Online Advertising Tops £4bn

The internet is now receiving £4bn of your advertising budgets which was a growth of 12.8% in 2010. This increase has out-grown all other marketing channels according to the Internet Advertising Bureau.

Many major brands revisited their normal marketing budgets for 2010 and the online sector had a higher priority. The main area where the online spend was allocated was toward the internet marketing, contributing to the 200% growth in display adverts on social networking websites.

Facebook in particular has made large steps in convincing businesses and marketing decision makers that large gains can be made from social media and networks showing their ads. Let’s not forget that 25% of online usage is spent on social network websites like Facebook. This is a captured market that advertisers are keen to be seen in.

In addition to the social network growth, there has been another new development. Video advertising has also doubled in 2010 with a very significant £54m investment ensuring that short ads appear at the beginning, the end and also during chosen video clips. This is already being shown on video galleries’ such as Youtube.com.

Mobile advertising has also climbed up the priority list with firms trying to catch people that are on the move and not sat in front of a PC. The mobile market seems to highlight Finance News, telecoms, consumer’s brands and apps as the big four. 

Search Engine Advertising as we know is dominated by Google and still remains the largest beneficiary with Google’s latest increase of 8%. A possible reason for this is that search is still the most targeted for in marketing. Despite this, TV ads are beginning to climb out of a very dull patch unlike the press ads that are still suffering as internet users can access news and sports results on their mobiles instead of the local or national newspaper. Even classified ads, that were once the revenue engine for many newspapers has almost completed its migration to online.

As the Smartphone and mobile internet come together to deliver the ultimate user platform, online spend is set to increase. Include the installation of super fast broadband and talks to increase more UK Wi-Fi spots, isl online marketing set replace all other channels.

Increase SEO with Online Classified Ads

Want to get free visibility for your business?  Then you need to advertise in classified ads. This is a fantastic way to connect with the local market, create visibility and increase sales.   Some of the classified ads websites also allow you to link back to your site meaning extra SEO benefits.

Advertising your products on classified ads sites is a good way to reach out to your local community and is perfect for a small business.  Not only is it very simple and quick to do, it’s usually free.

So what are the benefits of classified ads? Well, most of them are free and can result in a search engine listing.  As mentioned earlier, some ad sites will let you leave a link back to your site.  Not only will this increase your link profile, it will also push the right type of traffic to your site.  The idea is to put relevant content in your advert so search engines understand the background of your domain.

We have listed a handful of the more prominent classified ad sites below:

• www.gumtree.com
• www.ukclassifieds.co.uk
• www.classifieds.co.uk
• www.loot.com
• www.oodle.co.uk

It’s worth remembering that most ads will expire after 90 days but you will usually receive a reminder.

Is your Online Marketing Campaign ASA Compliant?

Should companies that use Facebook and Twitter to advertise have their adverts screened as they already do with traditional media? The advertising that is done offline is monitored by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), but online social media adverts are not. From March/April 2011 both online and offline campaigns will be monitored by the ASA – what impact will that have on a business message or website.

The ASA rules cover all statements on a website that can be interpreted as marketing even if they are not positioned or linked in an advert. Prior to this point, the ASA where only able to check out the content and the intent of paid for ads that were placed online.

Since 2008 the advertising watchdog received in excess of 4,500 reports and queries about appropriate text on websites, but unfortunately they could do nothing about it. The watchdog did notice that the reports and complaints from the online adverts were very similar to the public reports from viewing advertising in TV, National Press and on the Radio. The ASA spokesman stated that this new power will allow them to change and turnover a lot of issues that are put in front of them. The overall rule is that the UK advertising code states that all none paid for statements must not harm, mislead or offend, just like paid for adverts were in the beginning.

The ASA will primarily search for harmful, misleading or offensive details on the .co.uk domains. However, many .com domains will also be reviewed such as Facebook.  The difficultly is that an advert on the internet can be visible for 1 week or 1 minute, cause widespread harm or be misleading (particularly on a sales add), then withdrawn.

User content that is posted such as Facebook is not going to be investigated but the ASA will examine company adverts. If a company ad on a social networking site is in breach of the advertising code, the ASA will incorporate a name and shame process.

However, all intentions so far seem to be in the best possible nature.  The ads have to be clean and appropriate and clear when delivering their message.  However, with Facebook and MySpace growing and companies utilising the massive audience, the enforcement of the code might be difficult. If you are deemed as non compliant the results could be very damaging. There are talks about excluding companies from any advertising medium including search engines and PPC campaigns.

So, ask yourself this, are your marketing messages ASA compliant?

Kenyan Film Industry Turn To Digital Marketing

The Kenyan film industry is about to use online marketing in an effort to attract higher exposure with the public.

African news publisher, Business Daily, advised that the African government is creating a new portal to enable the Kenyan Tourist Board to show off what products they have to offer.

Business Daily also said the increased popularity of mobile web devices has seen a huge rise in mobile web use in the country.

IT professional, Moses Simiyu said: “The ongoing transition to digital technologies that increases processing power and storage capacities of consumers will be instrumental in its success.”

This is a similar move to Visit Savannah which recently undertook various efforts to attract publicity via online marketing.

Kenya should also consider using SEO services to increase their presence.

Has Facebook got the right platform for advertising?

Let’s look at the facts, Facebook has a very large audience and is the largest social networking site on the planet. The Facebook site achieved 7.1% of all UK internet sites, in laymen’s terms 7 people out of 100 visited Facebook in June 2010, and 55% of all social networking sites visits landed on Facebook.

