A simple Google trends search will show the companies looking for isolated search marketing services is on the decline, whilst those looking for broader, digital marketing services are on the rise. The change over appears to have occurred at the start of 2009 in the heart of the recession, and could well have been driven by the cost savings of a single agency managing all channels. But the rise has continued as more clients see the benefits an integrated approach can bring.

This data is backed up by a recent Marketing Week survey in which 80% of respondents said that the digital marketing space was too fragmented, suggesting a real desire for digital agencies with true expertise in more than one area.

Whilst us digital marketers have been harping on about the benefits of an integrated approach for a number of years now it would appear that the market is starting to listen, and more client side marketers are starting to want a strategy that plays on the individual merits of each channel whilst ensuring they work together to achieve a common goal.

Facebook has announced 500million users!

Twitter is reporting 50million tweets every day!

YouTube is claiming 24hours of video is uploaded onto Youtube EVERY minute.

However… to truly understand the opportunity available within the digital marketing landscape, you need to understand who is using which platform and how they are engaging with it. This blog shares the demographic data for the main social platforms and suggests what it means to marketers.

Gender

Facebook, Youtube & Myspace are all fairly equal as you would expect.

Blogging sites such as Digg, Sphinn and Stumble Upon are mainly used by males with Sphinn recording 89%.

Males appear to be early adopters. For example Foursquare is the newest platform in the above list and 70% of it users are male. I would expect this to level out in the near future.

Age

Age is a great indicator when choosing your advertising niche. Each sector/product/service will attract to different age groups. The graph below highlights age types on the main social platforms available today.

Comparing each social platform against the average, you can see that you tube leads the way for teenagers and young twenties. Foursquare is hugely popular for 25-34 age group and Linked-in beats the average for the older generation.

YouTube is very popular for the 18-24 age group closely followed by Myspace. A few years ago Myspace would have seen a massive peak in the 0-17 bracket, however this audience have now grown older but have stayed loyal to this platform resulting a above average use for the 18-24 group.

The graph above ignores the actual volume of unique users and presents the percentage split for each social platform. Including the volume presents a very different landscape.

As you can see. Youtube and Facebook are the dominating platform for all age groups. Youtube leading the way for the younger audience with Facebook taking the lead for everyone over 25 years old.

Income

This is a very interesting metric to analyse as it can be used as an indicator of how much “buying power” the average user has on each social site, and ultimately would they engage with advertising, click through to a website and make a purchase.

The graph highlights household income; therefore you can assume it is an average of 2 adults on a working wage. The orange trend line highlights that the average user on social sites has a larger household income from £30K onwards.

This graph is a great indicator for marketers, as it clearly demonstrates that social sites are capturing a wealthy audience who DO have buying power.

Linked-in has a massive percentage of over 50% for the £50,000+ bracket. This highlights that this audience is ideal for B2B products/services. Especially when combined with the targeting options available on this channel.

Education

The last demographic we are looking at, is education. This is important element to understand, as it will contribute to your decisions on choosing which social site is suitable for your business/service/product. It should also be used to decide how you plan to engage with the audience.

As you can see, the over standard of education is good with the majority having at least some college. Foursquare and Linked-in again are leading the degree/graduate categories. However this should be reviewed in conjunction with the age analysis section as education is hugely dependant on age.

Engagement Statistics

From the demographic data, we now have insight into “who” is using each platform. The next step is to understand “how” they use each platform. The charts below highlight the engagement statistics.

As you can see, Facebook is by far the most engaging. Their audience will return frequently. They will also spend a long time on the site.

Due to the huge amount of content available of each social site you need to ensure your adverts are appealing in order to stand out and encourage the visitors to divert away from the social content and complete a desired action on your fan page/website.

** The demographic data discussed in this blog has been provided by the Google Ad planner tool. The data is accurate at time of posting - July 2010.

For more insights into how to approach your social media marketing, Latitude is offering a FREE Social Media marketing guide. If you would like this document, please complete our short form here:

]]> http://www.latitudegroup.com/blog/social-media-demographics/feed/ http://www.latitudegroup.com/is-it-really-too-early-to-start-preparing-for-christmas/ http://www.latitudegroup.com/is-it-really-too-early-to-start-preparing-for-christmas/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 08:33:34 +0000 Andrew Harris http://www.latitudegroup.com/?p=5592

It is mid August and most people are going on their summer holidays. Are consumers really planning four months ahead? Are the jingle bells already ringing? Let’s find out….

