How has marketing changed in the last 10 years?

In the last 10 years, marketing has moved onto the phone and into short-form video, and automated, AI-powered tools now help with targeting, writing and customer service. At the same time, privacy changes have made it harder to track people, and search engines have started answering questions with AI. What hasn't changed is the job itself: understand your customers and reach them where they are with something useful.

Think back to 2016. Instagram had just launched Stories, Reels was still four years away, and Google's analytics tool of the day was Universal Analytics, which has since been replaced by Google Analytics 4. The shift from traditional to digital marketing was well under way; the decade since has changed how it works.

The 5 trends that changed marketing

A lot has changed between 2016 and today, but five shifts stand out: mobile, short-form video, privacy, automation and AI, and search.

1. Mobile became the default

In November 2016, Google said most people were searching on Google using a mobile device and began experimenting with a mobile-first index. In 2023 it announced that the move to mobile-first indexing was complete, so the version of your site people see on their phones is the one Google mainly uses.

For your customers, the phone is where they search, compare options and get in touch. Everything from your website to your emails should work well on a small screen, load quickly and make the next step easy. Our guide to responsive design explains the basics.

Messaging became a business channel too. WhatsApp launched its Business app for small businesses in 2018, giving them a dedicated way to talk with customers on the platform.

2. Short-form video took over social media

Social media kept growing, and short, vertical video moved to the centre of it. Instagram launched Stories in August 2016 and Reels in August 2020, YouTube started testing Shorts in 2020, and TikTok said in 2021 that more than a billion people were using it every month.

For businesses, that means planning for video, not just photos and links. You don't need a studio: a phone, good light and a clear message go a long way. People also use social networks to look for information, ask for recommendations and share good and bad experiences, so they're a customer service and listening channel as well as a place to advertise. Here's how to build a social media marketing strategy.

3. Privacy changed how tracking works

Several changes made it harder to follow people across the internet:

• Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has applied since May 2018.
• Since iOS 14.5 (April 2021), iPhone apps must ask permission before tracking people across other companies' apps and websites.
• Apple's Mail Privacy Protection, announced in 2021, helps people stop senders from knowing when they open an email, so open rates are no longer reliable.
• In 2024, Gmail and Yahoo began enforcing stricter rules for bulk email senders, including authentication and one-click unsubscribe.
• Google spent years working towards making third-party cookies obsolete in Chrome, then decided in 2025 to keep offering users a choice instead.

Local rules matter too: in Australia, the Privacy Act 1988 governs how larger businesses (and some smaller ones) handle personal information.

The result is a shift towards first-party data: information customers share with you directly, such as email subscriptions, enquiries and purchase history, collected with their consent. Measurement tools changed as well. Google Analytics 4 replaced Universal Analytics in 2023, and Meta's Conversions API lets businesses send events from their own server alongside the Meta Pixel.

4. Automation and AI moved into everyday tools

Over the decade, automation moved beyond email sequences into advertising, content and customer service:

• Advertising: Google's Performance Max, available to all advertisers since November 2021, lets you reach all Google Ads inventory from a single campaign, and Meta's Advantage+ uses AI to manage a campaign's audience, placements and budget.
• Content: generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini help draft copy, brainstorm ideas and summarise information.
• Customer service and admin: chatbots and AI assistants answer common questions, book appointments and keep records up to date.

AI is a powerful assistant, but it doesn't replace judgement. Google lists using generative AI to produce large amounts of text without human oversight as a sign of low-effort content, and automated campaigns still depend on what you feed them: clear goals, accurate conversion tracking and strong creative.

5. Search changed: from links to answers

Google's advice to businesses now centres on people-first content that shows experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. It added "experience" to its E-A-T concept in December 2022.

The bigger change is AI on the results page. Google launched AI Overviews in the US in May 2024 and expanded them to more than 100 countries that October, then began rolling out AI Mode in the US in May 2025. AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini have become another place to look for answers, and Google Analytics 4 now reports visits from them in a separate AI Assistant channel.

Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. The fundamentals of SEO still apply: helpful content, a fast and technically sound site and, for local businesses, a complete Google Business Profile. Search Console now shows how your pages appear in these AI features, and our guide to what SEO is covers the essentials.

What hasn't changed

Perhaps the most important lesson of the last ten years is that platforms and tools keep changing, but the job stays the same: learn to identify changes in customer behaviour and adapt to them. Businesses that understand their customers, offer something genuinely useful and measure what works are ready for whatever comes next. To put this into practice, start with these 20 ways to drive traffic to your website.

If you'd like help adapting your marketing to how customers find and choose businesses today, our digital marketing team can help you plan the next step.