Tag Archive for: Digital Marketing

Surviving Google’s New Policy Against Interstitial Ads

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Google has spoken — and an important part of the mobile web will never be the same. At least that’s the theory, and certainly the search giant’s intention.

Google sees app install interstitials — those big ads that pop up suddenly on the mobile web and monopolize all of your mobile device screen to prompt you to download an app, rather than let you keep surfing — as too annoying to users. On November 2, the company therefore put in place a new policy to discourage the ads.

According to this policy, Google has since penalized mobile websites that use such interstitials by declaring these websites mobile-unfriendly. According to Google’s more detailed blog post about the policy from September:

Mobile web pages that show an app install interstitial that hides a significant amount of content on the transition from the search result page will no longer be considered mobile-friendly. This does not affect other types of interstitials. As an alternative to app install interstitials, browsers provide ways to promote an app that are more user-friendly.

Google app intall interstitial ad graphic

Graphic of an app install interstitial ad by Google.

Assessing The Policy’s Early Impact

Here at Yozio, my employer, we specialize in growing mobile apps through organic channels. We also considered app install interstitials a very viable option to drive downloads prior to the new policy going into effect. Hence, we’ve been watching its effects closely.

Now that the policy has been in place for a couple of months, we wanted to explore some basic questions: Has Google’s decision actually affected how mobile websites attempt to drive visitors to download apps? And how have some of the most prominent and growth-hacking savvy companies dealt with the change?

To answer those questions, let’s start by understanding the real context for Google’s sudden change — and why app install interstitials may not be that bad after all.

Google’s Rationale For Penalizing Interstitials

Google published the results of an experiment on the effects of interstitials on one of its own mobile websites, Google+, earlier this year. In this study, Google compared the results of showing visitors to the Google+ mobile website an app install interstitial with the results of showing them a smaller and less intrusive app install banner.

When showing the banner, Google reported that the number of people installing the Google+ app stayed virtually the same compared to showing the interstitial, while the number of one-day active users on the mobile website actually increased by 17 percent.

Although Google did not mention this study in its announcement of the policy, it’s reasonable to assume that such a directly relevant experiment is related to the company’s decision.

However, the results of the study may not be as clear-cut as they seem at first glance, and Google’s case against interstitials not as simple as it appears.

The Problems With Google’s Experiment

First, this was but one experiment, by one company, for one kind of mobile website and app. Across Yozio’s customers, we’ve seen some who increased installs significantly through optimizing interstitials: by 100 percent for Pinterest and 300 percent for Airbnb, for example.

For other customers of ours, interstitials were much less important. This experience suggests Google should not necessarily draw conclusions from just one test for one app.

Second, the experiment involved an app that Google doesn’t seem to care about: As the post about the study mentions, Google since retired both the interstitial and the banner permanently, preferring to leave users on the Google+ mobile web pages.

Third, if you’re not using one of Google’s apps (or at least an app featuring Google’s advertising), it’s clearly in the search giant’s interest to keep you on the mobile web instead — where you can access its search engine and see its ads much more easily.

It turns out that app interstitials may not be that bad, then, and Google’s reasons for opposing them not that simple. And what if your app does actually offer a better experience for users than your mobile website?

Let’s look at how some of the best companies that now comply with Google’s policy — and still find ways to drive traffic to their mobile app.

Using A New Kind Of Interstitial

One of the most innovative ways to circumvent Google’s new policy comes from — you guessed it — Google itself. This time, it’s for Google Docs, an app that’s decidedly better than its equivalent mobile web experience, and probably more valuable for more users than Google+.

What mobile users see when they arrive on the Google Docs site looks almost exactly like an interstitial, but it isn’t one. It’s the web page itself, only made to look like an interstitial. The navigation menu in the top right corner gives it away.

This is how Google survives its own policy.

This is how Google survives its own policy.

Yelp uses a similar strategy. No longer able to use a separate interstitial, Yelp (not affiliated with Yozio) simply made a mobile web page that looks exactly like one.

In fact, the page looks so much like an interstitial that we ran it through Google’s mobile-friendly test — and it passed with flying colors.