The trend graph provided by Google Insights below, suggests that consumers are already considering where they will host their Christmas party. If you are in the events sector then your Christmas keywords, adverts and landing page should now be live and gaining some traction.

Search Term “Christmas Party”

Up to 25% of the search volume for the “Christmas party” search term are locally based, searches looking for venues in a specific location for example. The trend graph for local searches highlights that the majority of this audience aim to get their venue sorted and booked in Sept and Oct.

Retailers have a little more time to prepare, however the search volume and opportunity to capture the purchase is much more intense. Therefore your daily online strategy from mid November onwards should be carefully considered and accommodated.

Search term “Christmas Gift”

Check list and Key Dates for Christmas 2010.

Top selling toy predictions are released on 27^th October.

The start of the week is usually the busiest period for online traffic on average throughout December. Ensure your daily budgets are set high enough on Monday and Tuesday to ensure your exposure is not limited.

This year Christmas lands on a Saturday; therefore the working week leading up to the weekend will be the busiest period. Depending on delivery deadlines, I am predicting the busiest day for online sales to be 20^th December (the last Monday before Christmas)

Last day deliveries are expected to be on 22^nd/23^rd Dec. Larger stores may hold out even longer to capture the last minute shoppers.

Check list

1) Ensure you confirm your opening hours and trading dates with your digital agency

2) Ensure your monthly budget is carefully considered. Contact us today if you want to discuss how much you could/should spend based on your KPI’s and objectives

3) Ensure your agency knows your last delivery date as your PPC strategy should accommodate this.

4) Do you have any special offers planned? If so, ensure your agency is informed so that an implementation plan can be devised. If you promotions start post Christmas, your agency will need to ensure adverts are amended accordingly and on time.

5) Which products are you predicting to be the biggest sellers? Again, inform your agency as this product can be pushed harder with more daily budget and higher CPC’s.

6) Are you conducting any offline activity which should be complemented online?

Are you in the events or retail sector? Contact Latitude today to discuss your Christmas strategy. We have years of experience delivering holistic campaign during this vital period ensuring our clients gain the best possible exposure and ROI.

The reaction in the US following the equivalent announcement in May 2009 was relatively positive, with one survey showing an emphatic 64% in favour of the change at the time of the announcement. Certainly Google themselves are feeling far more confident pushing this out now following this warm reaction across the pond, as well as the triumph against Louis Vuitton in Europe earlier this year. With the European Court of Justice calling them on side, they may well feel vindicated in announcing these changes now, some 5 months later. It also won’t hurt their coffers, of course, hoping to address the disappointment and uncertainty expressed by investors since April.

So is this open season for brand infringement across the Google paid search landscape? Well, on paper - no.

Officially at least, Google is now allowing the following:

“Ads which use the term in a descriptive or generic way, and not in reference to the trademark owner or the goods or services corresponding to the trademark term

Ads which use the trademark in a nominative manner to refer to the trademark or its owner, specifically any of the following:

Resale of the trademarked goods or services: The advertiser’s site must sell (or clearly facilitate the sale of) the goods or services corresponding to a trademark term. The landing page of the ad must clearly demonstrate that a user is able to purchase the goods or services corresponding to a trademark from the advertiser.

Sale of components, replacement parts, or compatible products corresponding to a trademark: The advertiser’s site must sell (or clearly facilitate the sale of) the components, replacement parts, or compatible products relating to the goods or services of the trademark. The advertiser’s landing page must clearly demonstrate that a user is able to purchase the components, parts, or compatible products corresponding to the trademark term from the advertiser.

Informational sites: The primary purpose of the advertiser’s site must be to provide non-competitive and informative details about the goods or services corresponding to the trademark term. Additionally, the advertiser may not sell or facilitate the sale of the goods or services of a competitor of the trademark owner.

In either case, the primary purpose of the advertiser’s site must be to provide non-competitive and informative details about the goods or services corresponding to the trademark term. Additionally, the advertiser may not sell or facilitate the sale of the goods or services of a competitor of the trademark owner.”

Nevertheless, advertisers beware whilst we still await the outcome of M+S versus Interflora, the trademark infringement battle between the keyword infringement battle between trademark owner and competitor advertiser scheduled to hit the ECJ in 2011…

So in practise the obvious benefits, and the most frequent examples cited, fall to retailers. Apple, for instance, are notoriously protective of the use of their much-vaunted brand, even with authorised resellers. This will essentially remove that obstacle and allow all and sundry, landing page content permitting of course, to employ their name in Paid Search ads. Yet although Google are withdrawing from this policing, it does not preclude the brand enforcing an embargo on the vendor. For instance threatening a cessation or adjustment to any existing agreement following a trademark dispute is not without precedent, notably with resellers and affiliates. This self-policing should hopefully see an equilibrium established relatively quickly, much like the previous TM policy change affecting keywords in May 2008.

