The Car-buying Mobile Revolution

Mobile is transforming everything from shopping to searching. According to wireless statistics, wireless users logged 1.15 trillion minutes on mobile devices in the first half of 2011. That’s more than 6 billion minutes of usage every day.

Car Dealership Mobile App
More and more car dealerships are developing mobile apps

One place mobile is changing the world is in car sales. A recent survey noted that 78 percent of people who are planning to buy a vehicle during the next 12 months will use a mobile device at some point in the purchase process.

If you’re a car dealer and you don’t have a mobile campaign, well, you now have a reason to get one. You can’t alienate such a large percentage of your car shoppers by not having a mobile strategy.

Here are some more stats: 44 percent of mobile car buyers use their phones to compare prices at different dealerships, 32 percent will use them to locate a dealership and 23 percent will use them to contact a dealership.

Those are numbers that you can’t ignore. Mobile is the way of the future, and you need to start adapting your business to the wants of the mobile user.

That means mobile landing pages, mobile ads, mobile SEM, QR codes, SMS campaigns and more. Tailoring to as many different users as possible will ensure none of your customers fall through the cracks.

Call us today and see how we can help you with your mobile strategy.  We’ll get you started on the path to digital marketing success.


Small Businesses Moving Aggressively to Online Marketing

Digital marketing is continuing to grow compared to traditional forms of advertising among small and medium-sized companies (SMBs).

According to BIA/Kelsey, digital spending for US SMBs is expected to reach $16.6 billion annually by 2016.

That means 70 percent of SMB marketing budgets will be spent on digital. In 2010, SMBs spent 52 percent of their budgets on traditional marketing and advertising, but that number will shrink to 30 percent in 2015.

Digital marketing includes mobile, social, online directories, online display, retargeting, search, and more.

Neal Polachek, president of BIA/Kelsey, said SMBs are using digital practices to engage their customers for longer periods of time.

“With the advent of daily deals to drive customer acquisition, SMBs are now increasingly focused on leveraging technological solutions to engage, grow and retain a higher percentage of their customers,” said Polachek. “As this trend accelerates, these SMBs will turn to outside providers to harness simple tools, which will enable them to maximize the long-term value of each new customer they acquire.”

Marketing Spend by SMBs

Some of the other Key takeaways from the report are as follows:

  • Overall, U.S. SMB spending on media, marketing and business solutions will grow from $22.4 billion in 2010 to $40.2 billion in 2015, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12 percent.
  • SMB spending on traditional advertising will be essentially flat during the forecast period, experiencing a 0.6 percent CAGR, from $11.8 billion in 2010 to $12.1 billion in 2015.
  • SMB spending on digital/online media will grow from $5.4 billion in 2010 to $16.6 billion in 2015 (24.9 percent CAGR).
  • SMBs will also increase spending on performance-based commerce and transaction platforms, from $1.7 billion in 2010 to $4.6 billion in 2015 (21.5 percent CAGR).
  • Spending by SMBs on customer retention business solutions will grow from $3.5 billion in 2010 to $6.9 billion in 2015 (14.6 percent CAGR).

As you can see, digital marketing and advertising are becoming increasingly important. There’s no excuse for why you shouldn’t have your own digital marketing campaign. Contact us today to learn more.


Infographic on the importance of SMS messaging

So we’ve already explained to you the importance of doing a Text Campaign for your business, but texting has a broader reach than use in mobile marketing. As the number one data service in the world, it is helping developing countries buy and sell things easier and safer.

Continue reading…

The History of Advertising

Though advertising has been around for a while, it’s a lot older than most people think. In 2000 BC, the Ancient Egyptians advertised by carving public notices into steel. Now, four thousand years later, we’ve gotten to the point where online advertising has overtaken print and radio to become the second biggest medium for ad spend.

Along the way there have been a few forms of advertising that we wish weren’t invented– we’re looking at you, infomercials and pop-ups — but overall, ads have created a convenient way for businesses to get the word out about their products.

Continue reading…

7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Mobile Campaign

Smartphone adoption has been exploding in the last few years. This represents a huge opportunity for your business.  Mobile campaigns can give you a great return on your investment. Read below for the top seven reasons why you need to be using mobile as part of your local digital advertising strategy.

1.    It’s Getting Bigger
Smartphone ownership has more than doubled in the last two years. More than 44% of mobile subscribers now own smartphones, and mobile search has grown 400 percent in the last year, representing one in every seven searches. Google received 11.9 billion search queries in October 2011, meaning almost 1.7 billion searches were mobile in October alone.

