More people are advertising online than ever before, representing a shift from traditional media.
According to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), revenues from digital advertising grew 15% to $8.4 billion.
Out of this increase, mobile grew the most, growing 149% to $1.6 billion. However, search still retained the top position, accounting for 46.5% of revenue, up from 44.7% two years ago.
The top driver of online advertising was the retail industry. Retail made up 22% of all online advertising dollars, compared to 21% a year ago. The second largest industry was the financial services industry, with a 13% share of all revenue, up from 12% in 2010.
These rising numbers show that you need to get started with a digital advertising campaign. You can’t afford to miss out on this growing opportunity to increase your revenue and sales.
Online advertising isn’t just for online businesses. Everyone starts their product search online, and you need to be there when they search.
Contact us today to get started with your campaign.
Mobile Marketing isn’t still on its way in — it’s here. Mobile marketing is bigger than it ever has been before, and is only getting bigger. It’s estimated that more than 2 billion people will use the mobile Internet by 2015, outpacing desktop users.
HighTable put together an infographic to better illustrate the rising number of mobile users. Check it out below.
Interested in getting into this growing market? Check out our website, conversionlogix.com. We’ve successfully executed many mobile campaigns for small and medium-sized businesses. Don’t miss the boat on mobile. Find out more today!
It can be intimidating to try and figure out where to spend your money on digital advertising. With so many options to choose from, it can be difficult to find what’s really necessary.
A good place to start is with paid search advertising. We call it search targeting, and it gets your business listed at the top of the search results for everything relevant to your company. This is important because the Internet may be the first place your customers ever hear about you.
A second way to advertise is by using Site Retargeting. Every time you get a website hit, that’s a potential lead. Aside from the people who accidentally click on your site, all of your visitors are at least somewhat interested in your products or services. The sad truth is that 98% of your website visitors leave without taking any action.
Site Retargeting remedies this by delivering ad impressions to people after they leave your website. This allows you to effectively follow-up with every single person who visits your website.
So what happens if someone searches for you, sees your ad, but doesn’t click your links? The answer is Search Retargeting.
Search Retargeting works by focusing on people who conduct searches for things related to your business, products or services. That way, even if they don’t click on your link, you can still advertise to them.
Every search represents someone trying to solve a problem. They might be looking for a new car, a pizza shop or the best way to tie a tie. Most of the time, consumers will research something without a specific business in mind. By focusing on their search intent, you can reach out to them as they research.
This helps fill in the gaps left by your SEO and paid search efforts by advertising to people who intend to buy what you have to sell.
These three tactics give you the ability to target your advertising to the right person at the right time. First, Search Engine Marketing lets people with purchase intent find your website. Next, if they visit your site and don’t take an action, Site Retargeting will advertise to them, keeping your business top of mind. Finally, if they search for a business, product or service like you, Search Retargeting will allow you to advertise to them regardless if they visited your website or not.
Don’t waste your money on advertising products that don’t work and can’t be easily measured. Instead, deliver your message to a targeted prospect rather than an ambiguous group.
Contact us today if you’re interested in learning more about Search Retargeting and other forms of digital advertising.
A lot of the time, people focus on the click-through rate of banner ads to measure how successful they are. This is a fine way to get the baseline statistics on how a display campaign is performing, but banner ads offer much more than just ways for people to get to your website.
One of the ways they help is with overall brand recognition. Your display advertisement could be the first time that someone hears about your brand, and even if they don’t click on it, they are still being exposed to your company.
A second way it helps is by bringing a lift to your search engine marketing campaign. Running a display ad campaign with a SEM campaign has proved to bring significant lift in sales volume. For example, Salesforce.com found that running a display campaign with their search campaign increased branded search and conversion volume by 80 percent.
You can also get a lift in your website conversions through Retargeting. Retargeting displays ads to all the people who have visited your website, keeping you top of mind throughout their researching cycle.
Display and search can combine to make your website a lead-generation machine. If you have questions, or want to get started with either search or display ads, contact us for a free consultation.
The Internet is about to claim another victim. First it was the postal service, then the classifieds, next it’s going to be print all together.
A new report from Borrell Associates said that online spending was up 21 percent in 2011, and will pass local print spending next year.
Despite the big increases, traditional media still holds the majority of all advertising dollars, but Internet spending is increasing, while traditional is decreasing or staying flat. That means that sooner or later, Internet advertising will surpass all traditional advertising, though who knows when that will be.
Borrell is predicting that the overall growth of local online advertising will be 18%, as it goes from $15.7 billion to $18.5 billion.
Also, if mobile is included as part of that projection, the number will jump to more than $26 billion by 2016.
