Tag: comScore

ComScore Study – Marketing Power Of Podcasts Is Huge
A ComScore study focusing on podcasting proved to be good news for podcasters and advertising seeking to reach hard-to-reach audiences. In their study commissioned by Wondery, nearly on in five Americans aged 18-49 report listening to podcasts at least once a month, while nearly one in three men 18-34 do so.

Compared to the average consumer, podcast listeners are more likely to have:
- a college or higher education
- $100k+ household income
- be early adopters in multiple categories including movies, electronics and CPG.
Hernan Lopez, Founder & CEO of Wondery commented, “Are you listening? Your hardest-to-reach consumers are.” Wondery has a reason to be excited about these results considering that it is a company focused on creating and curating podcasts and then integrating brands into the mix. Podcasts have often been a hard sell for marketers because they don’t typically generate a huge amount of direct response to offers. It’s much more of a brand play in my opinion.

According to ComScore, one in three podcast listeners expect to increase their podcast consumption over the next six months, following a similar increase in their behavior in the past six months.

Podcasts can be a very effective platform for marketing according to ComScore. The study reports that two-thirds of podcast listeners have engaged in various research and/or purchase related behaviors as a result of advertising exposure from podcasts. Among all forms of advertising on mobile devices, podcasts create the highest improvement in perception. And among all forms of digital advertising, podcast ads are considered the least intrusive.

“It’s clear that we’re in the midst of a new podcasting boom, spurred in large part by improved accessibility via mobile and a tidal wave of rich and compelling content,” said Andrew Lipsman, VP of Marketing & Insights, comScore. “This research provides strong evidence for why this sector is very attractive for advertisers. Not only do podcasts over-index on reaching some of the most valuable and hardest-to-reach audiences, but they also put consumers in a mindset that’s favorable to ad receptivity.”

“In a world of clutter, attention deficit and elusive audiences the work Wondery is doing adds another valuable string to our bow,” said Nick Emery, Global CEO of Mindshare.

“This study underscores the power of the podcast as a vital digital platform for brand advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “We saw marketers and media buyers come out in strong numbers for first IAB Podcast Upfront Showcase. Now, with research showing the medium’s reach and resonance, we anticipate an even bigger turnout for the event later this year.”

“When we hear ‘podcast listeners’ we think of early adopters, passionate consumers, dedicated to deep cultural content; Wondery’s study confirms this view”, added Jim Elms, Global CEO, Initiative Media.

The study also asked about a listeners emotions before and after listening to podcasts. Many said they felt more “connected, intelligent and energized” after listening. The ComScore study was commissioned between March and April of 2016 among over 2,000 respondents in the US aged 18-49.

A study by Nielsen Scarborough released May 23, 2016 also found that podcasting consumption is on the rise. The study reported that the number of adults 18 and older listening to a podcast during the past month has doubled over the previous five years. Five years seems like a long time to only see doubling, but at least it’s not declining.

The Nielsen Scarborough study found that:
- Podcast listeners are equally male and female
- The majority (70%) are between the ages of 18-44
- They are 39% more likely to be single
- 44% more likely to be a college graduate
- 33% more likely to be employed in a white collar occupation
- Have an average household income of $83,700 exceeding the national average by about $12,000
Nielsen stats indicate that they could be good targets for marketers:

With higher average incomes than the general population, podcast listeners are particularly interested in investments and wealth management. More than 65% of podcast listeners have some type of investment, with nearly half participating in a 401K plan. In addition, podcast listeners are 25% more likely to have stocks, 105% more likely to engage in online investing/stock trading and 15% more likely to use a financial planner.

And while podcast listeners are serious about their finances, they are equally serious about giving back to their communities with three-quarters having contributed money to a cause during the past year. Their contributions focus on areas they are passionate about and where they can make an impact on society. These causes’ include education, social programs and arts and culture.

They also are very active:
June 6, 2016
The ‘New comScore’ is Here

comScore announced that it has completed a merger with Rentrak and that the two are now one as the “new comScore”.

What does this mean? According to comScore, it means “a new model for a dynamic, cross-platform world.”

The company says it will use massive data scale to establish “new currencies” for understanding consumers’ multiscreen behavior, and provide a more precise understanding of brand and consumer behavior.

“We have heard from our clients and stakeholders across the industry, and the message has been very clear: measurement needs to evolve,” a spokesperson said in an email. “With a spirit of innovation, determination and collaboration, our promise as the new comScore is that we will work swiftly to advance our industry.”

“We will provide a new model of measurement for the cross-platform world; one that is not merely evolutionary, but revolutionary,” they added. “It will be precise in answering your most detailed questions and unified in a way that takes the pain out of quantifying behavior across screens. Working with our partners we will extend our model to countries across the world, measuring audiences everywhere.

You can read more about the merger here.

Image via comScore

February 1, 2016
Apps Now Top Way People Consume Digital Media In US

comSore has a new report out looking at mobile app usage in the U.S. It finds that it has become the top way people are consuming digital media, but interestingly, it has done so without damaging desktop or the mobile web.