2.    Search Drives Mobile
Instead of pulling out the Yellow Pages to find what they need, consumers use search engines. For smartphone users, search is even more important: they access search more than social networks on their phones.

3.    Mobile Means Local

Mobile Users Have Local Intent

More than half of all mobile searches have local intent. This means when someone pulls out a smartphone to search on the go, they’re looking for places nearby. You need to show up when they need you, or you stand to lose a lot of potential business.

4.    Mobile Users Take Action
Mobile searchers have higher purchase intent than desktop searchers do. After searching for something online, 89 percent of mobile searchers take action within a day – 36 percent of those take action immediately. This means that a mobile searcher is almost a guaranteed lead.

5.    Consumers Shop With Their Phones

Mobile users don’t just search – they buy. 74% of smartphone owners have made a purchase as a result of using their smartphone, and 76% of those purchases were made in-store.

6.    It’s Still Early

Mobile Will Overtake Desktop

In two years, the number of mobile Internet users will overtake the number of desktop users. Despite this, 72% of mobile large online advertisers don’t have a mobile-optimized site. Get started today, and be part of the mobile revolution.

7.    It’s easy!
With the help of AdsUpNow, you can capture new business and let mobile users find you. We create well-rounded campaigns that include mobile landing pages, mobile search advertising, call tracking and mobile couponing.

Wondering where we got these stats? They came from Google’s video about mobile advertising.

As you can see, mobile is growing – fast. Even though it may seem daunting, getting started with mobile advertising or mobile landing pages is easier than ever. Fill out the form on our website or call today to find out more.

Images were pulled from this infographic.


Search, Display and Retargeting: The Trifecta of Online Advertising

That title is misleading. To have a great online presence you need more than just search, display ads and retargeting, but these points are a good starting place for any local business who wants to convert more online shoppers and increase its revenue.

Each of these parts can be used on their own, but function stronger when used together. Just look at the title, we called it a trifecta, and everyone knows that a triangle is the strongest shape. If you didn’t, well you just got a geometry lesson as well as a digital advertising lesson. You’re welcome.

Lift in Online Sales Per Online Strategy

If you want to visualize how these three aspects work better together, take a look at the chart below. As you can see, using search and display ads together gives much higher returns than using them separately.
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Search
The first part of the equation is search. As we covered in a previous post, search is huge, and should not be taken for granted. Search has become the gateway to the Internet, so you need to start using search advertising to appear at the top of search rankings. It’s called SEM, and it looks like this:

Search Engine Marketing

Those big red circles are where your ads show up. That means that when someone searches for products or services that your business delivers, your ads appears, increasing hits to your website.

The only problem with search is that only 4% of time on the Internet is spent in search engines, and 96% is spent doing everything else. You might think search isn’t worth it, but everything on the Internet stems from search, so it should remain an important piece of your online strategy. Search gets your foot in the door, but the next two parts help you walk through it and sell your products.
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Display Ads
The second aspect is display advertising. Display ads show up on websites around the world, and their main goal is to boost traffic to the owner’s website. The first display ad was in 1994, and looked like this:

AT&T Banner Ad From 1994

Since 1994, display advertising has grown tremendously. In Q2 2011, more than 1.1 trillion display ads were served across the world, and this number is only going to increase as more and more people come online. The only problem with display advertising is that, a lot of the time, it gets ignored. Internet users train themselves to overlook the ads, thinking they’re irrelevant. That’s where the third part comes in.


Retargeting
Retargeting is the last piece of the puzzle, and the part that ties it all together. If you weren’t aware, 97% of your website visitors leave and never come back.  Retargeting is display advertising that essentially follows up with the customer after they visit your website. It works like this: the consumer visits your website; they pick up a special line of code that places a cookie in their browser; your ads get delivered to the consumer as they are surfing the web, reminding them of your website.  ComScore created a handy cartoon to show how it works from the consumer’s end:

Retargeting Process

Retargeting is unique because it displays ads to consumers who have already shown interest in your products, making them easier to convert. It’s a win-win situation because the user gets ads that are relevant to their desires, and you get more sales in return.

Let us Help you!

As you can see, our trifecta of online advertising will help you see a greater return on your online ad spend. Check out our website and our past products and see how we can help you. Fill out a form on our site or call us to learn more.