Also, the average time that people spend in Facebook in one visit is on the decline. In June 2010, the average person spends 27 minutes per visit. So this there enough exposure on Facebook to ramp up their advertising if the time spent on the site is decreasing, even though Facebook is number 1.

Many Online critics and publications have advised companies to consider Facebook for their advertising mainly because of its audience and registered users, while monitoring the response from any Pay Per Click management services.

It is critical for Facebook to maintain its members and more importantly keep producing online games and amusements to increase visitor time on the site. If that can be done, then Facebook will be in a strong position to take on the larger advertising agents.

Facebook have also been testing a Search Engine based application via its existing Questions Application that will allow members to search and retrieve information based on key words.

Is this not a similar principle to Google?

Google’s PPC figures up by 11% in Q3

Google has revealed an 11% increase in total clicks on Google and AdSense during the 3^rd quarter of 2010.

Google revealed the results during its 4^th quarter and fiscal year results and also advised they had a very pleasing 12 months overall.

This type of news indicates that more and more people are buying into online advertising and are employing pay per click (PPC) services to push their products and services to consumers.

CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt advised: “Q4 marked a terrific end to a stellar year.”

Schmidt indicated that the rapid growth of the online economy and product innovation have helped maintain a solid performance.  Another major factor was the emergence o f mobile internet which has gripped all digital marketers.

He added:  ”These results give us the optimism and confidence to invest heavily in future growth.”

Will online advertising be included into streamed video and media rich downloads?

Over the last few years there has been a surge in the amount of providers hosting films, video and even TV on the net. The BBC iplayer is one of these said hosts, with a massive user base. Studies have shown 13% of internet time is spent viewing this rich media content, from such providers as BBC iplayer and 4oD.

In November 2010 alone, 6 billion content videos and 527 million online ads were viewed online in the UK. Include into that the progression of new web devices and facilities to watch TV online, there will be a challenge for the rich media hosts by the increasing demand to stream videos, favourite TV series, or Music videos to devices and PC’s at home.

It is likely that the demand will get to a point that the rich media hosts might not be able to cope with this proven demand increase and therefore, hosts may require new investment to keep the service alive. This investment will ensure that the technology is up to date and effective, from a user point of view, just like watching TV. But where might this investment come from?

Well, Online Advertising is the simple answer. As you may have noticed, a very large video streaming website called YouTube has already incorporated a short online advert with many of the video streams that the users select from is vast catalogue. Once the video clip is selected by the user an online ad plays before the user’s selection is played. There is no way for the user to fast forward or click on next to bypass this ad. The ads are normally very short, around 10 to 20 seconds, but they are viewed because the video the users want to see follows the ads.

From an online advertising angle, it’s a method that we as users will see more and more of in our spare time and could even progress on to ads appearing before our favourite TV shows and news bulletins. It’s considered as a key area in online advertising because you are already engaged and connected to the internet, waiting until the rich media has been buffered and displayed on the PC or device. This is a win for the media and streaming hosts as they already have the users engaged due to the fact they are waiting to watch their choice of programme or video.

Don’t be shocked if this happens sooner than you expect.

P&G turn to Social Media to launch the Gillette Fusion ProGlide

Proctor & Gamble have turned to social media leaders Facebook and Twitter to launch its first Gillette Fusion promotion since 2006.

The fast Moving Consumer Goods giant has made a light-hearted ad which features an 80 blade razor.  The ad directs customers to the Gillette Facebook group so they can find more out about the new Gillette Fusion ProGlide.

The campaign will figure quotes from people who have already taken the ProGlide challenge, along with famous faces such as Brian O’Driscoll and Jonny Wilkinson.  Consumers will also be asked to contribute their opinions about the new razor on Facebook and Twitter.

Proctor & Gamble brand communications manager, James Nunn, advised that the advert plays on the common impression that Gillette simply adds extra blades to any new razors.

This is not the first time P&G have teamed up with Facebook as last year they released a sales platform to buy its Max Factor products on Facebook, in which Amazon powered the sales platform.

Now is the time to start an online business

In a recent article published by the Fontana Herald News, financial analysts claimed that we are coming out of the recession and heading into a new economy that is geared towards online transactions.

Retailers are seeing more online business than ever before, meaning they would be fools not to invest time and money into their digital marketing efforts.

The web and buying online are no longer alien to people as customers of all ages have learnt how to use the internet.  Whilst there are still many that prefer to do physical shopping, there is no denying that online purchasing has gone through the roof and changed peoples shopping habits.

Another attraction for entering into the digital marketing arena is the low financial risks.  Starting an online business requires a smaller amount of money to get up and running.  In fact, many businesses run multiple websites at the same time to generate multiple sources of income.  Just because it costs less, it does not mean e-commerce is less effective than traditional means.

The Herald News printed 11 tips to get an online business up and running:

1.  Create a business plan
2.  Use a flow chart
3.  Hire a good webmaster
4.  Keep it simple
5.  Collect names and email
6.  Optimise for the search engines
7.  Use domain names with keywords
8.  Use videos more than text
9.  Blogs and social network
10.Use banner ads on popular websites
11.Regular networking

Online advertising is stronger than ever

Businesses are learning the added value of spending an increased amount of time and money on digital advertising.

Executive director of the Direct Marketing Association, Chris Combemale, advised that companies who spend money during a recession will usually come out stronger than their rivals when the economy returns to normal.

He also added that taking this approach had helped to keep the marketing sector in a healthy position in recent times, with more jobs being created.

Combemale commented that online advertising is a very strong channel at the moment: “A large number of our members work within the digital channels, which have seen strong growth over the past few years,” he said.

His comments are backed up in recent research undertaken by comScore which showed online advertising in the UK was 34% higher in the third quarter this year compared to last year.