Instead, the biggest weaknesses may lie in Google’s enforcement. Assurances have already been made by Google that whilst the rules they’re enforcing are changing, the editorial team’s endeavour is not. Yet will the arbitration itself will be open to greater interpretation? References to landing page content are fairly ambiguous so it remains to be seen if content will be scrutinized to an acceptable level. Time will tell how quickly these decisions are made by the policy team and the vigilance of campaign managers is critical.

For concerned brands, we’d recommend the following approach:

1. Speak to your paid search team. Identify the status quo and any existing threats to your brand policing even with the current legislation.

2. Establish how frequently branded search query SERP checks are being made for your account. They should be made frequently as a matter of course

3. Remember that, to the letter of the new laws, the rule changes do not apply to competitors. With strong and consistent enforcement you will still be protected.

4. Start monitoring your brand terms now, particularly CTR. This will allow you to more effectively judge the impact when the change is put into effect

5. For direct retailers , an open dialogue with your resellers is encouraged in order to keep a vestige of control.

Contact our experts on 01925 611051 today to discuss how this change will impact your online strategy

For more of Latitude’s views on the new Google Adwords policy see Rob Weatherhead’s post on Econsultancy.

Even Martin Sorrell of WPP is quoted as saying “Mobile is the most over-hyped medium in the short term and the most under-hyped medium in the long term”

Thing is, we’ve been crunching some number on mobile search…and it looks like it finally came true. What’s more, searches and spend on Google Adwords for Mobile look likely to overtake Microsoft Adcenter as soon as Q3. Now that starts to put things into perspective.

Today we’re launching the first of our quarterly reports on mobile search advertising, with some of the key highlights including:

· 33% growth in mobile search spend from Q1 to Q2 ‘10

· CPCs typically lower on mobile search vs. desktop search. Although this is not true of all sectors.

· CTRs typically higher on mobile search since paid search ads occupy a larger proportion of the mobile real-estate

For me, this data acts as a real catalyst to re-ignite mobile strategies that have previously been put on hold. With a significant proportion of mobile search traffic, growing at an impressive rate, it’s time to finalise those mobile sites and optimise your mobile search ads for the right user experience.

A quick look at mobile search results highlights lots of room for improvement, with a number of heavily commercial search terms show few ads on Google Mobile.

You can download a full copy of our report here: Q2 Mobile Search Report PDF

]]> http://www.latitudegroup.com/blog/mobile-search-finally-hits-the-tipping-point/feed/ http://www.latitudegroup.com/blog/google-sees-24-yoy-growth/ http://www.latitudegroup.com/blog/google-sees-24-yoy-growth/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:09:24 +0000 Richard Gregory http://www.latitudegroup.com/?p=5485 Last night Google announced it’s Q2 2010 earnings and, despite missing analysts expectations, the company managed to deliver an impressive 24% YoY revenue growth.

This growth doesn’t look to be specifically attributable to any one product area but generally to growth across search, display and mobile. However, with the recent acquisition of Admob, and the growth in the Android mobile platform,  there is every expectation that this product area will see considerable growth in future quarters.

As always, the reporting breaks out UK revenues, since this is still the largest market outside of the US, although UK revenues have now dropped to only 11% of Google’s total revenue, down from 13% in Q1. This suggests that other countries are finally realising a sizeable chunk of Google’s revenues.

Interestingly, while Q2 revenues in the UK grew YoY, it seems even the growth in paid search spend relating to the World Cup couldn’t reduce the annual drop from Q1. Maybe is England had made the quarter finals it would have tipped a little more $ into the pot.

Finally, Google has some astounding cash reserves now totaling more than $30bn…about £7bn more than the current market cap of Yahoo!

Latitude will shortly be publishing a report on mobile search in the UK so watch this space for more news soon.

This blog highlights the Adwords settings available plus the pros and cons of using each function.

Understanding the consequences of each setting when applied to your AdWords strategy will help you to make the correct decisions when setting up and managing your AdWords campaigns.

Geo Targeting

This setting enables you to select a specific area for your adverts to appear.

Pros - This setting is great for local small business as it will allow them to make generic (and expensive) terms more targeted.

