Out with the old, in with the new. As we say goodbye to 2022, we’re already looking to 2023 to see what’s ahead.

With inflation, a possible recession, and more, people are already changing their spending habits. The digital marketing world is no exception. Hot off the press, Ubersuggest polled over 8,000 digital marketing firms, companies, and departments and asked them how they were planning on spending their marketing budget next year.

The results might actually surprise you, as there are a ton of increases planned for 2023. Here’s where marketers are increasing their spend, and a couple where they’re cutting back.

Group of young people looking at their phones

Increasing SEO

Over two thirds of companies surveyed said they were going to increase their ad spend, with another 11% saying they were going to keep it the same. However, just less than a quarter of respondents said they were decreasing their spend on organic SEO.

Why? SEO is a cost-effective way to generate conversions and revenue. However, it takes some time to build. Consistency, keyword tracking, and watching the way Google, Bing, and other search engines are sorting their results are all ingredients that go into building traffic organically. For companies maintaining or decreasing their SEO, they indicated that they either weren’t seeing the results they needed fast enough, or their company decided to keep their budget the same or decrease it.

Our advice: SEO is a critical part of building your online presence in 2023, but it does take time, consistency, and commitment to do it right. It’s easier to justify more ad spend in 2023 if you’re already gaining ground in SEO. However, if you’re just starting out, there’s no need to throw big bucks at organic SEO. Plenty of affordable tools and packages exist to build your SEO slowly and steadily.

Decreasing organic social media

This one was more of a toss-up. While 60% of companies reported they were going to increase or maintain their spending on social media about 42% said they were decreasing it. Of the three options, “decreasing” got the most votes.

In our professional observations, social media is becoming more crowded. Even TikTok, the new social media platform on the block, is harder to garner reach on than it was last year. Increasingly, boosting posts, or “paying to play” is becoming the way to win the game.

Our advice: organic social media seems easy to do. As we spend more time on social media, many of us know how to post, like, comment, share, and schedule posts. However, it’s the cohesion, community building, and consistency that makes any social media presence successful. While reach is increasingly in the hands of social media algorithms, the community you build around your page is the foundation of your social media presence.

Increase in paid search

Since search engines and social media are becoming more crowded, and therefore more competitive, it’s no surprise that companies are investing more in paid ads. Over 80% of companies surveyed are increasing or maintaining their paid search advertising, also called cost-per-click or pay-per-click, budget for both Google and Bing.

Social media paid ads are also up, but not across the board. Tried-and-true social media platforms are seeing a decrease in ad spend; Ubersuggest cites Apple’s privacy policy changes as a major factor in the spend decreases. That means targeted ads won’t be as profitable. Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter have an even split in companies investing, maintaining or decreasing their budget spend. The biggest increases in ads were on TikTok and LinkedIn.

Regarding these platforms, companies increasing their spend on TikTok cited the new platform as a still untapped opportunity, at least in paid ads. LinkedIn increases were due to B2B, or business to business companies who are trying to reach customers on this business platform.

Our advice: Direct your money to where your audience is. As far as paid ads for search, Google is your best bet, but it isn’t the only search engine in town.

Huge increase in content creation

A whopping 83% of marketing departments and firms said they were going to increase their spending on content creation. We live in a world where content is being churned out and thrown at us like never before. Companies are jumping on the content wagon like it’s going out of style.

However, there could be another factor in the increase in content budget: video. In fact, Ubersuggest cites video as the reason for a lot of increases. Content is taking on multiple formats, and not just blogs. Video and visual content, including graphic design, web design and virtual tours, are also going into the mix of business’s content more than before.

… Including email marketing

Speaking of more content, email marketing is going up, but not by much. Factoring in those companies maintaining their marketing spend for emails in 2023, and over 90% are staying the course or increasing their email marketing budget.

Email is a great way to communicate with clients who are already engaged with your business. Whether a customer signs up in your store or online, they’re interested in learning more. Plus, email is an excellent way to draw people through offering exclusive discounts and perks. It’s also a fast, convenient way to automate your marketing through easy-to-replicate campaigns.

Recession in grey clouds looming over a lone figure.

But wait, isn’t a recession predicted?

Yes, and that’s why you should invest in your marketing more, not less. Other businesses may be scared of increasing their marketing budget due to the economic forecast. You’ll be poised to enter abandoned spaces. We gave some tips on how to weather a recession in a previous blog.

Plus, it’s not as costly as you think to invest in your marketing. Affordable paid search, social media, content creation, and more can be yours for less than you think. If you know your audience, create content and execute campaigns consistently, and target your marketing to the right audience at the right time, the return on investment can make 2023 a brighter year.

Any of these ideas sound appealing? If you’re ready to invest in your marketing, but don’t know where to start, give us a call and we’ll help walk you through our solutions.