Take a look at the growth in digital time spent for desktop, mobile apps, and mobile browsers:

Digital media usage is growing as a whole largely thanks to smartphones with tablets only accounting for 12% to smartphones’ 65%.

What apps are they using? Mostly the ones you would expect.k Here’s how they stack up:

The report states the obvious in that app usage is “reflexive,” with apps occupying the best home screen real estate being the most use.

“Publishers must place more value on this real estate if they don’t want to lose out in the transition to mobile. A small slice of app users can contribute a lot of usage,” it says. “Millennials are the heaviest app users and they spend a lot of time on social media and other platforms. Publishers must have a well-developed platform strategy to get mobile traffic and find ways to convert app users.

You can find the full 55-page report here. It’s free.

Images via Wikimedia Commons, comScore

September 24, 2015
Include These Types Of Content In Your Business App To Get More Sales

People are spending more and more time with mobile apps, and that includes those that let them buy things. The problem for businesses hoping to break into that increasing app usage is that the number of apps people are using isn’t really growing along with the time they’re spending using apps.

New changes Google has been making could (and should) mean increased discovery for new and existing apps, and could just lead to that number of apps metric increasing as time goes on. It’s going to be challenging to make your business’ app stand out in the crowd, so you should know what kind of app content users are gravitating towards. We’ll look at that in this article.

Are you getting a significant amount of business through mobile apps so far? If not, what do you think needs to change to make it happen? If so, what are the main ways people are discovering your app and/or the content within? Discuss in the comments.

Nielsen released some research showing significant growth trajectory for the time consumers are spending using apps.

“Over the span of just a few years, the concept of app usage has transformed from a novelty to an essential part of the mobile user experience,” the firm says. “With millions of apps now available and more being rolled out every day, there is an app for everyone, regardless of age, race or interest.”

“But while marketers and app developers continue to add functionality and robustness to apps, they also must effectively position them to stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” it adds. “Despite the increase in choices, the number of apps used is staying the same.”

As you may know, Google is now indexing app content in search results. Businesses who follow Google’s protocol for app indexing even get the benefit of a ranking signal. It’s in your best interest to have an app and to have it indexed. At first, Google was only offering this on Android, but has recently started to index content on iOS, though it’s still early days on that. Currently, on Android, anyone can take advantage of app indexing. On iOS, Google is only working with a handful of partners so far, but that will likely open up to everyone else eventually. Luckily, Android has a much bigger piece of the mobile operating system market share since it’s on so many different devices from various manufacturers.

With Google’s changes, users can also discover your app even if they haven’t installed it yet, which is key. They (and others) of course offer app install ads to help you convince more people to get your app on their phone to begin with.

RELATED READING: HOW TO SET UP APP INDEXING FOR RANKING IN GOOGLE

You might want to give this presentation from Google I/O a watch. It’s a session called “Smarter user acquisition with App Indexing, AdWords and Google Analytics”.

Here’s how Google describes it: “Content discovery on mobile isn’t easy. Luckily, this is a familiar problem to Google. With App Indexing on both iOS and Android, you can engage users organically by surfacing app content in the search results page. And on Android specifically, you can even drive app installs for users who don’t have your app. Google’s smart mobile ads platform gives you access to AdWords, the world’s largest network, to find the right users who will install and engage with your app, plus you can gain insights through Google Analytics install attribution to know where your users came from. Discover Google’s variety of approaches to driving app discovery, growth and engagement in this session.”

Even if you can get people to install your app, you face the challenge of getting them to open it and interact with it regularly. Google has been working on some things that can help with that as well.

For one, it now offers app deep linking with Goo.gl. This was announced less than a month ago.

“Once you’ve taken the necessary steps to set up App Indexing for Android and iOS, goo.gl URLs will send users straight to the right page in your app if they have it installed, and everyone else to your website. This will provide additional opportunities for your app users to re-engage with your app,” explained Google software engineer Fabian Schlup. “This feature works for both new short URLs and retroactively, so any existing goo.gl short links to your content will now also direct users to your app.”

You can drive traffic to in-app content through your marketing efforts using such links.

Potentially even more helpful for driving re-engagement from users who have installed your app, is Google Now on Tap. Google announced this at Google I/O. With this feature, users can get to useful content from other apps regardless of what app they’re currently using. It’s driven by context.

An example of how it works would be pulling a movie review from IMDb if the user is looking at movie content from another app or reservations on OpenTable if they’re viewing a restaurant in a different app.

Google says Now on Tap another way to get apps in front of users at the right moment. If you have an app with content that people need to see, well, that applies to you. Luckily, beyond app indexing, there’s nothing else you really have to do to be integrated with Now on Tap. Just have your app indexed by Google.

These are really just potential bonuses of app indexing, but the question remains: what do you need to offer in your app to actually get people to use it and buy from you?

comScore and UPS recently conducted a study looking at what kind of content shoppers find important. The content types are product reviews, Q&A, product and brand videos, and photos submitted of consumers using products. These are good places to start.