Cons – This setting relies on matching local targeting against the searchers IP (internet protocol) address. Unfortunately the IP accuracy within the UK is questionable.  Please answer the survey below so that we can investigate this factor in more detail together.

If you want to test your IP (amongst other things) this is a great website.

http://whatismyipaddress.com/

From my experience, most searchers from home will have accurate IP’s. However searchers at work (on their lunch of course) may have inaccurate IP’s, as proxy servers may be used.

The success of geo targeted campaigns are hugely dependant on IP accuracy as IP is used as its base for deciding who sees your adverts and who doesn’t.

Position Preference

This will ensure your adverts are only shown in certain positions.

Pros - this is great if you have analysis that certain positions convert well for you. Best practise is to use a fairly large position range. For example 2^nd to 6^th rather than a small range such as 2^nd to 4^th.

Cons – If your bid isn’t high enough to allow your advert to appear within the range you have specified, your advert will not be shown. Therefore you could lose exposure and conversions.

To use this setting correctly you must ensure you have completed the correct analysis. Do not introduce it on a hunch. Use Google analytics to analyse keyword performance in different positions. Select a wide range of position and ensure your bid is high enough to avoid the drop in exposure.

Bidding Options

Manual bidding requires a MAX CPC bid at either adgroup or keyword level. The adwords discounter will then calculate your actual CPC every that keyword is served. The actual CPC is based on competition, max CPC bid, history and quality score

Pros – you have full control. You can decide what bid you are willing to pay for each individual keyword based on performance and return. This bidding preference is the preferred choice for search marketers.

Cons – it needs constant management and monitoring. Leaving your bids static will negatively impact your ROI over a long period. Bid management tasks should be completed regularly taking into account your budget, keyword performance, quality score and return on investment

Automatic bidding will aim to generate the maximum number of clicks for your specified daily budget. A CPC limit is used to ensure the automated tool does not bid more than what you are willing to pay for a single click.

Pros  - this is a good option if you have limited time to manage your campaign. CPC’s will be adjusted automatically and indiscriminately

Cons – the tool will not take into account the type of keyword. It will not understand if the keyword is generic or long tail. It also will not take into account your marketing goals and conversion rate per keyword.

CPA bidding, which is also known as Conversion Optimiser. It will adjust your bids at keyword level based on their conversion rate. It will attempt to generate conversions under your desired cost per action requirement

Pros – is this is good option if you need to hit targets to justify marketing budgets. However historical data is needed before this option can be activated.

Cons – in principle, conversion volume over time will be lower as the code behind the tool will not appreciate the buying cycle. Generic terms which have a high CPA will automatically reduced. If bids were managed manually, you could investigate the impact generic terms have on long tail and brand conversions and then make an educated decision accordingly. The automated tool will not do this. It will treat each keyword separately based on their individual merit and therefore conversion volume could reduce overtime.

Ad Delivery

Optimised advert delivery will take your group of adverts within a adgroup and will serve the best advert more frequently.

Pros – This automatic setting will ensure you get the best possible CTR% which is a huge factor of quality score. This is the preferred choice for search marketers

Cons – If new adverts are added into an established adgroup, they may struggle to gain exposure and therefore complete against an advert with a good CTR%.

A major negative is that this system does not take into account conversions. For example one advert may have a great CTR% however its conversion rate may be poor. A separate advert may have a lower CTR% however it may qualify the click and therefore generate an improved website engagement statistics.

Therefore in the scenario above, it is a trade off between quality score/CTR which works for a long term strategy against immediate return.

Rotate ad delivery setting will simply rotate each advert equally regardless of CTR performance.

Pros – this is great option for new campaigns. It will allow all adverts to gain enough traffic equally, allowing search marketers to make educated decisions on which adverts to run with going forward.

Cons – if this setting is used for a long period, you may be hindering your quality score as perhaps a better CTR% could be achieved if the Optimised setting is used instead.

Ad scheduling

This setting will turn your campaign on and off automatically based on a specified schedule. You can also use the advance option within the setting to reduce and push bids during certain periods by specify the % increase/decrease.

Pros – this is great for businesses which have opening times and do not wish to spend their PPC budget when they are closed. With correct analysis, it can also be used to improve your campaigns ROI.

Cons –If you are seeking to use ad scheduling to optimise your ROI, you must analyse your PPC campaign performance and website engagement stats correctly. Before you introduce ad scheduling, you must fully understand the relationship between generic and long tail/brand conversions. You must understand the lag between first click and conversions. The reports found within the search funnel section within Adwords are idea for analysing the above trends and therefore what ad scheduling should be used, if any.