This mobile web page from Yelp looks like an interstitial

This mobile web page from Yelp looks like an interstitial.

Hiding Interstitials From Google

LinkedIn (again, no affiliation with Yozio) uses an equally innovative, but somewhat more sophisticated, approach. While the mobile web version of LinkedIn’s site does not use interstitials, when you request LinkedIn.com in your mobile browser, you’re instead redirected to a new, separate mobile web page. And this does look like an interstitial.

Cleverly, however, LinkedIn has excluded this new web page from Google’s indexing. So therefore, Google can’t penalize LinkedIn for using it, either.

LinkedIn app install interstitial mobile web page

LinkedIn’s special web page cannot be indexed by Google.

Developing Better Banners

Google recommends using App Install Smart Banners in Safari or Native App Install Banners in Chrome to replace interstitials. Unfortunately, these don’t offer much flexibility in design, which makes them a bad alternative for growth teams who need to experiment and iterate. The ability to do that is non-negotiable because it’s by far the best way to increase users, engagement and conversions.

Airbnb (a Yozio customer) is a growth-savvy company and currently experimenting with its own banners as opposed to the ones recommended by Google. We checked — and Airbnb’s site is still mobile-friendly.

It seems Google has left some wriggle room for the experimenters after all.

Airbnb app install banner

Airbnb flouts Google’s recommendation by using a homemade banner.

Beware of making those banners too large, though. We found an example on Zappos’ mobile web pages that ran into trouble in Google’s mobile-friendly test, which stated that the page “appears to have an app install interstitial” and “may not be mobile-friendly.” (Yozio is not affiliated with Zappos.)

Zappos app install banner

Zappos runs into trouble with its workaround.

Is Google Really Putting The User First?

We’ve seen our customers drive tens of millions of installs through organic channels such as mobile websites using app install interstitials or banners. Both can work — it all depends on the user.

Ultimately, understanding the user’s intent and presenting her with personalized content determines the click-through rate and install conversion rate. As Marketing Land editor Danny Sullivan’s excellent overview of Google’s policy explains, the company is ironically declaring war on the same problem it helped to create when it first started to drive users to download apps on its own sites.

By implementing this wide-ranging policy on the basis of questionable evidence, we don’t believe Google is putting the user first this time.

 

H/T: Marketing Land.

Bing Now Powers AOL Search: What Advertisers Need To Know

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The move is now official: Bing has taken over serving search results and ads for AOL from Google. Initially announced in June 2015, the 10-year deal affects all AOL search traffic worldwide and on all devices. Here’s a look at what the move means for those managing Bing Ads campaigns.

First, the Ad distribution section under Ad Group level settings now includes AOL along with Bing and Yahoo.

bing-aol-ad-distribution

You can now also change ad group level network distribution within Bing Ads Editor. Whatever your settings are now, they won’t change, other than the fact that AOL is now included.aol-bing-ads-editor

Bringing AOL into the fold also includes AOL’s syndicated search partners in relevant locations. You’ll have insights into this type of traffic that wasn’t available when AOL ads were served by Google. In the Website URL (Publisher) report, the URLs of AOL owned and operated websites will be shown on separate lines and not consolidated with Bing and Yahoo’s owned and operated websites listed under “Bing and Yahoo! Search Properties Only.” You might not necessarily know that the site is part of the AOL syndication, but you will be able to add individual sites to exclusionlists.

AOL search also now appears as a new value in the Network and Top vs. Other columns in reports (including those run from the Reporting API), such as the Keyword performance report and Campaign performance report, and AOL is listed with Bing and Yahoo syndicated search partners.

AOL traffic now factors into both Bing Ads Campaign and Keyword Planners, as well. For more details, see the Bing Ads blog post on the updates.

 

microsoft-aol-logos2-1920
H/T: Search Engine Land

Digital Marketing: Marketing Rose Bowl-style

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When the Hawkeyes played in the Rose Bowl in 1986, the first “laptop” computers weighed 12 pounds, the QVC network was new and the World Wide Web was still three years away.