Those are some huge numbers, and they really reflect the current changes in the advertising landscape, as more and more money is moved from traditional to online.
More than half of adult search engine users make searches at least once a day. That represents a 54% increase from 35% in 2004. This represents a huge increase in the number of people that use search engines to find information.
These numbers come from a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Search engine use has never been higher. Daily use is highest among 18-29 and 30-49 year-olds (60%), college graduates (70%), and people with household incomes of more than $75k (68%).
Search engines are also seen as reliable sources of information, while almost three-quarters of users say that most of the information they find is accurate and trustworthy.
So what does all this mean for small business marketing? Well, it means that if you aren’t in the search results, you need to be. Search engines are being used more frequently than ever to find information, and users see them as a reliable and trustworthy way to find what they’re looking for.
One way to get in the top of the search results is with search targeting. Also known as paid search, search targeting gets your ads into the top of the search results page, resulting in increased visibility and clicks.
Another way to show up in search results is to optimize your Google Places page. Create a unique Google Places page that provides information for people to find your business.
Another way to get better results in the local search rankings is to use a business directory service to get more citations of your business. A service such as Local AdsUpNow gets your business listed in almost 150 directories, giving your business increased presence and authority in Google’s eyes.
It’s not too late to get in the search results. Contact us today to get started with search targeting or Google Places Optimization.
Every customer you have ever landed came through a purchase path. Some of the paths are clear-cut, such as getting customers from your website, TV ad, driving by your store, or the customer’s smartphone. Others aren’t as clear. For example, someone might see your TV ad, go search for you online, then come to your store. Some might see your ad on Facebook, go to your website and fill out a form for more information, and wait to be contacted by a salesperson.
The point is, you might have an idea of how purchase paths are laid out, but the truth is they are usually more convoluted than they seem at first.
Because of this convolution, you have to be prepared to remarket your products or services to your customers in many different ways. It’s not enough to do some local TV ads and have a website, you need to be actively targeting and communicating with your customers in order to get them to convert.
There are several ways you can make sure that you are targeting your customers in the right way. The first of which is search engine marketing (SEM). SEM is important because it places your ads at the top of the search results for the keywords you’ve selected, giving you the ability to reach more customers.
Another reason this is important is because your customers may not remember exactly what your business is called, but they just know what type of product you provide. For example, if they heard your radio ad, or saw your business and couldn’t remember what the name was, but could only remember that you sold heaters and air conditioning, they could type “heating and air conditioning Seattle” (or whatever their city was) and your ad would pop up at the top.
A second way you can help promote across purchase paths is through retargeting. Retargeting places a cookie in the user’s web browser when they visit your site, this causes your display ads to be displayed to them after they leave. This brings increased mindshare and brand awareness during the customer’s shopping cycle, which will result in more revenue.
A third way to promote your business across purchase paths is by using your social networks. Chances are, you have a Facebook page, and studies have shown that users who buy something from a business after going through its social channels spend more money per transaction. Leverage your social networks to get users to make purchases. Offer discounts to Facebook fans, or plan a giveaway on your fan page.
If you want to be able to promote your business in today’s changing digital landscape, check out our website for more information on what we do. We are a full-service Seattle ad agency specializing in the digital realm.
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.
Think mobile isn’t important? Well, most of your competitors do. A new research report by Swedish analyst firm Berg Insight predicts that mobile ad spending will grow 37 percent annually over the next four years.
In 2010, mobile ad spend was just $3.4 billion worldwide, but Berg is estimating it to increase to $22.4 billion by 2016.
Berg Telecom Analyst Rickard Andersson said that our rapid smartphone adoption is a “game-changer,” and accredited the increase of mobile ad spend to major brands’ willingness to incorporate mobile into their campaigns.
“Brands are now progressively embracing the mobile channel, including the entire range of apps from games and entertainment to utility applications. Also, mobile web advertising and opt-in SMS campaigns are popular,” he said.
Andersson also predicted that location-based advertising will gain ground over the next few years, offering up marketing messages that are “hyper-relevant” to the user in both time and place.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, however. Berg says the market hasn’t matured yet, and many big companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon are vying for mobile users’ attention.
With more people using smartphones – and with mobile ad spend increasing – don’t you think it’s time you evaluated your mobile strategy? The battle for market share among the tech giants shows how important mobile is becoming.
It’s not too late, as mobile is still young, but you need to think about all the customers you’re missing out on. Google reported that more than half of all local searches have local intent, meaning that your customers are using mobile to search for you.
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.
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. .
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:
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. . 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:
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 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.
