Digital marketing in 2024 is measured on at least three axes that did not exist in this form two years earlier: multimodal search, European regulatory compliance, and the redistribution of traffic away from traditional SERPs. Rather than listing isolated trends, this article compares the levers that are progressing, those that are stagnating, and the trade-offs that these gaps impose on marketing teams.
Multimodal Search and Traditional SEO: Gap Table
Google is gradually rolling out the Search Generative Experience (SGE), which inserts generated answers and product carousels directly into the results page. At the same time, assistants like ChatGPT (with browsing) or Perplexity are capturing an increasing share of informational queries, shifting attention away from traditional SERPs.
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| Search Channel | Dominant Format | Impact on SEO Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Classic Google (blue links) | Text, structured tags | Still the foundation, but the share of organic clicks is decreasing as generated answers occupy the top of the page |
| SGE / AI Overviews | Conversational response + product carousel | Encourages structured content and sources cited in the AI response |
| Google Lens / Pinterest Lens | Image, visual search | Major entry point in fashion, decor, and beauty, requires optimized visuals (alt, schema, resolution) |
| ChatGPT / Perplexity | Conversation with sources | Rewards thematic authority and content freshness |
| TikTok / Instagram (social search) | Short video, hashtags | Used as a discovery engine by young users, ephemeral content to be renewed |
This table highlights a often underestimated point: SEO is no longer limited to Google. Companies that focus their content strategy on a single channel lose the visibility offered by visual or conversational search.
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DSA and DMA Regulation: What Changes for Social Ads
The European DSA and DMA regulations, gradually applicable since 2023-2024, profoundly modify the mechanics of advertising campaigns on social networks. Meta, Google, and TikTok now provide more detailed ad libraries and label certain AI-generated content.
Three Direct Consequences on Marketing Strategy
- Micro-targeting is losing ground: certain categories of sensitive data can no longer feed personalized audiences, pushing advertisers towards contextual targeting or broader cohort-based targeting.
- Campaigns become auditable by regulators and competitors through public ad libraries, which requires careful alignment between the advertising message and the landing page.
- AI content labels force brands to clearly distinguish organic content from generated content, under penalty of sanctions and loss of consumer trust.
On the other hand, these constraints create an advantage for companies with strong first-party data. A loyalty program, a segmented newsletter, or a well-utilized customer area become strategic assets when third-party targeting decreases.
AI-Generated Content and Perceived Value by Users
AI-assisted content production has become widespread, from blog articles to product descriptions. The volume of published content has mechanically increased. This abundance poses a differentiation problem.
Search engines (led by Google) are reinforcing E-E-A-T signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). An article signed by an identifiable author, enriched with proprietary data or real-world examples, ranks better than a generic text produced en masse.
Produce Less, but with an Editorial Signature
The observable trend is a return to editorial quality as a ranking factor. Companies that publish three in-depth articles per month outperform those that publish fifteen without depth.
This translates into a budgetary trade-off: reduce production volume to invest in verification, sourcing, and sector expertise. AI tools remain useful in the research or structuring phase, but the final text benefits from human proofreading that adds an angle, tone, and verified data.
Short Video and Social Commerce: Channels of Conversion, Not Just Awareness
Short formats (reels, shorts, TikTok videos) no longer serve solely for brand visibility. The shopping features integrated into social platforms transform these contents into direct sales points.
TikTok Shop illustrates this convergence: the customer journey goes from discovery to purchase without leaving the app. For brands, this means that the video content strategy must integrate measurable conversion objectives, not just view or engagement metrics.
Social commerce remains more mature in the fashion, beauty, and accessories sectors, where visual search via Google Lens or Pinterest Lens also serves as a product discovery channel. Companies that feed these two streams (social video + visual search) cover a broader spectrum of the customer journey.
Digital Marketing in 2024: The Trade-offs that Matter
Three key data points emerge from this analysis. SEO is fragmenting across multiple search interfaces, which necessitates diversifying content formats. European regulation reduces the scope of advertising micro-targeting, making proprietary data more valuable than ever. AI-generated content increases the overall volume published, shifting competition towards depth and reliability.
The most relevant budget allocation is to invest simultaneously in structured content (for AI responses from engines), visual formats (for image search), and first-party data collection (to compensate for the loss of third-party targeting). These three axes do not operate in silos: they mutually reinforce each other when the digital strategy articulates them around the same customer journey.