Fast-forward to the wired age of 2015 and it’s a whole new world. With our noses glued to our ever-present screens and our attention splintered in a thousand different directions, collective events such as the Rose Bowl become a huge opportunity for connecting with customers on a personal level.

So businesses of all kinds are jumping on the Rose Bowl bandwagon with tools and tactics that weren’t even on the radar back then. For example, the University of Iowa’s athletic department proudly announced that it doubled its loyalty program’s membership for the mobile app, Hawkeye Rewards, after this year’s perfect regular season.

Travel agencies had their social media posts and ads prepped and ready to launch within minutes of the announcement.

Even businesses with only a glancing relationship with football were congratulating the team on their Facebook pages, creating Rose Bowl-themed specials, and tweeting their prognostications for the big game.

Marketing Micro Events

Most events won’t generate the kind of hype that a trip to the Rose Bowl does, but smaller, local events can be a good opportunity to promote your business and create community. A pizza joint near a high school can geo-target on hungry smartphone toting fans looking for a bite to eat after the game or event with coupons and deals.

Employers with positions to fill easily can target job fairs, industry events and even competitors. Businesses that hold seminars or trade shows can promote their events on LinkedIn and Facebook or through targeted behavioral ads.

Many of these tools allow granular targeting to the level of employer and even job title.

Events also can be a great source of content for future marketing campaigns. Businesses can create videos, slide shares or webinars and use those assets to acquire even more prospects and leads.

Targeting is Not a Penalty

Unlike the big game, targeting is practically a necessity in digital advertising because it helps you hit the audience most interested in your messages. Bonus: Nobody gets hurt and there’s no penalty.

Most people now expect businesses to anticipate, or at least recognize, their preferences and interests. For Iowa fans looking for tickets to the Rose Bowl, the more information they could find, the better.

Marketing analytics can identify which consumers followed the team page, visited related websites, purchased team apparel or mentioned their favorite teams on social media. The same methods are applied to identify customers with an interest in specific topics, products and services so you can provide relevant information and content to the right people.

Here’s one cautionary note: Don’t get cute. Consumers react badly to clickbait headlines such as “Rose Bowl Canceled” only to be taken to a page selling them something totally irrelevant. Not only will you not make the sale, you’ll likely lose whatever cyber trust you ever had with your audience to begin with.

In the meantime, enjoy the big game and good luck finding that coveted Rose Bowl apparel this year. Happy New Year and Go Hawks!

 

H/T: The Gazette

6 Digital Marketing Stats About the Holidays Worth Checking Out

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‘Tis the season for digital numbers that give folks an idea of what’s about to happen during the holidays. Check out six we found particularly interesting:

1. According to Salesforce Social Studio, Black Friday social conversations—via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, etc.—are up 20 percent over last year.

2. DataRank, part of Simply Measured, pulled 77,000 #BlackFriday tweets from Nov. 1 through Nov. 22. In its study, the company examined positive sentiment versus negative sentiment around the hashtag and found the following:

    

3. Walmart has appeared in 38 percent of the tweets about retailers, DataRank said, which made the big-box player No. 1 in that regard. Best Buy was second, appearing in 26 percent of such Twitter messages, while Target drew 23 percent. Here’s a full look at DataRank’s merchants-based findings:

    

4. Millennials will spend on average $352 on holiday shopping this season, per Ypulse, which surveyed 1,000 Gen Y consumers. Their primary gift-giving recipient will be dear ole Mom (84 percent of the time).

5. According to November research from AYTM Market Research, 47 percent of U.S. Internet users said holiday promotions before Nov. 4 were effective in getting them to make purchases. Twenty-five percent “somewhat agreed” that such promos worked, while 29 percent disagreed that the ads were effective.

6. Researcher eMarketer projects a nearly 6 percent gain in retail holiday sales this year, with e-commerce continuing to grow in the double digits.

Non-holidays bonus stat: Monetate analyzed 7 billion online shopping experiences in the third quarter and found that social networks’ conversion rates came in at 1.3 percent, representing a slight lift year over year.

H/T: Adweek. Getty Images.

7 Ways Black Friday Is Different From Cyber Monday

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It’s easy to lump Cyber Monday into the Black Friday fold, but this $3 billion shopping holiday has some unique traits of its own.

