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Earlier in 2018, we predicted what we thought would happen in Q2 2018. Some of those predictions were right! (Especially about Facebook)

Now that we have entered the fourth and final quarter for 2018, we put together additional predictions that we think you should keep an eye on as we round the bend into 2019.

Bethany Bey

Based on the number of emails about automated features Google is opting us into, I’m expecting to see more automation from Google in Q4. Many of the features advertisers are used to having control over will be automatically opted into and we’ll have to be vigilant to opt out of anything that doesn’t make sense for our accounts.

I’m expecting to see a loosening of restrictions for Facebook ads. I feel like they had a strong reaction to the issues on privacy and information and took immediate steps to remove targeting options for advertisers. I think as time goes on, more of these targeting features will become available again.

Kristin Palmer

In November and December of 2017, consumers spent $108.15 billion online, a 14.7% increase over 2016 holiday season (Adobe Digital Insights). With Amazon making more and more improvements to its advertising platform, I predict the there will be further advancements and innovations rolled out to prepare for the Holiday season, especially as Amazon continues to catch up with its PPC counterparts. With attribution and remarketing in beta now, they are on their way and who knows if these will be available just in time for the 2018 holiday season.

Abby Woodcock

There’s been a growing interest in chatbots, and according to an Oracle survey 80% of businesses are currently using or plan to leverage chatbots by 2020. Additionally, Gartner predicts that by 2020, 85% of customer interaction with a business will not be with another human. More businesses have especially been jumping on the Facebook Messenger chatbot bandwagon; earlier this year they reported 300,000+ active bots which had tripled since 2017, and it seems we can only expect this number to grow.

Tim Jensen

Bing Ads is a platform to watch as they’ve begun (finally) rolling out display advertising capabilities on the Microsoft Audience Network. As an underdog to Google, they’re under pressure to continue delivering features that can differentiate their platform.

The integration with LinkedIn makes the Audience Network a powerful contender for B2B advertisers to use. I’d expect to see more LinkedIn targeting parameters built into the Bing interface over time as this feature, currently in beta, becomes ready for primetime.

Andrea Taylor

With the recent ad updates that Google has been rolling out, I’m interested to see what they might release just in time for the holidays. Shopping Showcase Ads are one ad type that have the opportunity to really impact retailer’s holiday bottom line. Recent updates to this ad type include Shoppable Image ads (currently in pilot and will likely not be available to all advertisers in time for the 2018 holiday season) and video in Shopping Showcase ads.

What are your predictions for Q4? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!