Internet Marketing Trends – UK and Europe – 2013

2013 Internet Trends Report for UK and EuropeEach year, WSI compiles an Internet Marketing Trends Report for UK and Europe. And the 2013 Report has just been published.

The WSI Internet Marketing Trends Report includes a range of useful data, including:

  • Regional statistics on current online activities
  • Projected trends for coming years
  • Internet usage and online activities
  • Total advertising spending
  • Total Internet advertising spending
  • Trends in paid search, display advertising, mobile marketing and social media

The report therefore provides a valuable insight into how the markets are moving and developing.

An electronic pdf copy of the report is available to download at the following link:

Trends Report 2013_UK & Europe

If you would like more information about the report or to discuss how its findings might affect your marketing plans, call Andy Wooles, your local WSI Internet Consultant on 01928 787026.

Integrating PPC for Success

With the launch and roll-out of Google’s new Enhanced Adwords campaigns, many businesses are looking again at this powerful lead generation tool.

Its capability to deliver geographically targeted campaigns based on time and device type means that marketing budgets can be used more effectively and the return on investment measured to enable dynamic campaign optimisation.

But merely investing in a PPC campaign is not the complete solution. You need to make it an integral part of your overall digital strategy and ensure consistency in messaging and positioning across both paid and organic channels.

The following factors in particular should be considered:

1. SEO Strategy: Don’t run your PPC campaign isolated from other tactics like Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Consistency in the message you deliver through the ads and your organic search results landing page will have a measurable impact on your overall strategy. Each can reinforce the other. 

2. Competitive Search and Visibility: PPC campaigns help capture keywords that actually aid conversion. You need to invest in extensive and ongoing research to identify keywords that will increase your visibility and conversions.

 3. Data Analytics: Compare data gathered from both your organic and PPC campaigns to understand your buyers’ behaviour and optimise campaign effectiveness. Determine which keywords are most likely to ‘convert’.

 4. Targeted advertising: Link your landing page directly to your ad. Ensure that the call to action is visible on the first click. Give the visitor sufficient information to make that ”click’ decision, without needing to explore the rest of the site.

 5. Digital Marketing Budget: Determine the maximum cost you are ready to pay per lead as this plays a key role in determining your advertising cost and the viability of the campaign. You can either pay a flat rate for each click or opt for a bid-based program.

Contact your local WSI Chester consultant to help you build an effective PPC campaign strategy and generate leads for your business.

What are Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns?

Google’s launch of AdWords Enhanced Campaigns is the most significant change to its pay-per-click advertising platform (PPC) for many years. It is engineered to enable contextual and measurable  multi-device marketing

  • Are you struggling to make your presence felt online?
  • Do the deeper pockets of your larger competitors keep you up at night?
  • If potential customers are using multiple devices to search for information, how will you drive them to your landing page?
  • Should you invest more in organic marketing or incorporate a paid advertising program in your overall digital strategy?

If questions like the above are on your mind, pay per click (PPC) advertising offers a solution so you can compete with the bigger players in your industry. It gives smaller local players a level playing field by allowing healthy competition for the more generic keywords.

Google is following the trend where more users now search for information using multiple devices such as tablets, desktops, and smartphone, and other search contexts, i.e. time of day and the device used. The search giant’s recent update to its advertising product, Google AdWords offers to reduce some of the complexities involved in managing multiple ad campaigns.

Google AdWords – Enhanced Campaigns

Termed Enhanced Campaigns, these new features hold promise that the life of the digital marketer is going to get much easier. Separate campaigns for each digital device will soon be a thing of the past. We can now integrate campaigns across all devices based on parameters such as a prospects’ location, time of day, when a query is run, and type of device used. The ability to run contextual, multi-device marketing campaigns that can be measured to a granular level can add significant value to paid ad campaigns.

Key benefits include:

  • Ability to integrate and run a single campaign across multiple devices
  • Create targeted ads based on device used and location of search
  • Measure the impact of various ads across devices

For businesses this is great news since paid campaigns will become much more flexible, easy to launch, less time consuming, and best of all, cost-effective. To learn more, give us a call.

WSI Chester named one of Constant Contact’s 2012 All Stars

WSI Chester has received the 2012 All Star Award from Constant Contact®, Inc., the trusted email marketing advisor to more than half a million small organizations worldwide.

WSI Chester - All Star Solution Provider 2013Each year, Constant Contact bestows the All Star Award to a select group of businesses and nonprofits who are successfully using online marketing tools to engage their customer base, and drive success for their organization. Our results ranked among the top 10% of Constant Contact’s international customer base.

Constant Contact customers using either the company’s Email Marketing or EventSpot tools are eligible for this award. Constant Contact looked at the following criteria to select this year’s All Stars:

  • Level of engagement with email campaigns and events
  • Open, bounce, and click-through rates
  • Event registration rates
  • Use of social sharing features
  • Use of mailing list sign-up tools
  • Use of reporting tools

“We’re always delighted when small businesses and nonprofits are successful,” said Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact. “We’re honored to recognize Andy Wooles and WSI Chester as an All Star Solution Provider, and to be able to shine the spotlight on its achievements in 2012.”

If you would like assistance in making email marketing work harder for your business, why not call an All Star Solution Provider?

Call WSI Chester today on 01928 787026.

Did You Know Google Adwords are Adverts

40% of consumers are unaware that Google Adwords are adverts, according to research carried out for an insurance sector client by Bunnyfoot.

They found that 41 of the 100 individuals tested believed that the Adwords at the top of the page were authorative links rather than paid advertisements. And 81% clicked on the Google Adwords listing rather than the natural search results.

Google does try to separate the Top 3 ads from the natural listings by introducing a background colour and they are labeled “Ads related to….”

But many web users are obviously missing or ignoring the label and therefore misunderstanding the meaning of the shading.

It is very easy for internet-savvy marketers and their clients to assume their target audience has a similar level of internet awareness to themselves.

This study has shown that this is not necessarily the case. Although the research was undertaken in just one industry sector but the key message is relevant to all:

“A significant proportion of internet users simply don’t recognise Adwords listings as sponsored links.”

This means the top three ad positions are probably a lot more powerful than previously thought in delivering prospects to a campaign landing page.

For some businesses, this research should change the way they focus their Adwords campaigns.

If you are looking to improve the effectiveness of your Adwords campaigns, why not call WSI Chester today?