Other types of app content shoppers find useful include communities and forums, “trending now” products, the seller’s blog content, and podcasts. You might want to think about using some or all of these things in your app. Luckily, most of this stuff is excellent for appearing in search results.

MarketingCharts put together this graph based on the findings.

That study also concluded that 55% of shoppers value consumer and peer reviews when they’re searching and selecting products to buy. Detailed product information is the most important fact in the search and selection process it found. Other important components cited include the seller’s reputation, return policy, and the use of multiple images or the ability to zoom in on products.

While the above lists what content people value from websites, MarketingCharts notes, “Similar factors are important when shopping via mobile applications. Indeed, product images (54%) and product reviews (53%) are considered the most important retail app features among users, with these followed by relevant search results (50%) and mobile coupons (50%). While the study cautions that ‘apps… aren’t a must for every retailer,’ 4 in 5 mobile shoppers surveyed reported having used a retailer’s app rather than a browser to access a retailer at some point.”

This is all very helpful to know, and can help you make your app more useful to consumers.

Do you expect maintaining a mobile app to have a significant impact on your business? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Images via Nielsen, MarketingCharts

June 16, 2015
This Is What 90% Smartphone Penetration Looks Like

ComScore just released a new report on U.S. smartphone penetration – or, if you don’t like the sound of that, call it the percentage of a certain market using smartphones.

Bottom line: everyone has a smartphone. Actually, about 77% – but that’s a whole lot. When you look at the younger generations, it’s even more staggering.

“Millennials continue to be the pace-setters for smartphone adoption, with 18-24 year olds and 25-34 year olds both hovering around 90 percent adoption. While teens have historically had slower adoption rates than their slightly older counterparts, they have been making up ground quickly and are now at 85 percent,” says ComScore.

Would you like to see what 90% smartphone penetration looks like? Here’s a recent performance on The TODAY Show, and speaking of penetration, it just so happens to be The Weeknd performing his track “Earned It” off the 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack.

Ok, not everyone in the crowd is between the ages of 18 and 24, but the percentage of 13-17, 25-34, and 35-44-year-olds with smartphones isn’t far off that 90% mark:

“When I was growing up in the 1980s, cable TV was still seen as something of a luxury and I remember that several of my childhood friends not having it in their households. By the time the 1990s rolled around, almost everyone I knew had cable. It wasn’t that cable had gotten any more affordable, it was just that what was happening on cable TV had grown as a part of our culture. At some point those who could afford cable TV and didn’t have it probably began to feel like they weren’t keeping up with the times,” says ComScore’s Andrew Lipsman.

Precisely. If it’s not on Instagram, did it even f*cking happen?

May 8, 2015
Google Shows Concern Over Firefox Switch To Yahoo

As you may know, Yahoo recently became the default search engine in Mozilla’s Firefox browser after Google had held the spot for a decade. As Yahoo’s search market share has already benefited from the switch, Google is telling Firefox users to switch back.

On Wednesday, Google tweeted this helpful little video demonstrating how to change the default search experience, in case users who care enough about Google to follow the company on Twitter couldn’t figure out how to do that.

This one's for all the Google Search-loving Firefox fans out there → http://t.co/c3C0D9SC8v pic.twitter.com/ocZAOWTrvf

— Google (@google) January 21, 2015

Danny Sullivan points out that Google is now telling Firefox users who visit its homepage to set the default experience back to Google as well. It displays a message that says, “Get to Google faster. Make Google your default search engine.”

Yahoo itself has been telling visitors to its homepage to “upgrade” to the new Firefox:

A couple weeks ago, StatCounter released some data on search market share in the U.S. finding that Yahoo saw its highest amount of that in over five years in December, thanks to its new Mozilla partnership.

“The move by Mozilla has had a definite impact on US search,” said StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen. “The question now is whether Firefox users switch back to Google.”

It will be interesting to see January’s data. Google is obviously worried enough about it to tweet out explanations on how to switch back.

This week, comScore also put out its monthly look at U.S. desktop search engine rankings for December. From that:

Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in December with 65.4 percent market share, followed by Microsoft Sites with 19.7 percent (up 0.1 percentage points) and Yahoo Sites with 11.8 percent (up 1.6 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 2 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.2 percent.

18.7 billion explicit core searches were conducted in December, with Google Sites ranking first with 12.2 billion (up 2 percent). Microsoft Sites ranked second with 3.7 billion searches (up 5 percent), followed by Yahoo Sites with 2.2 billion (up 21 percent), Ask Network with 372 million (up 5 percent) and AOL, Inc. with 222 million.

As its share rises, Yahoo is also testing out a search results page layout that more closely resembles Google’s:

You’d have to think a similar look and feel to Google could keep some used to the Google experience from Firefox from bothering to switch back compared to a more drastic change such as Yahoo’s current layout.

Apparently Bing’s actually testing a similar look as well.

This might not be a good time for Google to be losing any search market share, considering that analysts have already grown concerned by slowing growth in its core ad business.

