Businesses should take heed of the announcement that Facebook now has more than 500 million users worldwide.
Steven Van Belleghem, managing partner of InSites Consulting, said the value of interacting with social media for firms should not be underrated.
Indeed, with such a large audience out there, getting involved in these sites should be viewed as a must – and Facebook is by far the dominant force in the sector.
He commented: “The law of networks states that the value of a network equals the number of users squared, which implies exponential growth.”
Mr Van Belleghem added that the only way this is unlikely to happen will be when next-generation services are introduced, as this could be a “different ball game”.
According to research by InSites Consulting, 72 per cent of internet users worldwide are now actively using social networking – and 51 per cent now have an account on Facebook – figures that should be ringing in the ears of search engine marketing professionals.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies.
The partnership of Bing and Yahoo! could prove a success in terms of boosting revenue for the two companies, it has been claimed.
Duncan Parry wrote for Search Engine Watch that the pair will have their work cut out if they wish to take a considerable amount of market share from Google, but in terms of creating revenue, the collaboration could be extremely positive.
He commented: “The real story will be what Yahoo! does next and how the frenemy relationship works out while they compete in the display and mobile spaces – and Google builds their display armoury around AdWords and DoubleClick.”
Therefore, search engine marketing professionals should keep a close eye on this development in the months ahead.
Meanwhile, Anna Khesed, product marketing manager for Google AdMob, recently posted on the Inside AdWords blog that the search provider has set up a new Google Mobile Ads Blog to help marketers stay abreast of new developments in the sector.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, Pay Per Click Services, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Marketing budgets for businesses could be set to increase in the period from July to December 2010, it has been revealed.
Royal Mail’s second marketing tracking poll showed that just 13 percent of respondents felt spending would be cut this year, highlighting an overall optimism within the internet marketing services sector.
This compares to last year’s results, which showed just 26 per cent of companies were expecting an increase in their budgets.
Gemma Greaves, marketing director of the Marketing Society, which helped to carry out the poll, commented: “The marketing industry still has tough choices to make, but the fact that many of our members are confident about budgets increasing in extremely encouraging.”
Elsewhere, John Lee of Search Engine Watch recently argued that US paid search campaigns could provide a boost to marketing results for businesses.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Research carried out by comScore has shown that females demonstrate higher levels of interaction with social networking on average.
The report found social networking reach totalled 75.8 per cent for females and just 69.7 per cent for males, while average hours per visitor were higher for women at 5.5, compared to 3.9 for men.
Indeed, search engine optimisation professionals might therefore like to tailor this marketing area to women.
“Understanding gender-specific differences in web usage is valuable to any digital stakeholder looking to successfully reach and engage both women and men in the online environment,” said Linda Boland Abraham, comScore chief marketing officer and executive vice-president for global development.
Elsewhere, Tristan Garrick, PR manager for the Direct Marketing Association, recently said internet marketing services can be boosted through the use of social media interaction, as it enables people to form a relationship with a brand and discover information for themselves.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
So, with all of the advances in user journey path analysis, eye-tracking, onsite conversion optimisation and checkout evaluation, ecommerce sites have seen conversion rates skyrocket, right? Well, the FireClick Index suggests that, in general, shopping cart abandonment rate is hovering around 72.9%, with a global conversion rate across all traffic sources of just 1.8%. That means that three-quarters of those who even get to the point of adding something to their shopping cart disappear from your site without generating a sale, and that 92.8% of the visitors to your site never even get that far.
The process of remarketing to these people (actively finding people online who have previously visited your website, and then showing them ads to entice them back) is not a new concept. Existing companies such as Criteo, Fetchback and Retargeter already offer remarketing technology (also known as retargeting), Yahoo! bought the crazy-smart behavioural targeting company Blue Lithium back in 2007, and there were a number of companies using prosaic retargeting technology back in the first internet boom.
So, what does Google bring to the party with their new remarketing product? Well, Google … brings Google. With an 85% to 90% global market share (depending on who you believe), Google knows what the vast majority of the world’s population are searching on, and the sites they visit from search results pages – from ecommerce sites to sites within the Google Content Network (Google has a c.57% ad server market share, if you factor in DoubleClick too). This information can be used to improve the relevancy of advertising. However, unlike networks such as Phorm, the data comes directly from the sites that you have visited, rather than from depersonalised ISP-sourced data.
How does Remarketing work? The diagram below explains:
Using page tagging, Google AdWords advertisers can mark up specific pages on their site e.g. a product page for an MP3 player. If a user then leaves the site without making a purchase, Google will be able to show that consumer your ad promoting that same MP3 player when they land on a site within the Google Content Network, perhaps with an additional discount on the price they saw first time around.
It’s powerful stuff, because you can also overlay the traditional tools of geo-targeting, frequency capping and dayparting, which means you can ensure that previous visitors to your site are not bombarded with your ad, which can be a turnoff. There is also the ability to target according to user interest, although we will cover that in a future post in more detail.
Overall then, remarketing takes the same approach as in-house email marketers and loyalty scheme operatives, but this time targeting people who almost-became customers. Rather than relying solely on keywords, internet marketing professionals now have the ability to help advertisers reach people who are already aware of their brand and offering, and that can only be good news for those wanting the global converstion rate to tick up a couple of notches.