When discussing late-November sales, we frequently refer to the “Black Friday season.” This is because the big day itself has morphed into something bigger, even absorbing Thanksgiving. We often rope Cyber Monday into this term, too, as retailers tend to roll one day of sales into another at this time of year.

But Cyber Monday exhibits its own unique traits outside of Black Friday, starting with the fact that it’s outpacing the “main” shopping holiday in savings. Cyber Monday saw more Editors’ Choice deals than Black Friday in both 2014 and 2013.

So what makes Cyber Monday so special? Read on to learn a little more about everyone’s second-favorite shopping holiday.

Cyber Monday Has Happier Origins

Pinning down the origin of the term “Black Friday” is not easy, but the current prevailing theory goes like this: Philadelphia police negatively coined the term in the 1950s. Apparently, hordes of people would descend upon the town on the Friday after Turkey Day, ahead of the annual Army/Navy football game on Saturday. Stores would take advantage of all the extra business by promoting big sales, and cops were stuck with long, busy shifts that left them dreading the date.

Black Friday didn’t come into its more widespread, awesome reputation until the 1980s. But Cyber Monday’s origins are much more recent; the term was coined by the National Retail Federation in 2005 to describe the Monday after Thanksgiving, when people continued to shop online after returning to work. And nothing makes anyone happier than goofing off at work!

And There Are Fewer Ads

Before you’ve even thought about where to find the best deal on a turkey, you’re no doubt aware of the upcoming Black Friday sales. This is because retailers (and intrepid deal sites) have been posting Black Friday ads far in advance, sometimes as early as the beginning of October. However, we see comparatively fewer Cyber Monday ads — possibly because retailers know that shoppers will check out those sales anyway.

According to a recent DealNews survey, 85% of consumers said they’ll be shopping on Cyber Monday, up from 76% in 2014. Compare that to the 53% of people who said they’ll shop on Thanksgiving. Too many Cyber Monday ads might discourage even more Thanksgiving shoppers.

In-Store Doorbusters Go Bye-Bye

Along with fewer ads comes a dearth of doorbusters. Cyber Monday is an online shopping holiday, after all, so there’s no reason to go knocking down the doors of your local Sears to score a $5 toaster. Of course, “doorbusters” in general are dying out. In-store shoppers have long been frustrated by the concept of low-stock items that sell out in seconds, and retailers are listening. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to find so-called doorbusters listed online on Black Friday.

Cyber Monday Has the Most Online Sales

We’re not talking about coupons here; by “sales,” we actually mean goods sold. Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year, and Adobe has estimated that it’ll reach $3 billion in sales for the first time this year, a 12% increase over 2014. Compare that to Black Friday, which is expected to generate $2.7 billion in online sales, and Thanksgiving, which will do $1.6 billion.

Why are shoppers still eager to spend funds on Cyber Monday, even after Black Friday? According to Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst for forecast tech consultancy Forrester Research, it’s because “customers had fewer negative associations with Cyber Monday than with Black Friday.” See? Everyone loves shopping at work.

But Fewer Mobile Shoppers

That same Adobe report we mentioned above revealed that Thanksgiving is projected to become the king of mobile sales in 2015. For the first time ever, mobile devices will overtake more traditional computers on Thanksgiving to drive the majority — 51% — of online visits, representing 29% of online purchases that day. This mobile mania won’t last, though; both Black Friday and Cyber Monday are expected to see more traditional online traffic.

Some People Are Totally Shopping at Work

And you thought we were joking! While not a federal holiday, the Friday after Thanksgiving is a public holiday in 24 states. By Monday, everyone is back at work and almost certainly browsing sales at their desks. To be fair, a wonderfully industrious 56% of shoppers claimed they didn’t shop at work last year in our survey.

Sadly, these hardworking shoppers may miss out on the best bargains. Last year 67% of the deals we found on Cyber Monday were posted before 5 pm ET. That means bargain hunters will have to log on during business hours to snag the best sales.

