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Tag: eMarketer

  • Promoted Pins Are Really Good At Getting Clicks

    Promoted Pins Are Really Good At Getting Clicks

    When 2015 started, Pinterest made reservation-based Promoted Pins available to all advertising partners. Early indication is that the ad format could be a major driver of revenue for the company.

    Pinterest first began testing Promoted Pins in the fall of 2013, and officially launched the beta last May. They started with a few partner brands, but over the course of the summer, gave more businesses the opportunity to create their own do-it-yourself Promoted Pins.

    eMarketer is pointing to some data from a survey by Frank N. Magid Associates finding that Promoted Pins getting clicked on by a significant amount of Pinterest users. They seem to be more effective than promoted posts on Facebook and Twitter, at least in terms of user clicks. According to this, 30% of U.S. Pinterest users between the ages of 13 and 64 said they clicked on Promoted Pins at least weekly. 33% clicked on them at least monthly, and only 15% said they did so less than once per month.

    Last last month, Pinterest shared some of its own findings from testing. Promoted Pins perform just as well or better than organic ones.

    “Brand advertisers achieved about a 30% bump in earned media (free impressions!) from their campaigns,” said Pinterest Head of Partnerships Joanne Bradford. “That’s from people who saw a Promoted Pin and thought it was good enough to save to one of their own boards. Engagement is strong— the average Pin is repinned 11 times, and that remains true for Promoted Pins (if not higher).”

    “Promoted Pins perform long after a campaign ends. Since Pins are evergreen and last forever, we often saw an extra 5% bump in earned media in the month following the end of a campaign,” she added. “Brands both in and out of our core categories found success. From financial services to food to auto, brands from a wide array of industries saw results. Auction-based Promoted Pins (CPC) are seeing success, too. Many of our self-serve beta partners are seeing major gains in traffic and impressions.”

    Pinterest will be adding additional formats and advanced targeting options to Promoted Pins.

    Image via eMarketer

  • How Top Publishers’ Social Referrals Are Divided

    We recently looked at data from Shareaholic, which showed social media referral share by social network across Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, StumbleUpon, reddit, YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn:

    As you can see, the data shows that Facebook is (by far) the biggest driver of social media traffic, with Pinterest at a distant second. Furthermore, according to this, Facebook is the only one driving more referrals compared to the previous quarter.

    Emarketer has a new chart out, which makes use of data from Fractl and BuzzSumo. It shows social network referral share for articles worldwide by some of the top publishers, which provides an additional look at how some of the top social networks are driving traffic:

    This chart also hammers home the point that Facebook is insanely dominant when it comes to social referrals. Nothing else comes even remotely close. It’s interesting that Mashable, compared to the other publishers, has its eggs in more baskets.

    The fact that Facebook is messing with its News Feed algorithm so much these days should be concerning to all of the other publishers, which appear to rely on it so heartily. Obviously this doesn’t take into account other non-social traffic sources, such as search, direct visits, and email, but having nearly a hundred percent of your social traffic coming from one source seems somewhat dangerous – especially for the kind of site that feeds off of sharing.

    Images via Shareaholic, Emarketer

  • Report: Microsoft To Overtake Yahoo In Online Ads This Year

    Microsoft will surpass Yahoo in digital ad market share this year, according to a new report from eMarketer. This comes as Yahoo just reported a disappointing quarter, with much of the disappointment coming specifically from its display advertising business.

    “Our top priority is revenue growth and by that measure, we are not satisfied with our Q2 results,” said CEO Marissa Mayer in her obligatory press release quote, typically reserved for more positive statements.

    eMarketer says, “Though Yahoo’s ad revenues will be back in the black this year, increasing its global digital ad revenues by 2.7% after a decline of 2.1% in 2013 to reach $3.53 billion, the company’s share of the $140.15 billion digital advertising market will fall from 2.86% to 2.52%. At the same time, Microsoft will grow its net worldwide ad revenues by more than 20% over 2013 to reach $3.56 billion, eMarketer estimates, accounting for 2.54% of the market—just enough to surpass Yahoo for the first time.”

    By the firm’s projections, Facebook will remain significantly above Microsoft, with Google still completely dominating, of course.

