In April, IAB UK (Internet Advertising Bureau) revealed that mobile advertising spend last year had increased by 148 per cent. The Bureau cited mobile revenue as a key contributing factor to the total spend of £5 billion on UK digital advertising – the highest figure the industry has seen.

This is significant for the UK and the international market. The UK is a world leader in digital advertising, mobile and online, and the trend has spread to other markets in the past five years.

Mobile users are reported to spend more than 10 per cent of their media time on their mobile devices. This means that mobile usage is rapidly catching the established media, including TV. Despite this, marketing budgets for mobile ad spend accounts for only 1.6 per cent of their overall budgets.

One reason for this is the preoccupation with generating headline-friendly campaigns with social media giants, such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. While it is easy to see the attraction of this philosophy, it seems many aren’t thinking about how many targeted consumers they are actually reaching with this strategy.

Additionally, marketers are still ignoring mobile optimisation, using adverts which are formatted for PC and then squeezed uncomfortably onto mobile screens. As such, it comes as no surprise that advertising executives might consider their worth with suspicion.

The post Mobile ad spend lags behind usage appeared first on PushON Ltd.

The new Universal Analytics tool will give marketers the ability to monitor usage within sessions and across devices. As a result, it is expected that they will be able to gain more insight into how consumers use different devices to access online content.

In Google’s previous analytics apps, users have been able to view different devices accessing content. However, one single user using a PC, a smartphone and then a tablet would register as three different visitors; which isn’t ideal for marketers. Using User ID, Universal Analytics now understands that the three visits are from one person.

The updates also mean that future investments will be directed more accurately. For instance, a consumer might visit a website on their tablet, but then completes a purchase on their desktop. With the new parameter, analysts can determine that only one person visited the site.

With cross device measurement, marketers can see how a user switches between devices. Previously, analytics tools would have shown little value in tablet usage as part of an interaction which resulted in a significant purchase being made later on another device. The new system demonstrates clearly the significance of continuing to invest in cross platform optimisation.

As digital marketing is becoming more prominent, the need for data analysis is also growing; it is clear Google’s changes will have a profound effect for marketers.

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Hernandez explained at the recent Mobile Engage event that a big part of the increase lies in the number of users in the UK. He also claimed that five million UK Facebook users access their news feed solely via their mobile devices.

As marketers are challenged to improve brand awareness in an increasingly competitive environment, it is clear that mobile is going to be key to success. Hernandez said:

“I spend a lot of time speaking to brands and agencies about how they have become mobile-first, if you wait for three years then you’re going to miss the train.”

It seems that the march to mobile is unstoppable and with Facebook’s powerful platform, any company failing to ensure they are represented properly on mobile will be left behind. Improving brand awareness with mobile must now be a key priority for businesses which have yet to embrace it.

In Hernandez’s address, he also claimed that 23% of all smartphone use is on Facebook. This gives a sharp insight into the perceived importance of the social network for mobile users.

When considering Facebook’s revenue streams, 30% of advertisement spend is mobile based. Despite this, UK spending on ads is still considerably behind usage by consumers. This leaves a lot of potential for UK marketers seeking to enhance their brand.

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The changes will allow marketing teams to target keywords and tweet users based on intent. This will be on top of geo-tagging and simpler interest based filters.

Analysing recent tweets, a snack company would have the potential to target those who had tweeted “I’m hungry”. This can then be supplemented with Twitter’s other tools designed for targeting users and suddenly marketers are reaching a much more specific user group.

Several major brands have already used the keyword targeting tool on a trial basis and results have been promising. Some brands saw engagement rates of nearly 11% on promoted tweets. This figure is significantly bigger than Twitter’s best existing engagement rate, which was around 2%.

Speaking about the development, Twitter’s Kevin Weil said:

“We think this will be a big step for us and we are super excited to launch keyword targeting in timelines. More relevant, actionable promoted tweets are better for users and ultimately brands.”

Twitter hasn’t confirmed how far into the history of users’ timelines it would look with its keyword targeting. Instead it claimed that this would be considered continually and the company would be working with user and advertiser feedback.

Twitter will continue to allow users the option to dismiss any promoted tweet that they don’t consider relevant.

Experts believe this introduction of keyword targeting will appeal to more recognised brands as marketing campaigns become more successful.

Twitter is predicted to bring in over $580m in global advertising revenue this year, with twice that amount expected in 2014.

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The major social networks dominate with 61 per cent posting to Facebook, 24 per cent sharing on YouTube and 25 per cent choosing Twitter.