Fashionistas Love Cyber Monday

The Black Friday season is like the Olympics, with different shopping events on each shopping holiday. Where Thanksgiving and Black Friday are better for electronics, Cyber Monday shines in soft goods. Clothes and shoes are especially awesome buys, with retailers busting out Black Friday-beating coupons in several cases. Beauty products are another oft-overlooked, but awesome, Cyber Monday category.

Should you not be the sartorial sort, you can always stock up on toys, or shop for a new major appliance. Better yet, book a killer hotel deal on Cyber Monday; you’ve probably had enough of those visiting relatives at this point.

In the end, if you’ve been ignoring Cyber Monday, it’s time to give this hardworking holiday another shot. With billions of dollars under its belt, this shopping extravaganza is here to stay!

H/T: DealNews.

 

 

5 Reasons Your Business Marketing Is Incomplete Without SEO

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Search Engine Optimization is a tool to increase your visibility in the digital space. Organic Search Engine Optimization or SEO, is absolutely vital to achieve long term search engine visibility for your website. It is treated with high regard in the online marketing sphere because it increases your chances of reaching relevant prospects and proves to be an efficient marketing strategy by targeting the user intent. If you delve deeper into the science of SEO, you will surely find it to be very effective and proficient tool which brings good results in no time if implemented well.

When we compare both outbound and inbound marketing services, we get to the conclusion that inbound marketing tends to bring in interested parties who are looking for information based on your business. This is exactly what SEO tends to do. If your business is looking for more ROI with minimal investment, ensure that SEO forms the part of your marketing initiatives. Rather than embracing outbound techniques that are interruptive in nature, SEO is customer-centric and the message is only presented to the prospects when they need them.

Here are 5 reasons that will prove why your business needs the best SEO services:

1. SEO Brings Traffic

Within 3 months of consistent and high-quality search engine optimization efforts, your business could see an unbelievable difference in the way your online visibility gets positively affected. The main aim for any SEO initiative is to help you in gaining valuable rankings on search engines that could result into more click-through-rates and more traffic.

SEO also focuses on on-site optimization that brings greater visibility on search engines. It is beneficial to have optimized tags and web pages to help you in increasing the click-through-rate for your website. More relevant traffic to your website means more conversions and revenue.

2. Measurable ROI

SEO offers quantifiable results for all kinds of business’ sites. So, you don’t have to worry about measuring the ROI of your SEO. The agencies providing search engine optimization services are capable of scaling almost all the aspects of their SEO campaigns, such as traffic, conversion rate, revenue and more.

Detailed analytics report helps in getting accurate information of all the visitors of your site and their journey in the conversion funnel.

In the case of e-commerce websites, SEO agencies helps by short-listing people who used a particular keyword that you are targeting.

3. SEO is Cost effective

SEO has earned the reputation of being one of the most reliable and cost-effective marketing strategies due to the simple fact that it only targets relevant visitors who are searching for the goods and services or any information that you are providing.

In complete contrast to outbound marketing, where you target several people you don’t even know whether they are interested in your brand, SEO methodology only targets interested audience and that’s why it is cost effective as it saves you from spending hugely on outbound such as newspaper ads, tele-commercials, billboards, cold-calling and more.

The traffic generated by SEO is more qualified than other marketing strategies.

4. Increased Site Usability with SEO

When you implement the various factors of SEO into your website, it will make your website user-friendly and the focus would be on making it more navigable. Not only does the user will find it easy surfing through your website, but it will also help you in getting a better ranking on search engines.

The principles of SEO tend to rearrange the website’s links and architecture and this will make your website user-friendly. The users find it easy to find out more information on your website, which boosts the engagement rate of your website, lessens the bounce rate, and could increase conversion rates for your website.

5. Brand Awareness

SEO is the most cost effective way to enhance your brand awareness. Undoubtedly, SEO will help you in gaining more exposure and click-through-rates, but the best things that SEO could do is to redefine your brand with some great content. You could definitely try and get better rankings with extensive SEO, but what will retain the visitors on your website is your content.

Search engines factor the quality of your content in their SERPs and have released some strict algorithms that help them in considering only those websites that fulfill the user intent. Every search request is an opportunity; each action on a social site is an opportunity. Having the correct brand, product or service positioning is essential.

