn to content explaining how to make their life simpler and more beautiful. It was no wonder that the main content types they were consuming were:
Yet, in 2021 people started to normalize the COVID-19 restrictions and started looking for a 360 experience online, while their preferences didn’t change much. Each user must feel the center of attention. But one thing is slowly starting to change.
In 2022 we’ll be writing less, talking more
2022 also brings in the spotlight audio content. And if the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that there’s no time to waste. So, how do you do something useful when you’re busy with other things like chores, sports, driving, etc. You give voice commands and listen to content.
According to a specialist inquired by Forbes “50% of all content consumed will be audio by 2025”. But what kind of audio content are we talking about here?
1. Podcasts
In case you’re not familiar with the term, Podcasts are those audio shows that can go for hours. Although in the past few years they’ve been paired with video images as well, people mostly follow them for the audio.
Hot audio topics in 2022:
- Chat Shows
- News
- Sport
- Audiobooks
- Food Shows
- Other (Drama, Activism, Arts & Culture, Mythbusting, True Crime, Paranormal Activities)
2. Voice Searches
If you want to do this right it’s time to optimize your website for voice searches. However, the first three results that come up when making voice searches are the ones with stronger domain and link authority. So you’d definitely want to invest in that as well.
You could consider investing in a multi-channel content marketing strategy, to offer your content in various formats.
Audience engagement remains a major player this year, so it’s very important to find the right tools to properly set your campaigns.
Even more cure for Mobile Traffic
59.5%(4.66 billion) of the global population are active internet users, and of that 92.6% (4.32 billion people) are navigating from mobile devices. Now that mobile traffic has officially eclipsed desktop, it’s critical that you optimize your website for mobile devices.
Deeper data analysis calls for more digitized processes
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Business Intelligence, Augmented Analytics, they’re here. And they’re making it faster and simpler than ever for websites to run analytics and keep track of their competitors, make smart predictions, stay in touch with clients, monitor social media, or create content.
If you want to keep up in 2022, here are some things that every publisher should consider:
Chatbots
Strange enough, it seems that people are not too much in the human touch. In fact some feel inhibited by it, and actually prefer digitized processes as a way to express themselves more freely.
It’s forecasted that the chatbot market will reach 5 times its value by 2026, as more and more businesses adopt this technology as the first front in problem resolution and establishing customer connections.
According to Anton Averchenkov, Team Lead of the Traffic Acquisition teams:
Chat bots are a bit excessive. But regular chats, comment sections, discord channels, telegram/youtube channels or chats are worth having.
AI for content creation
Our Senior Publisher Partnership Manager, Maro Chalntoupi’s top publisher, which preferred to remain anonymous, thinks that it’s hard to rank by SEO in Google’s top if you don’t have unique content.
“Only one webmaster can’t create a lot of unique content. The business with many people to create many unique content (pieces) will win.”
Something that could help you with that, which is becoming more and more popular, is to use AI to write content. It’s fast, easy, and it can analyze other pieces of content much faster than a human being can. Sure, you can bring more quality to your pieces by leaving the editing and proofing to an actual human.
Plus, you can always use AI to keep track of your content, whether we’re talking about classification, acquisitions, plagiarism checks, and marketing.
Organic traffic remains one of the most precious types of traffic you can get, in 2022 as well.
Read more about Traffic types and formats that work best
Using Auto-optimization for Publishers
Fast-paced times, ask for even more automated processes. And what could be better than running 4 ready-optimized formats at once?
MultiTag is one monetization solution that can ensure the smooth functioning of 4 formats (In-Page Push ads, Push Notification ads, Popunder ads, Interstitial ads), without disrupting UX. All by adding just one tag on your website.
Niches that will gain traction
Having the extra time on their hands made people more aware of themselves. Now they’re more than ever into self-improvement. Be it a professional upgrade, investing more in hobbies and recreational activities, or simply finding their ‘better’ self, half, profession, etc.
“The coronavirus proved to be healthier in terms of realizing the power of working from home. It can now be realised that anyone can start a website or blog from home with freelancers working virtually from any place.”