Images via Mozilla, Google, Yahoo, StatCounter, comScore

January 22, 2015
Millennials Are Really Into Snapchat

That about says it. Millennials, categorized by comScore as those aged 18 to 34, have a new favorite toy in the social media realm.

According to comScore’s most-recent Mobile Metrix, Snapchat is now the third most-popular social app for millennials. It boasts 32.9 percent penetration, trailing only Instagram and Facebook (43.1 percent and 75.6 percent, respectively).

That means that more Millennials are snapping ephemeral photos than are using Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Vine, or Tumblr.

And when you look at the even-younger crowd, those aged 18 to 24, Snapchat meteoric rise is even more pronounced:

“Long term success in the social media sector is no given, and there are certainly several examples of companies that have both ascended into the stratosphere of successful tech companies and of ones that are no longer relevant. Achieving critical mass is an important step in eventually reaching the winner’s circle, and with Snapchat currently at 18 percent penetration among smartphone-using adults it would appear to be right in that sweet spot. If usage begins to accelerate significantly from this point forward, who knows how big it can eventually get?” asks comScore.

First off, don’t kick MySpace while it’s down. That’s just mean. But to the salient point – is Snapchat poised for a breakout – well, is it? What do you think? The app currently handles well over 700 messages a day, is clearly a hit with the kidz these days, has somehow prompted Facebook to create two crappy copycat apps, and has just been given a seemingly comical $10 billion valuation. Critical mass may have already been achieved.

Or, the Snapchat bubble might burst. Like comScore said, it wouldn’t be the first time that a high-flying social property went full Icarus.

Images via comScore, Snapchat/iTunes

August 13, 2014
ComScore Buys MdotLabs To Battle Non-Human Traffic

ComScore has acquired MdotLabs in a move aimed at battling fraud in online advertising, or as the company puts it, to “augment its non-human traffic detection methods.”

MdotLabs specifically uses its technology to identify bots, click farms, pay-per-view networks, and various other fake traffic generation techniques. Its methodologies for doing this include signal processing, statistics, machine learning, and applied math.

ComScore President and CEO Serge Matta said in a statement: “We are excited to welcome the MdotLabs team to comScore. The outstanding team of engineers and data scientists at MdotLabs has been at the forefront of developing the highly sophisticated techniques for identifying and rooting out the waste associated with non-human traffic, which can often run in excess of 50 percent on a given campaign.”

“We believe that the combination of Mdot’s technology with our existing NHT detection methods will deliver a significant advancement in addressing this important issue, providing even greater transparency and more accurate metrics around campaign performance,” he added.

Indeed the two will be integrated, and will allow for the reporting of a human-based metric, which comScore says minimizes the effects of non-human traffic.

“The MdotLabs team is thrilled to join comScore as we look to scale the value of our non-human traffic detection methods to a much greater footprint of clients,” said MdotLabs CEO and co-founder Timur Yarnall. “comScore sits at the center of the digital media buying and selling communities, and we believe our technology can play a big role in helping both sides mitigate the deleterious effects of NHT and bring confidence to those investing in digital.”

Yarnall as well as co-founder Dr. Paul Barford and the rest of MdotLabs will join comScore’s team. MdotLabs’ website already redirects to comscore.com.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Image via comScore

August 5, 2014
Here Are The Top 50 Desktop Sites In The U.S.

comScore just released its Media Metrix monthly ranking of the top 50 web properties (desktop) in the United States. The top five consist of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, and AOL, followed by Amazon, MODE Media (formerly Glam Media), Turner Digital, Apple, and CBS.

Here’s a look at the full list:

Here’s a look at the Ad Focus rankings:

The firm also released its list of top ten video content properties by unique viewers. Google also dominates this list with 153,328,000 unique viewers in June, followed by Facebook at 91,477,000. The rest of the list, in order, is as follows: AOL, Yahoo, VEVO, NDN, Maker Studios, Vimeo, Microsoft, and Fullscreen.

The top ten video ad properties by unique viewer percent reach are (in order): BrightRoll, Specific Media, AOL, LiveRail, Google, SpotXchange, TubeMogul, Q1Media – AdExcite, Tremor Video, and YuMe.

The top ten YouTube Partner channels by unique viewers (in order) are: VEVO, Maker Studios, Fullscreen, Warner Music, Warnerbros vfp, ZEFR, BroadbandTV, The Orchard, Zoomin.TV, and Machinima.

Images via comScore

July 21, 2014
Yahoo’s Search Market Share Reportedly Lowest It’s Ever Been

comScore should be releasing its latest U.S. search market numbers soon, but as Greg Sterling reports, some analysts got them early, and have been talking about them. Yahoo has reportedly fallen below 10% market share, which is the lowest it’s ever been.

According to Sterling’s report, the numbers shake out like this: Google (67.6%), Bing (19.2%), Yahoo (9.8%), Others (3.4%). That puts Yahoo/Bing at 29%, which is consistent with its previous market share, so that whole Search Alliance thing doesn’t seem to be helping Yahoo too much. No wonder Marissa Mayer hates it.