For further expert advice and services in SEO contact Onimod Global today.

 

Ref:  Lifehacker  Onimod Global

Why Video is an Effective Digital Marketing Component

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Marketers are getting increasingly aggressive on the digital front. They are implementing innovative techniques to make their offerings more visible and appealing to the masses. To this end, it is time we seriously consider video as a new medium.

According to a blog quoting a comScore report, 64% of the visitors may purchase a product after watching a relevant video, while a Forbes survey reveals that 75% of executives watch videos

1. Classifying viewers

Your viewers are not going to be all of the same age and with similar interests. Your offerings, however, must be relevant to all – from fresh graduates to the veterans. So, you cannot expect one video to strike the same chord in every viewer’s mind. The trick is to understand the preference of different sections of your audience, and create different videos to target them simultaneously.

2. Getting a great videographer

A skilled videographer, who understands your requirement, is going to be your best friend in making appealing videos for your digital marketing activities. A good videographer can:

  • Capture and highlight the aspects of your offerings that your target customers should know and understand
  • Advise what kind of video you need – brand story, company introduction, customer testimonial, product demo, etc.
  • Make the video uniquely related to your offering by including actors or real people, animation or real videography, or a combination of various suitable components
  • Tell a story from the emergence of problem to its solution, and the result in the short video

3. Utilize social media to the fullest

For a successful video-based digital marketing campaign, presence on YouTube and other digital media is essential. The post says that 91% of the video snippets displayed on search result pages are from YouTube. Share your videos through Facebook, Twitter and other popular social media, with backlinks to your website brand page. Similarly, your website should offer links for sharing the video through various social media. By utilizing social media, you actually gain by leveraging every viewer’s reach.

4. Making a viral video

There is no particular trick to make a viral video. However, you can analyze all the popular viral videos to determine what makes people like them more than other videos. Presence of an influential personality is always helpful. Besides, most viral videos have an unusual or odd approach to story-telling. Focus on humor, children and/or animals, a tone; they are more likely to strike the right chord in your viewers’ minds. Besides, subtle reference to a current incident also works often.

5. Monitor video performance

Regular and frequent releases are good, but you also need to monitor the performance of your videos. Some of the common performance parameters are:

  • Number and type of viewers
  • Time spent on a particular video
  • Number of views per viewer
  • Click-through rate

6. In-house vs. professional studio

Depending on budgets and other factors, you can choose to hire a video production company or have an in-house team for the production. Usually, large organizations have an in-house team for video production. However, you can rely on video companies to produce highly appealing and effective videos for your digital marketing campaign.

So, consider videos a vital component when you think of digital marketing. All you need is to take the first step to enter this domain with conviction in order to reap the benefits.

Why Video is an Effective Digital Marketing Component

H/T: Martech Advisor

2015 Digital Marketing Stats: The Good, the Bad and the Intriguing

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We look at the 2015 stats that show great leaps forward and hurdles still to be overcome for digital marketing

A decade or more ago, digital marketing, or internet marketing as it was more frequently referred to back then (see digital marketing Vs internet marketing), used to be a wild-west like frontier. Opportunities were everywhere, and there were also plenty of people getting it horribly wrong. In the past 10-15 years things have changed markedly, and in general things have been getting a whole lot better for digital marketers.

 

the good the bad and the ugly

 

Much like the past 15 years, 2015 so far has brought plenty of good news for digital marketers; increasing digital ad budgets, increased focus on content and SEO has given them plenty of opportunities to show their worth and marketers. The stats that have come out so far from various studies and compilations this year demonstrate this clearly. However, they also show there are problems with digital marketing that companies are still not overcoming. Big data has been a big trend for a few years now, but it is clear that many businesses are not able to turn data into insights effectively. Accurate measuring ROI remains a problem for many, whilst some are still failing to get tangible results from Social Media.

That’s why we thought we’d present some of the best and worst of digital marketing stats of the year thus far. The good show how fast digital marketing is growing and getting ever more effective, whilst the bad stats demonstrate the challenges that still remain.