If you introduce ad scheduling incorrectly, it may hinder your campaigns growth and therefore ROI over a long period.

I hope you find this blog useful. If you have any questions regarding your PPC campaign and you would like to discuss the above, feel free to contract the team here

Take a look at his slides below and drop us a line if you want to find out more.

After looking at who were the big winners, and losers, from the latest update it appears there were a couple of key changes which formed part of the Mayday update, both of which could place an advantage in the hands of the SME webmaster.

Page authority vs. domain authority

The phrase authority is often used in relation to search engine marketing. Generally if somebody says a website has authority, it means that it has been present in the SERPs for a long time, has a good amount of backlinks and has built up a level of “trust” with the major search engines.

Some qualified commentators are stating that a large part of the Mayday update was a shift from domain authority to page authority, suggesting that Google is now applying authority to an individual web page, rather than a complete website. This effectively levels out the playing field when it comes to long tail content, rankings on specific keyword phrases around an individual product or service.

Why is this good for SMEs?

Previously it would have been possible for a page from a website with a high domain authority, such as the bbc, to outrank a more appropriate web page from a smaller website, without necessarily having more targeted content or backlinks. This was simply because such high authority sites have huge amounts of trust within the search engines and so dont always need to work as hard on individual links or keyword content.

If this move from domain authority to page authority has occurred, this should mean that smaller websites with less overall authority are able to outrank larger ones if their content and backlinks for an individual page, are more appropriate.

Original content vs manufacturer description

The other change which is being suggested was part of the update, is an improved ranking for pages with unique, and user generated content (UGC). Amazon and Ebay appear to be two of the benefactors of the update, which would seem contrary to the point on domain authority. But when you look at individual pages on the Amazon and Ebay sites you see that:

a) They have large amounts of targeted backlinks (page authority)
b) They have original content that isnt found elsewhere, Ebay due to the fact it is written by the seller, Amazon through its UGC of reviews and ratings.

Many companies running a website, will use manufacturer, or stock descriptions when creating product or service pages. This content is usually identical, or very similar to hundreds of other pages across the web. Original content has always be something which is recommended for an effective SEO programme, but it appears Google may have made it even more so with the Mayday update.

Why is this good for SMEs?

Large retailers, with thousands of products, are going to find it nearly impossible to ensure that they write unique product descriptions for all of the products they sell. An electrical retailer for example might have 20,000 products sourced from 50 different suppliers; it is much easier to copy the manufacturer’s description onto the website than to come up with new ones which would take a huge amount of time.

A smaller retailer which 50-100 products or even less, would have a much greater chance of being able to write unique descriptions for the products, and is also less likely to have an ever changing product set which would make it a constant task to perform.

I the Mayday update really is rewarding unique content, then it is quite possible for an SME retail site to outrank a more established one on an individual product keyword.

There is still work to be done

So does the Mayday update mean we are going to see lots of unknown SME websites outranking major brands in the newly revised SERPs? No. Because many SMEs will not recognise the opportunity presented to them and will continue to use manufacturers descriptions and not engage in any UGC or link building activities. For those that are willing to put the work into their website and SEO, the Mayday update could be a major change in fortunes for their online revenues.

1) What is a good Click Through Rate (CTR)?

2) What is a good Cost Per Click (CPC)?

3) What is a good Return On Investment (ROI)?

Obviously the above is based on a huge number of factors such as competition, brand, sector, budget, quality score etc.

However, our good friends at Google have also given us the tools to analyse and investigate the above accordingly. For example they have given us the traffic estimator which can estimate CPC and traffic volume.

In 2007 they also released quality score information giving us great insight into which keywords have been scored well and which keywords need optimising. This was a breakthrough act and it allowed campaigns to be greater optimised and as a result it made the Google sponsored results more relevant.

More recently they have given us the search funnel reports so that we can investigate and analyse our ROI in more detail by understanding the relationship between generic impressions/clicks and long-tail/brand conversions.

Google have also used their analytics solution so that website owners can compare their stats against the sector averages. These reports highlight the main website KPI’s such as bounce rates, page views, time on site etc.

These are great reports to understand if your website is performing as it should. If it isn’t, contact our conversion analytics team who are specialists in improving website engagement statistics via A/B and MVT tests based on our proven methodology on user journey best practises.

Google have taken this to the next level by releasing sector averages for PPC KPI’s such as Impressions, clicks, CTR and average position. This can be viewed via the opportunity tab within Adwords. This new feature has been called ‘Analyse Competition’