Bing: the search marketer’s secret weapon
For the digital marketer, the most interesting event on this day in 2009, was the launch of Bing (not The Crazy Frog about to reach number one)!
Jon Myers
Maintaining outdated marketing silos will lead to a skills gap
With more data, devices and channels to navigate than ever before, the role of a digital marketer has become increasingly complicated.
Yet people haven’t been put off and interest in digital marketing jobs continues to skyrocket.
One month left of 2014: how can advertisers make it count?
With the end of 2014 fast approaching, there’s still time to get the most out of your remaining advertising budget this December.
UK shoppers are set to spend £17.4bn online this December, up 19.5% from last year, according to the Centre of Retail Research, and advertising investment will no doubt increase by similar levels as we race toward the end of the 2014’s ‘golden quarter’.
Cross-channel advertising: The customer comes first
It’s well established that most consumers spend a huge amount of time considering an online purchase before parting with their money.
Many will consult up to 10 different sources, across a variety of devices over a period of between 20 and 30 days.
In fact, according to Google, more than 65% of its revenue comes from purchases that involve multiple touch points and 47% of revenue comes from purchases that span across several days.
Ten tips to summon customers with your Google Shopping campaigns
August marked the 20th anniversary of the first ever online transaction – a copy of Sting’s album Ten Summoner’s Tales.
Since then, ecommerce has gone from strength to strength with 95% of us now shopping online.
In the same way music trends have come and gone, over the last two decades marketers have had to evolve the way they engage with consumers online; fielding both shifts in consumer behaviour and the way Google displays its results.
If there is one thing that retail marketers have learned about advertising on search engines over the years it’s that relevancy is a key to success. Google’s latest update aims to make this easier. Google Shopping ads (previously known as product listing ads or PLAs) were introduced this month to allow advertisers to set up and manage campaigns in a more intuitive way.
However, with the vast number of marketers who have grown accustomed to PLAs and already have existing PLA campaigns running, there are undoubtedly many wondering how this change will affect them.
Below are my own ten ‘summoning’ tips for marketers to help make the most of the change from PLAs to Google Shopping.
Facebook advertising seasonality: what’s the story?
With all media we see seasonal shifts in effectiveness, which is why it’s important for advertisers to be aware of seasonality across media and optimise around it.
As newer advertising platforms like Facebook develop and evolve we start to get a sense of some of the seasonal factors at play.
As such, we thought we’d dig into seasonality on the platform, and here’s what we found…
A hat-trick of tips to succeed during this digital and social world cup
It’s hard to ignore the buzz surrounding the World Cup, and more and more marketers are being forced to take extreme action to stand out at in what is likely to be the biggest advertising opportunity of 2014.
Paddy Power’s deforestation stunt is likely the most successful example so far!
Despite the attention on the more traditional PR stunts around the World Cup, this is expected to be the most digital and social World Cup to date.
As such, I wanted to share three considerations for your search, social and display campaigns to ensure success around the World Cup.
Britain flooded, but did advertisers ride the wave to success?
With spring having well and truly sprung and temperatures reaching a balmy 20 degrees this weekend, it’s hard to remember that this winter it rained for almost three solid months.
But we were quickly reminded during our annual review of travel search data, when we spotted a huge leap in CPC and impression figures over January and February 2014.
It’s not unusual to see an uplift in impressions and CPCs at the start of the year as the British public looks to escape the freezing winter but such a significant leap was certainly worth a second look.
‘Intent plus audience’ is a powerful new combination for search marketers
Search advertising has come to dominate performance marketing over the last decade, with advertisers seeing amazing returns from targeting messages at consumers based on their intent.
If a consumer is searching for ‘best golf clubs’ it’s a pretty safe assumption that they’re in purchasing mode and likely to be interested in an advert promoting golf clubs.
But, any search marketer will tell you that one of its weaknesses is that you have to use a degree of guesswork when it comes to audience characteristics.
In the example above, if you knew the consumer was a female then your advertising creative would be far more powerful if it promoted just clubs for ladies. The trouble with search is that unless someone is very specific in their search term, you’re forced to make assumptions.
What will paid search look like in 2014?
In the paid search world, 2013 was as busy at it gets. Major changes to Google included the Enhanced Campaigns migration and rise of Product Listing Ads (PLAs) not to mention the maturing of Facebook as an advertising platform.
However, one of the biggest shifts was outside of paid search with Google’s move to [not provided] on SEO keyword data removing visibility for advertisers in the SEO channel, boosting paid search in the process.
This is fantastic for those of us who work in paid search, but what is next? Looking forward I’ve been thinking about what will be the hot search marketing topics in 2014.
How do you turn analytics data into additional revenue?
Advertising on the internet and mobile has increased by 17.5% to £3.04bn in the first half of 2013 according to the IAB, an increase of £607m compared to 2011.
Analytics has played a key role in this growth by helping marketers accurately measure return-on-investment (ROI) and justify reallocating traditional media budget to digital marketing. However, with the amount of data now available to digital marketers via analytics, they’re in danger of becoming data squirrels that hoard data but do nothing with it.
There aren’t enough analysts in the world or hours in the day to manually analyse all the available data, and crucially, turn it into actions which optimise revenue outcomes.