2023 growth marketing predictions: AI, short-form video, TikTok, and more

If 2022 taught us anything in the growth marketing world, it’s that automation is coming and it will be here to stay. Platforms like Meta and Google are removing ever more controls from advertisers and automating campaign creation. While in some ways these are positive changes, they also mean that there will be significantly fewer targeting levers to outduel competition with. In addition, startups such as Jasper AI and Synthesia are leveraging artificial intelligence to help startups quickly create copy for blog articles or videos for their YouTube channels. 

I will discuss my predictions for the continued rise of AI, based on the momentum witnessed in late 2022 and the strategies that I believe startups will employ with the repurposing of their content. Enjoy these five predictions and let me know if you agree or disagree with my outlook for 2023. 

1. AI marketing tools 

Every decade or so we see a new form of technology that takes the world by storm, the latest being the mobile touchscreen phone and app stores. This means we’ve been waiting for the next great revolution in technology for 15 years now, as the first-generation iPhone launched all the way back in 2007. I think that revolutionary moment is now here with artificial intelligence, and I argue it will have massive implications for the world of marketing as well. 

At the end of 2022, OpenAI’s Chat GPT-3 launched for public use and the results from users’ experiences was nothing short of amazing. If you commanded it to “…write me a blog post about the best dog food in the tone of Ryan Reynolds,” Chat GPT-3 could rapidly produce a 500-word article on dog food using similar language to what Ryan Reynolds himself would have written. That’s both powerful and scary at the same time. Along with Chat GPT-3 was the widespread use of Lensa’s Magic Avatars which takes images of you and then creates hyper-realistic images of you in different settings, such as dressed like an astronaut. 

While these applications may not seem useful for marketing, imagine AI-generated user weekly recap emails or hundreds of ad creatives in various settings. Something that would take hours for a growth team can now take minutes to set up and might one day become automated forever. That is truly powerful!

2. Short-form video

It’s no secret that TikTok has been recently paving a new way for how content is consumed: in the form of short 10-30s clips. I’m predicting that social channels, such as YouTube and Instagram, will increase the prioritization of shorter content in their algorithms and creator funds to keep up with TikTok. We’re already seeing a rise in creators publishing content that’s shorter in length on these channels to reap the benefits of the algorithm’s newfound prioritization. As a startup, it will be vital to create video content that can be posted on channels such as TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels.

Outside of social media channels, I’m also expecting well-established companies, including Yelp and Google search, to incorporate more video content into their platforms. That is what today’s consumers want. 

3. Major TikTok year 

If there are no additional U.S. government regulations levied against TikTok, I believe that TikTok will be the channel that gains the most of all existing social media channels. They’re adding features for users and advertisers alike at a rapid pace, which will help them lead the pack in growth. They’re also investing heavily into their creators through their creator fund. 

What’s going to be interesting to watch is the rise in search volume on TikTok. A few changes have already been made with TikTok increasing character limits on uploaded video descriptions and adding a prominent search bar on the app’s user interface. Spending some time on SEO for TikTok will set startups ahead when compared against those that go with an unmethodical approach to the content they’re publishing.

4. OTT advertising with self-serve and YT NFL deals

Hulu was the first major over-the-top (OTT) service that launched a self-serve ad platform in 2020. With Netflix launching ad-supported plan tier in November 2022, we can expect them to follow suit at some point, potentially as early as 2023. The large and growing number of other streaming services, such as HBO Max, Disney+, YouTube TV, NBC’s Peacock, is already causing consumers to cut their cable services. It’s been reported by various sources that YouTube TV paid $2.5 billion annually for the rights to NFL’s Sunday Ticket. That means more ads on streaming services as opposed to traditional TV.

Instead of calling a network and having formal phone meetings about which TV ads to run, we’re going to see streaming services offer self-serve advertising with much better targeting capabilities than traditional TV ever could. YouTube knows exactly what consumers like because of the graph they have based on browsing activity on Google-owned properties, especially its search engine. 

I’m personally excited about this development in TV consumption, because it’s going to open data-driven performance marketing to a historically blurred form of advertising.  

5. Repurposing content 

For startups to succeed with growing rates of content consumption, repurposing of content will need to be prioritized. If it wasn’t challenging enough with the management of growth channels in the past, 2022 also added podcasts and solidified that short-form video content is here to stay. This means more work will need to be done to push content across growth channels. 

I see this development as a great opportunity for startups to capitalize on consumer attention with expansion into shorter videos and podcasts. If done the right way by repurposing content, a somewhat higher level of effort can now yield 3-5x the amount of content. Think about a blog post that you’d typically write – now repurpose that into a short-form video that can be uploaded to all video channels, a 5–10-minute podcast episode, and then leveraging the video across lifecycle emails, social media, etc. You’ve just increased your audience pool with only a little bit more creative effort. 

It’s going to be a fun year in growth marketing and while this has not been an exhaustive list, I believe the preceding five predictions will be the major trends to look out for in 2023.