    “Display remains an area of investment and transition,” Mayer told investors. “In Q2, we saw display revenue decline, further highlighting the fact that we need to work faster to ameliorate the negative trends. I believe we can and will do better moving forward. Overall, I remain confident in Yahoo’s future, our strategy, and our return to long-term growth.”

    As of the time of this writing, Yahoo shares are down 4.83% in afternoon trading.

    Image via eMarketer

  • Is Your Facebook Response Rate Up To Snuff?

    As social media engagement on Facebook rises, response rates from brands are slipping. Brands are struggling to get their messages in front of users thanks to a decline in organic reach of Page posts, but are they responding to their customers when they actually need something? The stats suggest that they’re not doing it enough. Perhaps this should be a bigger area of focus for brands.

    Do you adequately respond to people on Facebook? Do you have trouble reaching other brands? Let us know in the comments.

    Earlier this year, eMarketer compiled some data from Sprout Social, reporting that social media response rates and times were dipping as user engagement “exploded”. User engagement, it found, was growing nine times faster than Facebook and Twitter combined. Things were even worse on Facebook than on Twitter.

    “How are brands keeping up? Results indicated they were not: Average brand response rates for both Twitter and Facebook dipped below 20% year over year, and response times increased from 10.9 hours to 11.3 hours,” the report said. “On Facebook, response times came in at 15 hours, on average, while Twitter was at 7.9 hours.”

    “The banking/finance industry was a shining star among sectors, answering 28% of users—the No. 1 response rate—typically in 10.0 hours,” it said. “Utilities had an even shorter response time (9.7 hours) and a response rate of 27%.”

    Here’s a look at the stats:

    Now, SocialBakers has a report out (via InsideFacebook) for June stats for the U.S., which shows that response rates from brands are still sinking. Overall, it has the average response rate at 38% after a 48% showing in May.

    A couple years ago, the firm introduced its “Socially Devoted” industry standard, measuring brands that create open lines of communication with fans, respond to fans’ questions at least 65% of the time, and do so in a timely fashion. They talked about it at Le Web a bit:

    You can get a look at the brand rankings here, and see who’s doing it right. Check out their Pages, and get an idea of what they’re doing.

    Socialbakers shares these reports in a nice PNG infographic-like format, so here’s the whole thing for you to sink your teeth into:

    The takeaway here is simple. Pay attention to your fans. Chances are you’re already having hard enough time reaching them in the first place. At least treat the ones who have sought you out with the respect they deserve.

    Is your response rate up to snuff? Do you have the time and resources to make it so? Let us know in the comments.

    Image via SocialBakers

  • Small Businesses Struggle With Finding New Customers More Than Anything Else [Report]

    Gallup and Wells Fargo recently released results from their Q1 2014 Small Business Index.

    The study found that attracting customers, targeting business opportunities, and finding new business were among the top challenges for small business owners in the U.S. 21% of owners cited these (combined) as the top challenge. Behind these, but significantly lower in percentage, were government regulation, the economy, healthcare/Obamacare, hiring qualified/good staff and retaining them, financial stability/cash flow, and costs/fees of running business/having enough money for capital investment.

    In other words, the biggest challenge facing small business, by far, is simply getting new customers.

    eMarketer has put out some charts based on data from the study. Here’s a look at the challenges, and how businesses view them:

    With that data in hand, eMarketer turns to March data from Huzzah Media about the most successful marketing tactics that help small businesses “grab prospects’ attention”.

    Friend referrals is by far the most successful at 52.2%, followed by advertising at 33.2%. Coupons and press articles have surprisingly little success at 3.5% and 1.3% respectively. Check out the report for the full graph and further analysis.

    The data for the Small Business Index comes from telephone interviews with 603 small business owners, conducted from January 2nd to January 6th.

    Image via eMarketer

  • Report: B2B Trending Towards Mobile Before PC

    Report: B2B Trending Towards Mobile Before PC

    eMarketer has a new report out called, “B2B Mobile Marketing: As Buyers Harken to Mobility, Sellers Hasten to Keep up.” The firm references data from Forrester Research, Forbes Insights, and Google.