All the surveys and research that generate these stats often throw up some interesting tidbits of data that are often fascinating. We thought that we’d add these intriguing stats into our compilation for good measure.

Good

  • Content marketing in 2015 generates 3 times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing, but costs 62% less. (Source)

 

  • Content creation and management now claim the second-largest share of digital marketing budgets. (Source)

 

  • 28% of marketers have reduced their advertising budget to fund more digital marketing. (Source)

 

  • 84% of top performing companies are using or plan to start using marketing automation by 2015. (Source)

 

  • 73% of B2B marketers use video as a content marketing tactic, and 7% of marketers plan on increasing their YouTube marketing.
    71% of companies planned to increase their digital marketing budgets this year (Source)

 

  • 78% of companies now say they have dedicated social media teams in 2015, up from 67% in 2012 (Source)

Bad

  • 62% of companies did not agree with the statement ‘we have the analysts we need to make sense of our data’ whilst 63% did not agree with the statement ‘we have a good infrastructure in place to collect the data we need’. (Source)

 

  • 70% of marketers were not confident in their companies ability to measure the return on mobile ad spend. (Source)

 

  • 52% of Americans think that most online shopping sites need improvement, whilst 79% of Brazilians2 and 87% of Chinese people think this. (Source)

 

  • 83% of consumers reported that they have had a “bad experience with social media marketing.” (source)

 

  • The top three social networks used by B2B marketers are LinkedIn (91%); Twitter (85%); and Facebook (81%). However, just 62% of marketers say that LinkedIn is effective, while 50% say the same for Twitter and only 30% of B2B marketers view Facebook as effective. December 2014 (source)

 

  • 20% of companies said Digital Marketing is very much separate from the rest of their marketing/advertising efforts, whilst only 14% said they were a ‘digital first organisation. (Source)

 

  • 91% of people have unsubscribed from company emails they have previously opted into. (source)

 

  • Only 8% of companies have an email marketing team, despite the fact it is often rated as the platform the delivers the highest ROI of any digital marketing tactic. (source)

 

  • Almost half–48%–of all emails are opened on mobile devices. Yet 39% of marketers say they have no strategy for mobile email, and only 11% of emails are optimized for mobile (source)

Intriguing

  • 15% of Google searches have never been searched for before. (source)

 

  • 60% of all Internet activity in the US originates from mobile devices and about half of total Internet Traffic flows through mobile apps. (source)

 

  • 50% of all mobile searches are conducted in hopes of finding local results, and 61% of those searches result in a purchase. (Source)

 

  • The most followed brand on Twitter is Facebook (source)

 

 

H/T: Smart Insights.

9 Compelling and Fun Digital Marketing Stats From the Past Week

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With summer largely in the rearview mirror, marketers are attending conferences and generally revealing more media- and brand-related data. Here are nine of such stats that caught our eye last week.

1. During a Re/code podcast, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said that more than 75 percent of his digital publisher’s views for all content come from non-BuzzFeed networks. More specifically, he shared that Facebook video produces 27 percent of the views and Snapchat brings in 21 percent.

2. PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel told an audience at Dmexco that about 40 percent of Germans use ad blockers, a significant spike from the estimated 10 percent of Americans who block ads. Publishers are rightfully scared of the phenomenon, especially since Apple’s IOS9 system became available last week. It allows developers to sell ad-blocking apps on it for iPhones.

3. Also speaking at Dmexco, Amy Cole, head of brand development for Instagram EMEA, made the case for brands to buy ads on Instagram, citing data from 400 Nielsen studies covering two years of campaigns. Per Cole, 97 percent of ads have generated “significant” ad recall, with the average campaign boosting recall by 17 points.

4. JD.com, China’s largest business-to-consumer site, has more than 600 million users and 373 million people who purchase straight from the site.

5. Anonymity app Whisper touts more than 10 million users, 10 billion page views a month and a whopping 1 million app users every minute.

6. Remember Lauren Conrad from MTV’s Laguna Beach and The Hills? A decade after the shows, she’s a bona fide media mogul, with multiple clothing lines, bestselling books and her own lifestyle brand. What’s more, she’s a social-media star, with about 4.4 million followers on Instagram, 3.5 million on Twitter and 1.9 million on Facebook.

