Category: Marketing News

Marketing innovations and company updates.

Global Ad Spending to Rise 4.9% in 2012

Posted on by Andrew

Global ad spending is set to rise almost 5% this year to reach a total of $465.5 billion according to new numbers from research firm Strategy Analytics.

The total U.S. spending rate is set to grow 2.7%, up from .6% in 2011. Global online spending is predicted to grow the fastest, by 12.8% to $83.2 billion – meaning 18% of total ad spend.

Online ad spending is still leading the way, though growth has slowed due to the growing maturity of online spending. In 2011, Internet media revenue grew by 21.4%, but is set to only grow 10.9% in 2012.

Despite the slowdown in growth, digital advertising is set to increase its share of the global ad market from 15.9% in 2011 to 21.2% in 2014.

So what do we know from these numbers? Well, for starters, digital advertising is growing rapidly, and is eroding TV’s 40% global share of all advertising dollars. These numbers represent important trends that you must acknowledge as a small business owner. Gone are the days where creating a radio or TV ad was enough; now, you need to be invested in social marketing, banner advertising, search optimization and have a killer website.

So who is going to help you wade through these treacherous waters? Well, that’s why we’re here. We’ve created hundreds of digital marketing campaigns, and we’ve successfully increased sales and revenue for all our clients.

If you have any other questions about what we do or ways we can help out your business, let us know in the comments or contact us on our website.

3 Ways to Increase Sales on Valentine’s Day

Posted on by Andrew

So Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, which means millions of couples around the U.S. will be purchasing traditional Valentine’s Day things such as flowers, jewelry, candy, and clothes. So how can you use this to your advantage? The answer is with digital marketing and advertising.

Even if you don’t sell any of the traditional Valentine’s Day gifts, use this holiday as a chance to offer a special promotion, and perhaps even persuade your customers that a new car or hot tub is a better alternative to blowing money on an expensive dinner and diamond bracelet. Sending these kinds of updates through email gives you an easy way to tell all your customers that you’re offering a special.

Follow these three tips to make your Valentine’s email blast successful.

1. Target men

Segment your email list to your male customers. The reason you do this is simple: men spend more than twice as much as women on Valentine’s Day. That means you need to use language targeted to males. Stress the importance of coming up with a gift for their special someone, and highlight the idea of giving a unique gift, depending on what it is that you’re selling.

2. Timing is everything

Depending on how much your product costs, you might want to send the email out a couple of weeks in advance. If your product is a little cheaper, a few days before – or even on – Valentine’s Day will work because it will be fresh in their mind about buying a gift for their significant other.

3. Promote it via social channels

Social Media is a great way to promote your Valentine’s Day offer. Provided that you have a fair amount of followers, sending out timely updates leading up to Valentine’s Day can give your fans and followers a reason to check out your store.

There you have it. Follow these three tips, and you could capitalize on thousands of local Valentine’s Day shoppers. For more tips on local marketing and advertising, check out the rest of our blog or go to our website.

Facebook Ad Impressions Increasing

Posted on by Andrew

Have you tried doing Facebook ads in your latest display advertising campaign? Facebook is getting huge, and they own about a third of the U.S. display ad market. If you want to get the most out of your display campaign, forgetting about Facebook would be a huge oversight.

Continue reading…

Why Hiring a Search Engine Marketer is Like Going to a Mechanic

Posted on by Andrew

Yup, you read that right. At first glance, there might not seem like there’s much similarity between digital advertising and auto repair, but they do have their similarities. For more information on search engine marketing, check out our post on online advertising and the state of search.

First off, both are things you can do yourself. Yup, it’s true. You can do your own car repair the same way you can do your own search marketing. It might take you longer and you might not get the same results, but it’s still possible.

The second reason they are similar is that a lot of people have had bad experiences in the past. Almost everyone you know probably has a story about a shady mechanic, and a lot of people have separate stories about search engine marketers over-promising and under-delivering.

The third reason is that you get what you pay for. There are mechanics out there that will give you a quote for really cheap car repair, but you don’t know exactly what you’re getting. The same is true for search engine marketing agencies. Someone can tell you that you only need to spend $200 per month on search, but don’t tell you what their methods are.