    For one, it says (citing Forrester) that 91% of “connected employees” used a computer at their work desk in Q4 2012, and 64% also used a smartphone. We can only imagine that percentage has grown significantly over the past year.

    eMarketer looks at locations where connected employees use their tablets, smartphones and computers. Again, this data is over a year old, so it’s likely to have skewed to increased mobility.

    It then looks at data from a year ago from Forbes and Google, showing that over half of business executives in the U.S. said that within the next three years, they’d be using mobile devices as their primary business platform as opposed to PCs.

    The paid report delves into the role mobile tech is playing in informing B2B buying decisions, how B2B marketers are factoring mobile into their budgets, strategies and tactics, and how these marketers are integrating mobile at different phases of the buying process.

    Image via eMarketer

  • Report: Big Data A Priority Among Marketers, But Struggles Continue

    Report: Big Data A Priority Among Marketers, But Struggles Continue

    Marketers are struggling to make use of big data, despite sentiments that it is “changing everything,” according to a new report from eMarketer, which has culled together data from multiple surveys.

    It first looks at data from last summer from KPMG, which found that 47% of CFO and CIO respondents said they were increasing the capacity (either hardware or personnel) to analyze big data. 39% said they were attaining management buy-in for big data collection and analysis. 27% said they were honing parameters for data collection, and 25% said they were putting insights garnered from big data to practice in a timely way (that’s not very many).

    The biggest problem seems to be that while big data presents some amazing opportunities for businesses, data is not always easy to take advantage of as one might think. eMarketer looks at some data types that email marketers are struggling with, based on November data from Strongview:

    According to recent research from IDC, the Big Data market will hit over $32 billion by 2017.

    On Tuesday, Google launched real-time big data analytics to its BigQuery product, and reduced its pricing.

    Image via eMarketer

  • Two Out Of Five Salespeople Aren’t Meeting Their Quotas [Report]

    Qvidian has some new research out finding that only 63% of salespeople are making their quotas. As a result, improving overall quota attainment is one of the top goals of executive managers.

    The report, based on data from CSO Insights, is visualized with some graphs created by eMarketer (even Qvidian itself links to eMarketer for the report). As you can see from this one, the goal falls under only increasing win rates.

    According to the report, the most likely reason quotas aren’t being reached is that opportunities end up as “no decisions”. Other reasons include salespeople being burdened with tasks with less time to spend selling, being unable to effectively communicate value, selling content and resources that aren’t aligned to the buyer, inability to find the necessary content or resources for selling, and selling content not tailored to the specific selling situation.

    Areas cited by respondents as needing improvement include (from most to least): conducting thorough needs analysis, identifying and gaining access to all decision-makers, clearly understanding customer’s buying process, generating winning proposals and personalized selling, differentiating from competition, providing content specific to selling situation and buyer, and effectively presenting value.

    SurePayroll president Michael Alter wrote an article for Inc.com a few years ago discussing ways to overcome unmet sales quotas. He suggested considering each sales rep’s experience and performance when developing individual quotas, getting more by asking for less, comparing results to past performance, and compensating successful reps adequately.

    Joseph DiMisa, who has written multiple books on salesforce effectiveness, shares some insight into designing effective sales quotas in a more recent article.

    Image via eMarketer

  • Report: Native Advertising Flourishing (Especially In Social)

    It’s no secret that native advertising has been on the rise. According to a new report from eMarketer, it has been “flourishing” across social media channels, content portals, news sites, video-sharing sites, and streaming services. It’s giving a great deal of the credit to the growth in mobile use of all of these types of services.

    The firm recalls December data from BIA/Kelsey, estimating that native ad spending on social media would grow to $5 billion in 2017 (from $3.1 billion this year). They’re saying it will be as much as 42.4% of all social ad spending.

    Also in December, a report from Kontera found that native advertising consumption had jumped significantly over the previous few months, going from 7% in June to 44% in November.

    eMarketer reports, “For media publishers, native advertising represents an opportunity to reverse the tide of flat or declining revenues. eMarketer estimates US print ad spending will decline from $32.16 billion in 2014 to $31.29 billion in 2018. Digital ad spending on newspapers and magazines will increase to $8.41 billion by 2018, from $7.48 billion in 2014, but these gains will still leave the industry essentially flat for the forecast period. With these numbers as a backdrop, it’s easy to see why media companies are so eager to create new revenue streams through native ads.”