The Google Mobile Ads Blog has been set up to help marketing professionals keep up with the fast-paced world of mobile advertising.
Anna Khesed, product marketing manager for Google AdMob, posted on the Inside AdWords blog that mobile has come a long way in a short space of time and as a result, many people using internet marketing services may be lost as to the best practices to boost traffic.
The blog highlights the current pressing issues within the industry, as well as offering advice about innovation and the latest trends.
As a result, all those interested in tips, product updates and account management resources are urged to log on and check it out.
Earlier this year, Google made AdWords for mobile fully available for Android, iPhone and Palm Pre devices.
It offers users a fast overview of their account’s performance and allows them to make changes to keywords and other aspects of their online ad campaigns.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
The Google Mobile Ads Blog has been set up to help marketing professionals keep up with the fast-paced world of mobile advertising.
Anna Khesed, product marketing manager for Google AdMob, posted on the Inside AdWords blog that mobile has come a long way in a short space of time and as a result, many people using internet marketing services may be lost as to the best practices to boost traffic.
The blog highlights the current pressing issues within the industry, as well as offering advice about innovation and the latest trends.
As a result, all those interested in tips, product updates and account management resources are urged to log on and check it out.
Earlier this year, Google made AdWords for mobile fully available for Android, iPhone and Palm Pre devices.
It offers users a fast overview of their account’s performance and allows them to make changes to keywords and other aspects of their online ad campaigns.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
Not content with using search queries and click tracking to determine your interests (along with a wealth of other factors), Google is now looking into bring information about the position and activity of your mouse cursor on screen into their calculations, even when no clicks have been performed.
In a new Google patent (filed back in Feb 05 but only just approved) with the catchy title “System and method for modulating search relevancy using pointer activity monitoring“, Taher H Haveliwala (author of the Topic Sensitive PageRank paper whilst at Stanford) outlines how this will work:
“a client assistant residing in a client computer monitors movements of a user controlled pointer in a web browser, e.g., when the pointer moves into a predefined region and when it moves out of the predefined region. A server then determines a relevancy value between an informational item associated with the predefined region and a search query according to the pointer hover period. When preparing a new search result responsive to a search query, the server re-orders identified informational items in accordance with their respective relevancy values such that more relevant items appear before less relevant ones.”
In other words, by tracking when your mouse hovers over certain areas of a page, and for how long, Google is able to retain this information and use it when choosing the order of results for search queries that are relevant to the content you hovered over.
Time is an important factor here. By factoring in the length of time that you hovered over an area on a page, Google is hoping to be able to distinguish genuine interest (slowly and deliberately moving your mouse over results whilst choosing what to click – as if running your finger under a line on a printed page) from the rapid directional mouse movements and long-periods of latency that most likely make up the majority of your mouse’s day.
This is of particular importance to search results pages where small amounts of searched-for information (e.g. a price, single feature, postcode) can be gleaned from an organic snippet, meaning that users have less need to click through to the resulting page as they have already found what they were looking for. However, the mouse hover has, it is claimed, established a link between the user and that piece of content, which can then be used to tune future searches later.
So, does non-click mouse behaviour really describe intent? The patent was filed back in Feb 2005, long before many modern eye-tracking methods had been honed. Recent evidence from Acuity (eye tracking solutions) suggests that mouse movement has little co-relation to where a users eyes are looking on the page at a specific point in time – around 10% of all people “mark” places they are looking at on a page by moving their mouse to it.
Once again this is an example of pure clickthrough data being supplemented with richer attention-led data, which if it proves nothing else shows once again that Google believes that by putting consumers interests first it can generate a win-win scenario for users, internet marketing professionals/website owners … oh, and Google.
AdWords has announced a new Policy Change Log has been be set up.
Dan Friedman wrote for the Inside AdWords blog that the new log will provide the “most comprehensive listing of changes to AdWords” yet and can help online PR professionals stay up to date with amendments to the service.
A short summary of all new policies will be posted on the site, although any initiatives that will affect accountholders will be still be emailed directly to them.
It will also outline what regions the amendments related to before they come into effect.
Elsewhere, Google recently revealed that third-party companies using its pay per click services will now be provided with additional information regarding a breakdown of where their money is being spent.
Data will be provided on the number of clicks per ad, as well as how often they appeared and what proportion of a company’s overall marketing budget is being spent on AdWords.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies.
AdWords has announced a new Policy Change Log has been be set up.
Dan Friedman wrote for the Inside AdWords blog that the new log will provide the "most comprehensive listing of changes to AdWords" yet and can help online PR professionals stay up to date with amendments to the service.
A short summary of all new policies will be posted on the site, although any initiatives that will affect accountholders will be still be emailed directly to them.
It will also outline what regions the amendments related to before they come into effect.
Elsewhere, Google recently revealed that third-party companies using its pay per click services will now be provided with additional information regarding a breakdown of where their money is being spent.
Data will be provided on the number of clicks per ad, as well as how often they appeared and what proportion of a company’s overall marketing budget is being spent on AdWords.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies.