Yahoo released its earnings report earlier this week. It began with a quote from Mayer about how unsatisfactory the results were. This included a 4% decline in revenue.

“Our top priority is revenue growth and by that measure, we are not satisfied with our Q2 results,” she said. “While several areas showed strength, their growth was offset by declines.”

Interestingly enough, Yahoo actually had a good quarter for search, which grew 6% year-over-year in terms of revenue. It grew 19% year-over-year in terms of search click-driven revenue.

A report released by eMarketer this week projects that Microsoft will overtake Yahoo in online ads this year.

Image via Yahoo

July 18, 2014
U.S. Desktop E-Commerce Spending Up 12% From Last Year

comScore put out new findings indicating that desktop-based e-commerce in the U.S. has grown 12% versus the same period last year.

According to the firm’s estimates for Q1 2014 U.S. digital commerce sales, desktop e-commerce spending reached $56.1 billion during the quarter. That’s actually the eighteenth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and the fourteenth of double-digit growth.

That’s not to say mobile commerce isn’t contributing significantly. M-commerce spending from smartphones and tablets added $7.3 billion for the quarter, growing by 23% versus a year ago. That brings the grand total for digital commerce spending in the U.S. to $63.4 billion for the quarter by comScore’s figures.

“Q1 e-commerce and m-commerce spending growth have seen a modest acceleration versus the fourth quarter, which is a positive sign in light of overall softness in consumer discretionary spending across the broader U.S. economy during the early part of the year,” said comScore chairman emeritus Gian Fulgoni. “As we look ahead to the remainder of 2014, we hope that signs of improved consumer sentiment and a strengthening job market will help further bolster digital commerce. In addition, with several key consumer tech product upgrade cycles and new product introductions expected in the back of the year, there would appear to be continued momentum for the market throughout the year barring any unforeseen economic troubles.”

According to comScore, the top-performing product categories were Apparel & Accessories, Consumer Packaged Goods, Sport & Fitness, Digital Content & Subscriptions, and Home & Garden. Each of these grew by 13%.

Desktop e-commerce specifically accounted for 11.7% of consumers’ discretionary spending, which comScore says is the highest quarter on record.

Image via comScore

May 13, 2014
Google+ Is A Top-15 Smartphone App In The U.S.

comScore released its March 2014 U.S. Smartphone Subscriber Market Share report on Friday. You can delve into that here, but given all the talk about Google+ dying lately, there’s one takeaway here that directly contradicts that.

Google+ has made the list of the top 15 apps (hat tip to Greg Sterling).

These are supposedly the top fifteen smartphone apps in the U.S. Google +’s share is just below Twitter’s, which is only a couple percentage points below iTunes Radio/iCloud. While it’s way below Facebook’s 75%, the fact that it even appears on the list seems to suggest that it’s worth Google keeping it around.

A couple weeks ago, Google’s Vic Gundotra, who ran Google+, announced that he is leaving the company. After that, reports came out that Google would focus its attention away from Google+ as a product, and move team members from it to other projects. Google has said that its Google+ strategy is not changing, and at least one Googler said flat out that no team members were moving.

Since then, Google has been spotted testing a new login button that drops the Google+ in favor of signing in with just plain Google. It has also started requiring Google Partners users to have Google+ accounts.

Image via comScore

May 5, 2014
Windows Phone Leads BlackBerry in Latest Smartphone Numbers

Holiday season 2013 capped off another record year for tablet shipments, but market watchers are now beginning to see the rapid growth of the smartphone market reach saturation points in established markets. As these mature markets reach their peaks, the market share story is becoming cemented, though not surprising.

The latest smartphone industry number from market research firm comScore show that Apple is still on top in the U.S. market. Over 41% of U.S. smartphone subscribers (41.6%, to be exact) were using some kind of iPhone from November 2013 to January 2014. Another 26.7% were using a Samsung device and the rest were using LG (6.9%), Motorola (6.4%), HTC (5.4%), or some other brand of smartphone.

This domination by Apple and Samsung is nothing new, and those companies also dominate the mobile industry throughout the world. What is new in the latest comScore numbers is that Windows Phone has now surpassed BlackBerry in smartphone OS market share.

The comScore report shows that during the latest three-month period only 3.1% of American smartphones were running a BlackBerry OS. Windows Phone has finally edged out the Canadian company with 3.2% of U.S. smartphone users. Blackberry had still held market share over Windows Phone as of the three month period ending in October 2013 with 3.6% of the smartphone OS market. Windows Phone market share has not increased since that period.

Google’s Android, of course, still tops the OS market. Over half of U.S. smartphones (51.7%) are running some version of the Android OS. Another 41.6% are running on Apple’s iOS platform.

March 7, 2014
Yahoo Continues To Beat Google As Top U.S. Desktop Web Property

Back in August, Yahoo made headlines for being the top web property in the U.S. on desktop computers, based on data from comScore, which releases its report each month. That was the first time Yahoo sites beat Google sites in two years, and it didn’t even include Tumblr traffic.