The last reason is that you’re better off hiring a professional. I know I said you can do it yourself, and it’s true. The only thing is that you’re better off hiring someone else. If I asked you to replace the head gasket in your car, the chances are you would have no idea where to start. The same thing would probably happen if I told you to make a search campaign that included dynamic keyword insertion, geo-modifiers, negative keywords, ad rank and quality score. You could spend hours researching how to do all of those things, but the truth is, you’re never done researching. Google, and other search engines, roll out changes constantly, and you need to stay on top of the latest changes in search marketing methods.

At Conversion Logix, we guarantee you’ll see a lift in traffic and will have nothing but good stories to tell your peers and colleagues. We are a full-service digital ad agency in Seattle dedicated to bringing you results.

Does Your Website Promote Conversions?

Posted on by Andrew

How much of your web traffic do you convert? The chances are, not very much. In fact, most small business’ websites achieve only a 2% conversion rate. That means 98% of your web traffic is leaving without taking any action.

So why does this happen? Consumer behavior has changed. With the introduction of the search engine, consumers shop around before making any purchase decision.

This means that you might get a lot of web traffic, but if all your traffic does is poke around your website for a few minutes and leave, your website isn’t doing you any good.

A conversion is either a sale (hard conversion), or a lead (soft conversion). To maximize your conversions, you need to alter your website to promote both types of conversions.

Examples of ways to promote hard conversions would be a feature where users could buy online. That way, for those visitors that are ready to purchase, they have the option right in front of them.

The only problem with promoting hard conversion is that barely any of your website visitors are ready to make a purchase. Thus, trying to convince your traffic to buy right away isn’t very successful.

Soft conversions are a better way to convert your users. Because a soft conversion usually consists of only contact information, your website users will be more willing to give out their information, allowing you to contact them later.

Examples of a soft conversion would be an offer to join a mail list, or using a conversion driver to give a special to your website visitors.

Also, because they are willing to fill in their contact information, soft conversions are further down the purchase funnel than the average website visitor, as they are already considering your product or service.

Your website can’t be a passive page. The Internet is dynamic; use the ability to change deals on the fly and host mini-sites with your special offers to help increase conversions.

Check out our mini-sites and conversion drivers today and see how to use your existing traffic to create more leads.

Mobile Search Increased 269% Y-O-Y in Q4

Posted on by Andrew

We’ve talked a lot on this blog about the emergence and importance of mobile advertising, but I’m afraid we’re going to talk about it a little more. According to a new report from IgnitionOne, mobile search advertising spend grew 269 percent year-over-year during the last quarter.

That’s an outrageous amount, and really showcases the increasing importance that is being placed on mobile. Over the same period, mobile ad impressions also increased by 317 percent, and CPC decreased by 8.6 percent. Meaning marketers were serving more impressions at a lower cost than ever before.

Things were all good on the desktop front as well, as desktop search grew 22.4 percent year-over-year in quarter four. There were also increase in impressions (20%), clicks (34%) and CTR (12%).

Overall, the search market is still growing, especially in mobile. If you want some more background on what makes up a mobile marketing campaign, and why it’s important, check out some of our previous blog posts.

If you have more questions about mobile, let us know in the comments. Or, contact us today for a free mobile consultation.

The State of Search

Posted on by Andrew

Search has never been bigger: 26.6 billion searches were conducted in June 2011 alone, which marked a 6% increase from June 2010. This mirrors overall search growth from 2010-2011, which is also at 6%. Search has been growing like crazy the last few years, and shows no sign of slowing down.

Search is Increasing

You may already be aware that people use search. You probably use search the same way your customers do. I mean, when was the last time you picked up the Yellowpages? Yeah, we don’t remember, either.

We know that search is growing, but online search spending is growing more than search is. In 2011, search marketing is expected to grow 20%, and is expected to almost double from 2010 to 2015.

Online Ad Spend

What does this mean for you and your business? It means you need to start an online campaign, fast. There are huge dollars being spent on online advertising, but you don’t have to spend big, you just have to do something. If you have a campaign already, you need to evaluate your strategy to get the most from all your advertising dollars.

Now that you see how important search is, stay tuned for next week’s post about using search and display ads to drive more traffic to your website.

UPDATE: Here is our post about search, display ads and retargeting: the trifecta of online advertising.

Images sourced from comScore