The research was carried out for Electrify and immediate future, a social media consultancy, which is seeking to identify the relevant links between live brand experiences and social media. The firm has even devised a tagline for the link-up: ‘Live Brand Social.’

Of those surveyed, nearly half felt the combination of a live brand experience and social media made an event more successful.

According to Katy Howell of immediate future, the survey highlights the value of social media to brands:

“It isn’t just a case of snapping, linking and chatting about a live branded experience. The survey shows…people want to interact with the brand too.”

She went on to explain that half of Facebook’s users will enter competitions related to brands and 50 per cent will follow a brand’s Facebook page. Additionally, 25 per cent are likely to interact with a company over a brand experience.

Live Brand Social also has an impact on income for businesses. More than 50 per cent of attendees are likely buy something because of the interaction. Furthermore, 54 per cent will seek to find more brand information online, and nearly half will go to a store.

The post UK consumers share experiences with social media appeared first on PushON Ltd.

This week, Blackberry’s challenge to Android and iOS continued as the firm announced the introduction of Flurry Analytics for its latest operating system. It also announced that its popular messaging service, BBM, will be made available to Android and iOS users by summer 2013.

Developers of apps can use Flurry Analytics to access user data. It provides developers with information about users that includes demographics, engagement and buying patterns. Flurry Analytics has been available for rival mobile operating systems and this addition to Blackberry gives it parity for developers and marketers and could see an increase in apps for the platform, something it has often received criticism for.

Flurry Analytics will allow developers of apps for Blackberry 10 to gain a deeper understanding of customer behaviour and will prove invaluable in terms of monitoring spend and income streams.

According to Martyn Mallick:

“We’re excited to work with Flurry to provide developers with Flurry Analytics, which will help enable them to bring high quality apps on the BlackBerry 10 platform.”

Whether the addition will see Blackberry challenging iOS and Android is yet to be seen. Certainly, it seems likely that Blackberry users will see a range of new apps and apps are often seen as key to sales in the smartphone market.

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Of those businesses surveyed, 26 per cent are spending only 10 per cent of their marketing budget on traditional, non-digital, marketing activities, with 22 per cent claiming they spend nothing at all on traditional marketing.

Small businesses appear to have embraced digital marketing the most, with 54 per cent claiming they prefer online and mobile marketing as ways to develop their business.

Traditional strategies are suffering at the hands of digital marketing. Printed advertising has been hit the hardest, with only 28 per cent of SMEs planning to use this again in 2013. In contrast, direct mailing is still popular, with 20 per cent of SMEs seeking to employ this in the coming year.

Whilst confidence in traditional marketing is on the wane, mobile marketing is attracting more spend. Optimised websites, mcommerce and payments and QR codes are all proving of interest to SMEs. It is expected that mobile marketing will see an increase in investment from SMEs this year.

According to Ryan Higginson of Pitney Bowes:

“Many SMEs success, and even survival, can depend on targeted, effective and easy to implement marketing that covers a multitude of channels. Offline will always play a very important role in any strategy but online has really come to the fore.”

It is clear that the future of marketing for SMEs is digital. Whilst some elements of traditional marketing will continue to exist, the main driving force is likely to be mobile.

The post UK based SMEs leave traditional marketing behind in favour of digital appeared first on PushON Ltd.

In the UK, around 66% of smartphone users are using mcommerce apps. In comparison, approximately 57% of German smartphone owners, and 55% of American smartphone owners, use mcommerce apps.

UK smartphone owners are also spending 50% more time with mcommerce apps than all of the markets Arbitron surveyed. This is in addition to the overall number of sessions undertaken by UK smartphone users.

In the UK, smartphone owners are averaging around 135 minutes a month using the apps, equating to nearly 55 sessions. Across the Atlantic, American smartphone users are spending, on average, just over 90 minutes per month whilst German and French users also log significantly less mcommerce use than UK users.

The most used mcommerce app in the UK is eBay, with nearly 44% of those surveyed using it for more than 144 minutes per month. The next most popular is Amazon mobile. However, Amazon is used considerably less than eBay, with barely more than 29 minutes per month usage.

Andreas Piani, European Arbiton Mobile’s general manager, said:

“If they haven’t already, merchants should be taking advantage of… the mobile medium and ensure that they have a diversified strategy to engage consumers… mcommerce isn’t just an appendix to ecommerce, and apps aren’t just a downloadable declination of mobile-optimized sites.”

He went on to explain that businesses should ensure they have mobile-optimised sites to ensure mcommerce opportunities are maximised.