At the time, a comScore spokesperson said that it could just be a seasonal/month-to-month fluctuation, with the numbers being pretty close to Google’s. In other words, Google could have easily gotten the top spot back the next month.

But that didn’t happen. While the numbers may still not be too far apart, Yahoo has topped the list ever since.

The data for December is now out with Yahoo sitting on top once again:

According to comScore’s report, Yahoo is also beating Google in the Ad Focus rankings (desktop only), though the companies come in at number three and four, with the top two spots going to AddThis and ShareThis.

Lead image via Wikimedia Commons, Chart via comScore

January 21, 2014
Black Friday Was First Billion Dollar Desktop Shopping Day Of The Year

U.S. desktop ecommerce holiday spending was already up 14% year-over-year by for the first 24 days, ahead of Black Friday.

Black Friday itself, comScore reports, was the first billion dollar online shopping day of the holiday season with $1.198 billion in desktop ecommerce in the U.S. According to the firm, as of December 1st, holiday online shopping in the country has reached $20.6 billion so far, up 3% from last year.

If that doesn’t seem like much growth, it’s because of a variation in the 2012 and 2013 shopping calendars with Thanksgiving falling later than usual this year. Last year’s numbers contain a full week of heavy post-Thanksgiving/Cyber Week buying, comScore says, so the growth rate is being “artificially suppressed in the short term.” The effects, it says, will normalize as the holiday season goes on.

Black Friday was the heaviest online spending day to date, up 15% compared to Black Friday last year. Thanksgiving saw 21% growth year-over-year, reaching $766 million.

“While Black Friday – and now Thanksgiving Day – is the traditional kick-off to the brick-and-mortar holiday shopping season, both days continue to grow in importance on the online channel,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Clearly many consumers prefer to avoid the crowds and lines typically associated with Black Friday by shopping from the comfort of their own homes, and we saw a record 66 million Americans do that this year. Also interesting is that the recent trend of kick-starting holiday shopping by opening stores on Thanksgiving Day seems to be having a spillover effect on the online channel. Thanksgiving once again posted a well above average growth rate and is the fastest-growing online shopping day over the past five years, as more Americans opt for couch commerce following their Thanksgiving Day festivities.”

Believe it or not, Amazon had a major impact on Black Friday shopping. 66.1 million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday from the desktop (up 16% from last year, and Amazon was the top site, followed by eBay, Walmart, Best Buy and Target.

27% of sales went to apparel and accessories with 19% going to computer hardware, 7% to consumer electronics, 5% to consumer packaged goods, 5% to shipping services and 36% to everything else.

Image: Thinkstock

December 2, 2013
Desktop Holiday Ecommerce Spending Up 14% From Last Year So Far

A report out from comScore says $18.9 billion has been spent online during the first 24 days of the November-December 2013 holiday season, using desktop computers. This is up 14% from the same time period last year ($16.6 billion).

Ahead of the report, Tuesday, November 19th was the heaviest online spending day of the season, reaching $963 million. Both the 14th and 24th also saw over $900 million each.

“The 2013 online holiday shopping season is off to a solid start with nearly $19 billion in desktop e-commerce sales, an increase of more than 14 percent versus last year,” said Andrew Lipsman, comScore VP of Marketing & Insights. “The heaviest online spending day thus far fell just shy of $1 billion in sales, and though we’ve not yet reached that benchmark we can expect to see that spending threshold eclipsed numerous times during the post-Thanksgiving period. Black Friday and Cyber Monday can both be expected to easily surpass that total, with Cyber Monday already beginning to point toward $2 billion.”

“While the early part of the online holiday shopping season has been solid so far, we are tempering our expectations given the shortened 26-day shopping period between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year,” said Lipsman. “In addition, with Hannukah beginning in November this year there is some spending that has been pulled forward and likely added a boost to the early November shopping period. That said, our forecast of 14 percent growth for desktop-based buying still represents a strong outlook versus last year that highlights the continued channel shift to online. We also expect m-commerce spending growth to contribute about 2 percentage points to that growth rate, meaning that total digital commerce will grow at a rate of nearly 16 percent.”

The firm believes mobile commerce (which includes tablets) will reach $7.1 billion for the holiday season, which would be 13% of total ecommerce as total spending is expected to be $55.2 billion for the season.

A new Gallup poll released today shows that over half (53%) of Americans say they are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to shop online during the holiday season.

Image: comScore

November 27, 2013
Apple Smartphone Market Share Still Rising, HTC Now Falling Fast

145 Million Americans now own smartphones, making up nearly 61% of all cell phone users. Though analysts are beginning to predict a market saturation in the west and look toward developing markets such as Brazil and China for growth, the big players in the smartphone space are still gaining traction in the U.S.

The latest comScore numbers are now out, and Apple and Samsung are unsurprisingly still in the lead. Apple is the leading smartphone manufacturer in the U.S. with a 40.7% share of the market, up 1.5% from the previous quarter. Samsung is in a distant second with a 24.3% market share, up 1.3% from the previous quarter.

