Do Huu Hung from Vecom told the 2022 Digital Marketing Forum last week that the growth of digital marketing in Vietnam has slowed down because businesses were tightening spending, but the sector still saw a two-digit growth rate, about 25-30 percent per annum.

Hung cited reports as saying that spending on digital marketing globally has increased as consumers further shift to the online environment. 

An eMarketer report said that global spending on digital marketing may reach $571.16 billion in 2022.  Digital marketing accounts for 65.9 percent of total spending on ads and marketing.

In Vietnam, online marketing has been growing as e-commerce and online platforms succeed. In 2022, total expenditures on digital marketing in Vietnam is estimated at $2.5 billion, a growth rate of 19 percent. 

“We spend VND50-60 trillion each year on online marketing,” Hung said, adding that the growth rate is expected to be over 20 percent by 2025.

Facebook and Google remain the two major marketing channels. However, Hung said efficiency was decreasing.

One or two years ago, advertisers spent 80 percent of their budgets on Facebook and Google, and some brands even reserved 100 percent for the channels. 

But things are different now because of the difficulties in accessing users’ data and the platforms’ policy on tightening data management. Enterprises realize that running ads on these channels is not as effective as it was previously.

Another reason is, according to Hung, more enterprises want to run ads on Facebook. There are about 50-60 million Facebook users in Vietnam.

As technologies change regularly, marketing channels on Facebook, Google or eMail are getting old. This explains the appearance of new channels, including Affiliate Marketing, Social Marketing and e-commerce platforms.

According to Hung, spending on new channels accounts for 35 percent of total expenditure and the figure is rising, though traditional marketing channels still account for a large proportion of total spending on digital marketing.

Shopee and TikTok are stepping up affiliate marketing and this is also the choice of many enterprises. A survey found that over 2,000 businesses in Vietnam are using the channel. 

Duy Vu