Mobile marketing technology is becoming more sophisticated and gives brands new opportunities for pay-per-click advertising. It’s expected that mobile marketing will continue to become more prevalent as users move toward searching on the go rather than searching on desktop computers. A recent study prepared by Marin Software investigated the performance of paid search advertising on mobile and tablet devices in Q2 2012, and preliminary results indicate that PPC advertising campaigns may perform better on tablets and smartphones.
Paid search clicks on mobile marketing platforms increasing
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Simply put, the end goal of any online marketing campaign is to generate more revenues. In an increasingly competitive environment, marketing professionals are investing more resources into branding. However, the question remains: is it possible to generate more sales from online PR activities, or is it purely a branding tool? A recent study by PRMarketing reveals that online PR can accomplish both objectives.
Online PR’s Role in Building Awareness
The goal of any online PR campaign is to make up for the lack of information about your company online. PRMarketing’s study revealed that a severe lack of product information online can lose Internet retailers as many as 67% of consumers. Creating more content through blogs, press releases, and review sites is one remedy for a lack of branded content. Keyword rich content will also rank higher, making it easier for your target audience to find your articles and giving them an opportunity to learn more about your products’ benefits.
“I’m on the first page for all my keywords but I’m not generating any sales!” Does that sentence sound familiar? Well you may be in a similar situation countless other companies have experienced after launching a search engine optimization campaign. After getting to the first page for all your keywords, do you notice that the traffic is simply not converting? Does this mean SEO is not a sound strategy? On the contrary: the first page rankings and the traffic coming in prove the value of a well-executed search engine optimization strategy. Finding the root of the problem means analyzing your entire online marketing strategy at its foundation.
Optimizing the Wrong Keywords
It’s important to develop a search engine optimization campaign that not only drives traffic, but has the potential to bring in users who are in a “ready to buy now” mode. Otherwise, the traffic you’re bringing in simply will not convert. Employing the help of internet marketing professionals to analyze your keyword list, website’s analytics, and competitors’ organic strategies is a crucial process to diagnose the issues at hand. Readjusting your strategy and identifying keywords that have more potential to generate revenue help provide positive returns on your investment.
In the online marketing realm, business professionals are beginning to exploit the various advantages of paid advertising on social media profiles such as LinkedIn and Facebook. The numerous targeting options provide limitless opportunities for lead generation and developing brand equity. However, there is one platform where users may not even know advertising exists: Twitter. In the form of “promoted” products, Twitter provides several social media advertising solutions for clients looking to create more exposure. With more than 550 million users, the micro-blogging site ranks as the second most popular and visited social platform in the world.
Promoted Tweets
Promoting individual tweets is the simplest form of increasing exposure for your brand. Leveraging the vitality of social media can provide your brand to target users with specific interests and push offers or introductory tweets. For example, promoted tweets provide the best opportunity for new software platforms to create exposure by targeting both tech users and business professionals and making sure branded tweets are seen at the top of the Twitter feed. Similar to the cost-per-click model employed on LinkedIn and Facebook, Twitter uses a pay-per-action model, where clients are charged based on actions involving the promoted tweets.
Over the first three months this year, Internet marketing advertising revenues have hit record highs totaling as much as $8.4 billion in Q1 2012 according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report. This meteoric rise in revenues can be attributed to the proliferation of technology: in particular, adoption rates for smartphones and tablets are skyrocketing. PPC advertising continues to be the driving force according to the Internet Advertising Revenue Report, whereas display advertising and mobile marketing provide effective alternatives.
PPC advertising still going strong
PPC advertising, otherwise known as search engine marketing, continues to be the largest advertising format in the digital environment, accounting for 47% of the $31.7 billion spent over the course of the 2011 calendar year. This number increased by 27% compared to the previous year and future trends indicate that this number will only continue to rise. Investing in PPC advertising on Google still remains the best method of generating immediate leads and sales in a competitive online environment.
Old Spice, Doritos, Dollar Shave Club….what do these brands have in common? They are companies that have leveraged the viral power of YouTube to create excitement for their products, and in the case of the Dollar Shave Club, generate a presence to help with the launching of a new and unique business model. In fact, their quirky video generated so much traffic upon the launch that they saw subscriptions hit the roof, signing up 12,000 new customers within two days. Creating videos and uploading them to YouTube has never been easier; unfortunately, creating a video marketing campaign that will truly go viral and bring visitors promises to be herculean task. How can your video marketing efforts break through the clutter?
Humour
A comment trend with videos that go mainstream is that they have a humorous component to engage the audience. Simply put, users are more relaxed when browsing YouTube, and a video of a talking baby, an anthropomorphized animal, or a series of unfortunate events tends to generate more hits than a 30 minute video instruction for accounting software. However, you need to also be cautious in this regard: something too outrageous may overshadow the brand message and fail to elicit the desired actions from your audience.
Ever since Facebook’s IPO, the social media giant has been under a magnifying lens as investors watch every move the web brand makes. In fact, questions have arisen about Facebook’s sustainability in the long run as their stock has taken a bit of a hit. Contrary to reports and claims ringing the death knell for Facebook, the social marketing site’s engagement is actually increasing compared to other top web brands. With that in mind, what makes Facebook a viable social media marketing platform for your brand?
Engagement and Fan Acquisition
Developing a fully branded profile on Facebook is the main foundation of any social media strategy. With over 900 million unique visitors on a monthly basis, Facebook has become the leader in social networking. An inviting company profile can help brands leverage the site’s virality to engage fans with original content, generate brand exposure in news feeds, and increase the reach of their message by advertising content to friends of fans.
The two major activities of any effective search engine optimization campaign are link building and content marketing. While the former has been the main tactic marketing professionals rely on for creating value for their websites, the latter has become more important due to recent algorithm changes from Google. The following is a quick overview of the inherent benefits in content marketing:
Strategies are Highly Adaptable
If you notice that some of your prime keywords are not ranking highly enough, pushing out fresh content using those keywords can help create momentum for your SEO campaign. Content marketing is adaptable and allows marketing professionals to revamp current strategies and focus on providing a boost to keywords that need help.
Online jewelry retailer Boticca.com recently tracked the impact of both Pinterest and Facebook on creating engagement, driving traffic, and generating sales for e-commerce businesses. Marketing professionals are hesitant to invest significant resources into social media because it’s seen as more of a branding strategy, but this case study provides insight on the social channel’s ability to produce tangible results.
Community Engagement
Developing your social media audience can prove to be futile if your fans are not communicating with your brand. Boticca noticed that Facebook users were far more engaged than those coming from Pinterest. Pinterest users spent 65% less time on the site and visited 44% less pages compared to their Facebook counterparts, a testament to Facebook’s ability to drive highly targeted traffic. Facebook’s robust platform encourages users to check out the site through creative posts in news feeds, whereas Pinterest is limited in this regard.
Online Advertising continues to be an important piece of any budget due to its cost effectiveness compared to traditional marketing strategies and the widespread reach of the Internet. According to the most recent Global Digital Advertising update, digital advertising continues to make progress across all online channels, such as Search Engine Marketing, Mobile Advertising, and Social Media.
Search Engine Marketing Trends
The first quarter of 2012 reported a 16% increase on overall Search Engine Marketing expenditures compared to the first quarter of 2011 in the United States. Google continues to be the dominant search engine with regards to total spend and click market share. This trend extends to most International markets as Google has cemented itself as the leading platform for Pay-Per-Click Advertising. However, Bing is an emerging thorn in Google’s side, increasing their share of revenue from Online Paid Advertising over the past year.
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