David Moth

24% of UK consumers used mobile for Christmas shopping: report

Nearly a quarter (24%) of UK consumers used a mobile device for Christmas shopping, according to stats included in our new Christmas 2012 Online Shopping Survey.

The report, which was produced using Toluna QuickSurveys, polled 1,000 UK and 1,000 US online consumers on their shopping habits.

It revealed that 11% of UK respondents used a smartphone and 13% used a tablet, compared to 77% who shopped using a desktop.

US shoppers exhibited largely similar shopping behaviours, though overall were 4% more likely to use a smartphone or tablet for their Christmas shopping.

by David Moth 17 January 2013 09:58am 0 comments

Facebook's Graph Search: what does it mean for marketers?

For everyone in the digital marketing industry, the big news of the day is the launch of Facebook’s new Graph Search.

In a nutshell, the new tool allows you to search for people, pages, businesses and other services based on the information shared by other Facebook users.

Dodgy name aside, it’s an exciting announcement that might cause a few worried conversations at Google.

But what are the opportunities for marketers, and is it going to kick off a new race to drive up the number of ‘likes’ for brand pages?

To shed a bit of light on some of the key issues, I asked several search and social media experts for their views...

by David Moth 16 January 2013 12:45pm 3 comments

Stats: Twitter's relationship with TV revealed

There was a huge amount of buzz last year around the inevitable rise of connected TV, which sounded great but rather ignored the fact that viewers were already using their smartphones to interact with what they were watching.

New apps like Zeebox have achieved huge success by allowing people to share their TV viewing experience with others, but Twitter and Facebook remain as two of the main ways of talking about TV.

To highlight the depth of this link, Twitter has published a new report revealing some of the ways in which consumers use the social network to engage with TV shows.

Here are some of the most interesting stats and cases studies, but for more information on this topic checkout our Twitter for Business Best Practice Guide and this blog post on what can we learn from the top five retail brands on Twitter.

by David Moth 16 January 2013 09:48am 0 comments

Seven potential downsides from using responsive design

Responsive design is just one of a number of options available for businesses currently devising a mobile strategy, however it is seen by many to be the only sensible long-term option.

For the uninitiated, responsive design allows websites to work from a single set of code that resizes itself to fit whatever screen a particular visitor is using, thereby negating the need for a separate mobile site.

We previously investigated the benefits of the technology in our posts looking at why Google loves responsive design and this roundup of 10 brilliant examples of responsive design in ecommerce.

But as with any new technology there are also potential downsides that businesses need to consider.

by David Moth 16 January 2013 11:11am 14 comments

Paid search CPCs increased by 30% in 2012: report

Christmas proved to be expensive for UK retail paid search marketers, as average CPCs increased by a third (30%) peaking at around £0.35.

According to a new report from Kenshoo, the rise was partly fuelled by a 27% increase in ad budgets compared to 2011.

There were predictable spikes in search spend at the beginning of December as retailers tried to cash in on the consumer rush to buy gifts in time for Christmas.

by David Moth 15 January 2013 13:06pm 0 comments

What can we learn from the top five retail brands on Twitter?

Twitter is a fantastic way for brands to communicate with their customers, though all too often they overlook the social element of social media.

We’ve all seen companies that just use Twitter and Facebook to churn out marketing messages, but generally they are short lived experiments that fail to deliver any real value to the business.

But rather than dwell on the failures, I thought it would be interesting to investigate the social strategies of some of the most successful retailers on Twitter.

According to eDigitalResearch, Topshop, ASOS, Net-A-Porter, Harrods and Selfridges have the highest number of followers among UK retailers, so here’s a look at what makes them so damn popular.

And for more information on this topic, checkout our Twitter for Business Best Practice Guide and this infographic that shows how @Econsultancy managed to attract 100,000 followers.

by David Moth 15 January 2013 12:38pm 2 comments

Eight different ways of using product videos in ecommerce

In order to improve conversion rates and limit the number of returns, ecommerce sites need to provide customers with as much information as possible about the products on offer.

While this can be achieved through the use of copywriting, images and user reviews, videos are potentially the most effective way of demonstrating a product to the customer.

I recently blogged six examples of retailers that used product videos to improve conversion rates, and we’ve also looked at best practice tips for product pages.

But the use of video isn’t limited to just displaying products. There are a number of different ways that ecommerce sites can use video to inform and educate their customers.

So here are eight different ways that video can be used in ecommerce...

by David Moth 15 January 2013 09:31am 1 comment

Why does Europe lag behind the US in adoption of Real-Time Bidding?

Real-time bidding (RTB) is a small, but rapidly growing part of the overall display advertising market, which is billed as a way of giving agencies and advertisers better control of their ad buys and costs.

Last year eMarketer predicted that RTB spend in the US will reach $7.1bn by 2016 - nearly a third of the display ad market - up from $1.9bn in 2012.

However RTB also receives criticism for being too complicated, overly expensive and offering poor quality inventory.

With this in mind, AdMonsters and PubMatic have published a new report that examines publisher attitudes towards RTB.

AdMonsters distributed an online survey to its European publisher contacts and carried out several in-depth interviews with experienced RTB users in both the US and Europe.

by David Moth 14 January 2013 10:26am 0 comments

Tablets account for 18% of UK paid search clicks, but just 8% in the US

Tablets accounted for almost one fifth (18%) of UK paid search clicks for retailers in 2012 compared to 13% on smartphone, according to a new report from Kenshoo.

Tablets also delivered 18.3% of conversions and 21.3% of revenue, while smartphones achieved just 3.6% of overall retail conversions from PPC and 3.4% of revenue.

Similarly, the conversion rate from smartphone visits is just 1.59% compared to 5.85% on tablet and 6.53% on desktop.

The report indicates that marketers aren’t yet making the most of the opportunity presented by tablets, as the devices account for 14.1% of ad spend at a CPC of £0.25, while desktop hoovers up 78.7% with a CPC of £0.36.

by David Moth 14 January 2013 12:33pm 1 comment