The gains of Apple and Samsung came from Android manufacturers that aren’t Samsung. HTC and Motorola in particular were losers over the previous quarter, dropping to 7.4% and 6.9% market shares respectively. HTC recently announced its first quarterly loss. LG was able to hang on to its 6.7% market share, which is unchanged from the previous quarter.

As for software, Android still runs on the majority of U.S. smartphones with a 51.6% share. However, that share is down 0.8% from the previous quarter, meaning Android rapid growth over the past few years may be coming to an end. Apple meanwhile improved its iOS market share another 1.5% to 40.7%. Microsoft’s Windows Phone platforms managed to see slight market share growth, up 0.2% to now make up 3.2% of the smartphone OS market.

BlackBerry OS now makes up just 4% of the smartphone OS market, having dropped 0.8% over the last quarter. BlackBerry is now up for sale, with a a $4.7 billion deal on the table and several other companies possibly interested. Windows Phone, Android, and iOS are all likely to benefit from from a BlackBerry pull-out of the consumer smartphone market, as they have been absorbing the company’s market share losses for the past two years.

October 7, 2013
Mobile Ads Are Getting Better At Fueling Consumer Purchase Intent

The effectiveness of mobile ads has long been debated, but data compiled by comScore appears to suggest that they’re only getting more effective as time goes on.

Perhaps better for marketers yet is that mobile ads are getting better where it really counts: the point at which consumers prepare to actually buy a product or service.

The data comes from “hundreds” of Mobile Brand Survey Lift studies, comScore explains. These have taken place over the past two years, and the research firm has used them to establish industry benchmarks.

“The research shows statistically significant lifts for the test group vs. the control group in aided awareness (+20%), favorability (+4%), likelihood to recommend (+22%), and purchase intent (+28%),” says comScore’s Stephanie Adamo. “The observed lifts appear to be the strongest near the bottom of the marketing funnel, with the most notable impact being on ‘purchase intent’, a metric that correlates with in-store sales.”

Adamo adds, “”These results of course beg the question: why do mobile ads appear to be working particularly well at the bottom of the funnel? Perhaps it’s because mobile devices are inherently personal devices and the ads may resonate on a more individual level. Another possible explanation is that mobile ads often appear when people are out and about, and either closer to the point of purchase or in a social context where they might recommend a brand.”

As smartphone sales continue to rise, it stands to reason that the effectiveness of targeted mobile advertising will only increase. Apple has already sold nine million of its new iPhones, which were just released on Friday.

September 23, 2013
Yahoo Is Bigger Than Google, And That Should Mean Something To Your Business

I bet you didn’t see this coming after years of Google domination. Yahoo is back as the top web property (in the U.S.). This comes from comScore Media Metrix, which releases monthly lists of the top 50 U.S. web properties. They just put out July’s report, and there sits Yahoo right on top.

Are you surprised that Yahoo is ranking over Google? Do you believe Yahoo offers significant value to businesses? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Yahoo hasn’t been at the top of the list for two years (yeah, it seems like even longer than that), but there it is, and guess what. It doesn’t even include Tumblr traffic.

Yahoo properties, even without that, saw 196.6 million unique U.S. visitors during the month, compared to Google’ s 192.3 million, even as Google continues do dominate the search market by a much wider margin. If you want to count Tumblr, you can add another 38.3 million unique users.

Just look at that chart for a moment, and take it in. Look at how much higher Yahoo is than Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, etc. Twitter is all the way down at 30, below even Tumblr. Suffice it to say, Yahoo is huge.

Greg Sterling at Marketing Land shares this statement from a comScore spokesperson: “Tumblr is not currently included in the Yahoo! Sites roll-up. Seems there are other factors at play, and given how close Yahoo Sites and Google have been in recent months it can likely just be normal seasonal/month-to-month fluctuations.”

Regardless of whether or not this is simply month-to-month, the fact that it’s even in a constant race with Google should say something.

It’s certainly worth noting that these numbers don’t take mobile traffic into account, but mobile is exactly where Yahoo has been focusing the majority of its efforts since former Googler Marissa Mayer took over as CEO last year.

In fact, it’s hard not to assume that Mayer’s presence has been a key contributor to Yahoo’s rise back to the top. I don’t think many would argue that Yahoo’s properties were generally stagnant for quite a while before Mayer arrived. Since she arrived, Yahoo has been rolling out major redesigns of its key products, like search, its homepage, Yahoo Mail and Flickr.

Some of these redesigns have been more popular than others. Even after two months, we still continue to see a great deal of negative commentary from Yahoo Mail users about the redesign, though the fact that it has inspired so much passionate outrage should say something itself. Users care about Yahoo Mail.

On the email side of things, Yahoo is doing even more to get users interested, offering up old out-of-use addresses and Yahoo IDs to users, so they can get better names. This move, however, has been controversial, as security experts have taken issue with it.

Apart from all the redesigns, Yahoo has been acquiring properties left and right, even at a higher pace than Google, who has historically been very acquisition-happy. Many of these acquisitions should only translate to more users, and Tumblr is the big one.