Vashishtha Kapoor
Based on that, some verticals that will definitely thrive next year remain:
- Nutra – Health & Beauty
- Streaming, Videos On Demand, Content On Demand
- Finance
- Dating
- eCommerce
- iGaming
- Sports
- eLearning – Webinars and Online Courses
- Home Improvement
“In COVID-19 the health industry is a cash making machine and everybody is buying immunity boosters and healthy related products online. I have one of my niche websites which is selling these health products and I am making 4 figures every month from that website.”
Jitendra Vaswani
GEOs and Internet use
The most active GEOs online in 2021 were China, India, and the US. Of course, from vertical to vertical these can vary.
What we observe in terms of GEOs that are on the rise during the past few months, is a pretty nice hike that will likely continue in 2022, from the Asian and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) regions:
- Indonesia
- Malaysia
- Thailand
- Japan
- Russia
- Ukraine
- Kazakhstan
“There might be some verticals where you could see some performance drops, such as travel, as some countries are still struggling with new waves of COVID here and there, but I don’t expect it to be nearly as bad as it was during the first 18 months after the pandemic hit the world.”
Servando Silva
The rise of micro-communities and webmaster forums
Since the attention has shifted towards the online, the worldwide webmasters communities grow stronger and bigger. People get together to share their experiences, learn from one another, and develop. Not only on forums, but also on blogs, groups, chats, and even at hybrid events.
“Anything is good if it will help to build up a community around your project. As we see, those webmasters that build strong and steady communities stay on the market for longer times than those who don’t.”
Anton
Need more help? Check the Publisher’s Absolute Guide to Traffic Monetization
Influencer marketing
Although this trend has been on the rise for a couple of years already, we’ve seen it slow down a bit, before the pandemic. Now, this hype is more and more on the rise is the impact of influencers on the average Joe.
This is also becoming a more popular trend, because people rely more on reviews, and it turns out they really do respect the opinion of people they appreciate. Especially when it comes to the eCommerce niche, or content broadcasted via TikTok, but also on YouTube.
Get ready for tighter policies in terms of spam
Although Google postponed most of its big changes for 2023, some time ago it released a new feature that automatically silences abusive Push Notification prompts in Chrome. This update is spreading and gaining more popularity. Here’s more on it, from Anton:
“If Google decides that your site is asking to subscribe to push notifications too much, then it can just disable it for some users. As Google enables this feature for more people and it keeps spreading, this is definitely a thing to be worried about.”
What you can do?
- Play with the frequency of your Push Notifications. When you’re not sure what to use, feel free to go with the default setting, or ask one of our Publisher Partnership Managers.
Preparing for a Cookieless experience
Sure, Google might’ve postponed the long-dreaded ‘death to Cookies’ to 2023, but it will happen and you need to be prepared.
Currently, publishers have 3 alternatives:
- Privacy Sandbox – allowing advertisers to collect anonymous data about ad performance
- FLoc (Federated Learning of Cohorts) – returning the power to the people and giving them the choice to connect related interests and browsing behaviors
- First-Party Solutions – gathering data straight from your users, and investing in a stronger relationship with your audiences
“Google won’t be supporting third-party cookies and this is a big concern for advertisers and marketers. Cookieless tracking is yet another aspect of affiliate marketing and media buying that can be predicted to be the most loved method of tracking for webmasters.”
Vashishtha Kapoor
All the above seem to push webmasters to invest in drawing traffic more organically, and actually getting to know what resonates with their users.
Yet, “organic traffic is becoming difficult day by day as Google keeps rolling out algorithm updates. Running ads is a big time saver and requires the right set of advertising intelligence tools to invest with a good strategy” as Vashishtha adds.
2022 Expectations in Short
One thing’s for sure: the focus completely shifts from a bulk-message-centered industry, to a more personalized experience. In other words, websites should invest more in offering quality content and pleasant experiences for their clients; rather than bringing big numbers of not-interested individuals.
Google’s algorithm changes and death to cookies also come to support that. It’s more important than ever to invest in EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
And it makes sense after all. Interested audiences are the ones that bring good CPAs, and attract more advertisers to bid for showing ads on your website. Whereas bad performing traffic only leads to building a bad reputation.
So, what kind of publisher do you want to be in 2022? An actual winner, or a sad chicken dinner?
