How much do low average clickthroughs matter for marketers?
eMarketer recently estimated that marketers around the world will spend $6 billion advertising on social networks this year, yet the return on that investment is still in question.

Many ad performance metrics have been low on social networking sites, suggesting that users do not want to click on ads while they’re socializing. But how useful are measures of average performance to real-world marketers when so many variables can affect ad performance?

According to a widely reported … Continue Reading

 A look at how consumer attitudes differ…

Research on tablet advertising has found that users prefer ads that take advantage of features such as video, interactivity, 360-degree views and other eye catching features. Flashy ads may thrive on tablets however it is not necessarily the same story for smartphones.

Smartphones users prefer to keep it simple. A Pontiflex survey conducted by Harris Interactive found that very few smartphone users preferred ads that featured video.

Only 15% of all adults liked these more complex ads … Continue Reading

Self-service advertising for small-medium sized businesses has brought Google billions—could Facebook’s growth in this category result in a future duopoly?

AdAge recently highlighted Facebook’s 2010 worldwide online ad revenue, which was $1.86 billion; a 151% increase over the company’s estimated 2009 advertising revenue of $740 million worldwide.

Facebook is still far from Google in terms of market share for self-service advertising; however new eMarketer estimates show that similar to Google, the majority of Facebook ad revenue comes from small businesses.

Reports show that 60% or $1.12 billion of the total 2010 ad revenue on … Continue Reading

Facebook is now third most important marketing tactic

Small businesses are placing more importance on social media marketing, according to a fall 2010 survey from small-business marketing firm Constant Contact.

The businesses surveyed overwhelmingly considered word-of-mouth the most important marketing tactic for finding new customers, but that figure includes discussions that take place both online and offline.

For business promotion, the marketing tools rated to be most important were websites and email with more than nine in 10 … Continue Reading

On Monday, Facebook announced new communication channels for its users which included new message systems and a @facebook.com.

Among the upgrades, users now have the ability to tailor communication channels for individuals in their network. An individual may chose a certain friend to receive emails while another receives IM’s depending on which platform they prefer. Once that information is inputted, the user simply chooses the name and types a message.

The biggest change, though, will likely be the @facebook.com – a project that Facebook has reportedly been … Continue Reading

High click rates for social media don’t tell the full story

According to Chadwick Martin Bailey, three-quarters of web users are likely to share content with their friends and family, an activity brands are watching closely in their attempts to leverage the influence of brand advocates.

SocialTwist reported that email was the most common channel used to share content via the company’s Tell-a-Friend widget. Email accounted for more than half of all referrals while social networks made up for less than a quarter of shares.

But shares on … Continue Reading

Small businesses boosted their spending and shifted dollars away from Google and Yahoo! in Q2 2010, according to the “State of Small Business Online Advertising Q2 2010” report from WebVisible.

Ask.com benefited, while spending on Bing was steady. Click rates were down slightly on Google and Bing while growing on Yahoo! quarter over quarter, but compared with Q2 2009, clicks were … Continue Reading

Want to strengthen your mobile marketing campaign? You’ve come to the right place. The following is a list of tips that will give you  better understanding of do’s and don’t in the work of mobile marketing.

1. What do you want to accomplish from mobile marketing?

Do you yearn for brand awareness or do you want to engage customers? Make your goal known before you take the first step.

2. Connect with a mobile application service provider.

Consult a successful provider as your reference. It’s always better to compare what you think is best to … Continue Reading

The end is in sight…of the recession, that is. Unfortunately, damage has already been done to the advertising industry. According to Ad Age, ad spending in 2009 experienced the sharpest percentage decline since the Great Depression when it dropped 14.7-percent the first nine months of 2009.

On the bright side, there are high hopes for digital advertising. Annual growth rate for online advertising is said to be steady over the next five years.

Be part of digital advertising growth with Stream Companies.

If you don’t think mobile internet purchasing is catching on, think again. This graph from Morgan Stanley portrays the 50+ percent of paid mobile consumer usage. Smartphone users, as a majority, have been putting desktop usage to shame with app usage. Having a smartphone on hand makes it easy to buy into the digitized world while leaving desktop purchasing in the dust.

As more consumers buy using their mobile devices, mobile advertising will increase

Maybe mobile marketing will be turning a new leaf in 2010 and the new decade will be the ‘decade of … Continue Reading