Obviously a great deal of Google’s users come from search, and Google has the advantage of its Chrome browser’s address bar (or omnibox, if you will) pointing users directly to Google properties every time they get on the Internet. Add YouTube into the mix, and Yahoo’s presence on the list ahead of Google is all the more impressive, even without the high search market share Google holds.

Still, Yahoo hopes to snag a little bit of that Chrome search usage, as just last week, the company launched a revamped toolbar, making it available for Chrome for the first time. Of course, that doesn’t only take people to Yahoo search, but also to other popular Yahoo properties.

If mobile traffic were included in the numbers, Google would likely see a significant bump in its rankings, though I wonder how mobile Google+ use stacks up to mobile Tumblr use. YouTube is another story.

Yahoo is on a mission to emerge from the perception that it is a dinosaur of the Internet. The above numbers are a good sign, as is the the Tumblr acquisition, but the company is also undergoing a rebranding process. We’re currently in the middle of a period in which Yahoo is testing out a different logo every day before it assesses feedback and ultimately chooses a fresh look.

A regular point of criticism against the company is that that they have the traffic, but aren’t monetizing it well enough. Well, they’re working on it. It didn’t take long for more ads to hit Tumblr, for example.

A quarter of a million new blogs are being set up each day on Tumblr, Mayer said on a recent earnings call. She also hinted at pending Tumblr integrations into Yahoo products. Daily active users were up 120% across mail applications, she said.

The company recently announced new ad formats – stream ads in the Yahoo News stream, and a billboard ad on the homepage. Yahoo has also been increasing its content partnerships with brands like ABC News, CNBC, Condé Nast, Broadway Video, and NBC.

Yahoo’s lead as the top U.S. web property should be considered a big deal to advertisers, plain and simple.

Businesses in general should also take note, and consider ways to reach this enormous audience. Google certainly has the search market share, but there are still a lot of people searching with Yahoo/Bing. Yahoo Mail is clearly still a big portion of the email market, and Google is only making it harder for marketers to get their messages seen in Gmail.

196.6 million people (remember, that’s just the U.S. audience) is a lot of traffic, and traffic on the web flows. Not all of it, but some of that is going to flow to other businesses like yours if you make the efforts to take advantage of the opportunities where they’re presented, whether that be search, mail, shopping, or wherever.

You might want to take a look at what Yahoo offers at its Yahoo Small Business site, which includes domains, email, hosting, ecommerce, advertising tools, APIs and other resources. Here’s a list of Yahoo’s sites and services. When was the last time you considered how you could take advantage of what Yahoo has to offer on the web? The fact that Yahoo is the top web property should be a wake up call.

Do you plan on re-evaluating your online strategy in light of Yahoo’s impressive numbers? Are you already seeing benefits from Yahoo? Let us know in the comments.

Image: World Economic Forum (Flickr/Wikimedia Commons)

August 22, 2013
Apple, Samsung Continue to Gobble Up Market Share

The new ComScore mobile numbers are out today, and it’s the same story that consumers have been telling for over one year now.

Apple and Samsung, unsurprisingly, have both gained market share in the U.S. smartphone hardware market. Apple saw a relatively mild rise of 0.3% market share to 39.2% over the past three months, while Samsung continued its incredible consolidation of the Android smartphone market with at 1.7% increase to 23%. Together the two companies are shipping over 62% of smartphones in the U.S. HTC and Motorola, the two Android handset manufacturers with the highest market share behind Samsung, fell 0.6% each, to 8.7% and 7.8% respectively.

On the smartphone OS charts, Android still leads with a majority market share of 52.4%, a 0.7% increase from February. Apple comes next with its 39.2%. BlackBerry is still clinging onto third place in the mobile OS market with 4.8%, a 0.6% decrease in share from three months ago. Microsof’s Windows Phone platforms now have only 3% of the U.S. market share, down 0.2%.

These numbers are a particularly brutal blow to BlackBerry, which released its BlackBerry 10 OS smartphones earlier this year with the intention of reinvigorating its brand. In addition to its falling market share, the Canadian tech company posted a dismal earnings report this morning, showing that it had an $84 million operating loss during its first quarter. Moreover, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins revealed during today’s earnings call that the company has lost 4 million subscribers since the end of the previous quarter.

June 28, 2013
Facebook Obliterates Other Social Sites in Battle for Your Eyes

We know the Facebook is the most popular social network in the U.S., and even in the world in terms of total active users. In fact, it dominates. But just how big of a lead does Facebook have on other social sites when it comes to where you spend your time?

Well, it’s not even close.

According to a white paper from ComScore, Facebook accounts for 5 of every 6 minutes spent on a social networking site (83%). The next highest was Tumblr with 5.7%. Pinterest and Twitter command a very small amount, 1.9% and 1.7% respectively.

According to the report, Facebook leads in share of total time spent on the web with 10.8% – just over all Google sites with 10%. Google sites command the largest audience, however, with 191.4 million people in the U.S.

Long story short: it’s Facebook’s world, and all other social networks are just living in it.

[ComScore via CNET]

February 15, 2013