7. Monetate, which has access to more than 7 billion shopping experiences from its customer base, found that during the second quarter, traffic to e-commerce sites also increased 30 percent year over year. The digital marketing company also said that sales conversion rates jumped 46 percent over the same time period—largely driven by mobile shoppers.

8. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders live-tweeted last Wednesday night’s Republican debate. As Digiday reported, analytics company Socialbakers found that Sanders received 452,000 interactions—entailing retweets, replies and favorites—on his tweets that day alone. Compared to his average interactions of 36,700 per day over the previous month, according to Socialbakers, that’s a huge uptick.

9. Speaking of h-u-u-u-uge, on the other side of the political aisle, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accrued more than 7.5 million Vine loops (the mobile app’s views metric) on his account, but he hasn’t used the video platform since 2013.

And a bonus stat that’s really not about digital marketing: Hampton Creek is a packaged-goods startup that focuses on data to create new foods, which are intended to be more profitable, environmentally friendly and healthy. Last week, Hampton Creek CEO Josh Tetrick told an audience at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference that his team taps into data from more than 400,000 species of plants.

H/T: Ad Week

Our Top 8 Digital Marketing Stats From the Last Week

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Big digital players released second-quarter earnings numbers last week, and many other enticing interactive statistics came to the forefront. Here are the eight most interesting, data-driven developments we came across:

1. Researcher eMarketer predicted Monday that Instagram advertising will be worth $2.8 billion in sales by 2017, but that estimate could be low if the Facebook-owned platform would start running desktop ads. Per comScore, 22.8 million people logged onto Instagram in June via desktop computer compared with 81.8 million on mobile devices. But since Instagram ads only run on smartphones and tablets, it would seem the digital entity could grow revenue even more than eMarketer’s projections, as the social giant still sits on a big audience that hasn’t been monetized.

2. For the past several months, brands like Land Rover have tested Pandora’s Sponsored Listening ads, which offer consumers an hour or free music in exchange for watching a video promo. Per Pandora, those pilot ads boosted purchase intent by 30 percent and brand awareness by 12 percent. The Oakland, Calif.-based digital company opened sponsored listening to all brands today.

3. On Thursday, Marchex will release a study based on 24 million consumer-to-business mobile phone calls. The tech vendor, working with local business researcher BIA/Kelsey, will estimate that mobile click-to-call actions—in which Web-connected consumers call up shops, bars and restaurants on their smartphones—will enable $1 trillion in commerce this year.

4. Microsoft’s devices-and-consumer category for revenues during the second quarter were down 13 percent year-over-year, underscoring a tech giant in flux. But there’s good news, too: The Redmond, Wash.-based company’s commercial cloud business grew 88 percent to $8 billion in sales in Q2.

5. Yahoo’s Q2 earnings last week also was a mix of good news and bad. Its mobile, video, native and social ad revenue was up 60 percent over last year to $400 million, helping CEO Marissa Mayer offer her investors the company’s best revenue growth in nearly a decade. But, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based player is spending a lot of money and actually took a loss, overall.

6. During June and July, Mondelez tested interactive, e-commerce video promos and got a 220 percent boost in awareness, and engagement went up 88 percent. Let’s look at an example from the company’s Women’s World Cup campaign. An image of U.S. player Alex Morgan popped up in the bottom left corner of the ads. Hovering over Morgan for a few seconds opened an overlay on the video letting people watch other clips, shoot a virtual soccer ball, follow a Twitter hashtag or clickthrough to buy snacks at Walmart, Target and Amazon.

7. Chubbies, the men’s shorts brand, posted an LOL-minded video on Facebook on July 19 featuring dudes walking around in summer attire that’s way too small. With little paid advertising, the e-commerce startup’s clip has been viewed 903,000 times on the platform.

8. The 20th Century Fox movie The Revenant, a western thriller that doesn’t premiere until Christmas Day, already is garnering huge buzz online. A teaser for the film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and is directed by Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu, is closing in on 20 million YouTube and Facebook views after 10 days. Check out the clip below:

H/T Adweek