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#UnitedWelcome – Manchester United’s Social Faux Pas

With news of Sir Alex Ferguson retiring on Tuesday we were shown social media at its most powerful with reports of David Moyes taking over. To our surprise on Thursday we managed to find a link that was to a tab on the Manchester United Facebook page and the text read – ‘#UnitedWelcome – Send your personal welcome to our new manager David Moyes’. This was up on the site before any confirmation of the appointment of David Moyes and news confirming the reports didn’t come for a couple of hours after this was leaked. The leak was caused by United’s only official Twitter (@Manutd_PO).

The power of social media strikes again, showing how sometimes preparation for announcements can go wrong and lead to the unveiling of a whole campaign before its actually live. The app is still yet to be published on the Facebook page, so our guesses are… Who did they fire for leaking the information too early? After they spent so long searching for a Social Media Campaign Manager in December. 

Tuesday’s announcement led to unprecedented interest in Sir Alex Ferguson and his retirement, the Guardian via Twitter said they received the biggest ever day of traffic, even bigger than the Pope’s retirement!

The power of football. Biggest day ever for traffic on @guardian website yesterday (bigger than the Pope)

— Daniel Taylor (@DTguardian) May 9, 2013

YouTube Trends 

This week YouTube launched its Trends Map, which provides a statistical breakdown of the different kinds of content that are popular in the United States. The dashboard allows you to view statistics based on shares, views, city region, gender, and age. Lets hope they make this a worldwide feature at some point soon!

Solaborate – Social Network for Tech Professionals

This week saw a new social platform being released into beta, targeted at tech professional to interact with other tech professionals. Based on the early previews and videos/pictures we can see it allows professionals to share documents and presentations, publish questions, conference, chat, video and best practices.

Solaborate even allows for collaboration on the other social platforms such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you’re interested in signing up to Solaborate you can request a Beta Invite here.

Viber Desktop

Viber is to challenge Skype’s dominance by launching a desktop app which would enable calls, texts and video calls.

Dubbed Viber 3.0 the desktop release is coinciding with major updates for Android, iOS and Blackberry versions.

Viber chief executive  Talmon Marco said;

People spend a substantial amount of time on their smartphones. However, a lot of that usage takes place at home or in the office, where they have laptops or desktops close by.

Bing using Klout as ranking factor

Klout has expanded its partnership with Microsoft by bringing its search results to the top of bing.

Questions that are put on Bing that have long been unanswered will be answered by ‘experts’ who are appointed by Klout ‘influencers’.

CEO of Klout Joe Fernandez said

People are starting to be interested not only in finding information, but also knowing where that information is coming from. When getting advice on how to take care of your garden, for instance, you’d probably much rather get advice from an influencer in the subject rather than someone who was just getting started gardening.

We know what questions people are asking, so we’ve curated the best questions and tied them back to the topics where people are influential.

Users could then +K with the answer if the answer was useful, adding to the experts Klout score.

SAScon

The keynote speakers for the upcoming SAScon have been announced. They are Clancy Childs and John Veichmanis.

Clancy Childs is a Google Analytics’ product manager and is in the know regarding the most crucial tool for marketers. John Veichmanis is Expedia’s VP for Global Paid Search.

SAScon co-founder Simon Wharton said

SAScon is about the accountable modern marketer, digital is at the heart of any modern organisation. Bringing together speakers not only of this notoriety but of this extreme calibre in such a high level conference. It is a real statement of intent from SAScon. 

SAScon is the perfect conference for both the client side agent and the in house marketer.

SAScon takes place on the 6th/7^th of June 2013 and tickets can be bought here.

That’s the end of the roundUP this week we will leave you with this funny VIne that we saw.  You can see more here

The post Digital RoundUP 13/05/2013 appeared first on PushON Ltd.

As SEO has evolved, there has been a trend to choose or purchase domain names that contain keywords in an attempt to increase click through rates and climb up the rankings of Yahoo and Google, as well as other search engines.

A significant number of SEO managers will ensure companies secure domain names that exactly match their targeted keywords. For instance, a company selling electric bikes may purchase something like ‘buyelectricbikes.co.uk’.

Despite the existing approach to domain name choice, recent changes to Google have revealed that matching targeting keywords within a domain name is no longer as important to ranking success as previously thought. This doesn’t mean that businesses should completely forego domains that include keywords but they do need to understand there are other factors to consider when choosing.

Domain names which include keywords offer good ranking and increased click through rates but as digital marketing evolves, a brand-friendly domain name is becoming increasingly important. Google’s Eric Schmidt explained:

“Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brand affinity is clearly hard wired. It is so fundamental to human existence that it’s not going away.”

In social media, and within search engines, a domain name is the initial way in which a user will identify a business. A strong brand is likely to demand higher click through rates.

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