    One very interesting takeaway from the firm’s research, as Ad Age points out, is that native ads are actually helping display sales.

    In December, the IAB released its Native Advertising Playbook (which they just followed up on with the In-Image Advertising Primer).

    The playbook is aimed at giving marketers a consistent framework for the discussion surrounding native ads. It was released as the FTC put them in the spotlight, and warned publishers about illegal ones.

    The full eMarketer report is available here.

    Image via Kontera

  • Facebook And Google Propelled Mobile Ad Spend To 105% In 2013 [Report]

    There has been a lot of question about the effectiveness of Facebook advertising lately, but the numbers show advertisers are spending tons of money on it, and in mobile, it’s one of the driving forces behind a rapidly growing market.

    According to a new report from eMarketer, global mobile ad spend increased by 105% in 2013, reaching $17.96 billion, and is on pace to hit $31.45 billion this year. That, the firm says, would account for about a quarter of total digital ad spend.

    So which companies are leading the charge? Take a guess. Facebook and Google of course. The two companies combined for 75.2% of the additional $9.2 billion that went toward mobile, and for over two thirds of mobile ad spend in 2013, according to the report, which also says that will continue to increase this year.

    “Facebook in particular is gaining significant market share,” the firm says. “In 2012, the social network accounted for just 5.4% of the global advertising market. In 2013, that share increased to 17.5%, and eMarketer predicts it will rise again this year to 21.7%. Google still owns a plurality of the mobile advertising market worldwide, taking a portion of nearly 50% in 2013, but the rapid growth of Facebook will cause the search giant’s share to drop to 46.8% in 2014, eMarketer estimates.”

    While Facebook’s continues significant growth, marketers are also growing increasingly frustrated with it, not only for a decrease in organic reach, but also for the results they’re getting from ads.

    This week, Forrester’s Vice President and Principal Analyst Nate Elliott blogged about how brands are becoming “disillusioned” with Facebook as an advertising platform.

    “Brands and agencies are now openly talking about their discontent,” he wrote. “Every day I talk to brands that are disillusioned with Facebook and are now placing their bets on other social sites — but few of them want to go on the record. Lately, though, more brands and agencies have started speaking openly to the media about how Facebook is failing them. One former Facebook advertiser referred to Facebook as ‘one of the most lucrative grifts of all time.’”

    As Jim Edwards at Business Insider, suggested in response, “The opinions of various advertisers should be taken with a pinch of salt — the numbers tell the real story,” but he added, “It is unusual for advertisers to talk this way about a major media partner. These comments will hurt.”

    The numbers have been just fine for Facebook, and this eMarketer research only backs them up. In January, Facebook reported that its ad revenue was up 75% year-over-year at $2.34 billion (with 53% of that from mobile, which itself was up 23%).

    Image via eMarketer

  • Consumers Are Actually Watching A Lot Of Long-Form Video Ads

    Long-form online video ad views are experiencing tremendous growth, according to data from FreeWheel, as reported by eMarketer.

    This refers specifically to video ads that play during videos 20 minutes or longer. Those served on FreeWheel’s network experienced a massive 86% jump year over year in the fourth quarter, after experiencing a 56% YoY jump the prior quarter.

    eMarketer shares this visualization:

    Not only are the views growing, but completion rates have been significantly higher than they have been for ads on short and medium-length videos (0-5 minutes and 5 -20 minutes respectively). The completion rates are even better for the same length ads on long-form videos compared to short and medium-length. According to the data, fifteen-second ads saw a 92% completion rate compared to 82% for medium-length and 75% for short. Ads twice as long saw only a slight decline in completion rate (90%).

    It makes sense. Consumers are likely committing to completing longer videos, and there therefore sitting through the ads to do so. With long-form videos, people know they’re going to spending some time watching. With shorter videos, users often aren’t going to give them as much of a chance to capture their interest, and may decide sitting through an ad isn’t worth the time they’re going to spending watching the video itself.

    Image via eMarketer

  • TV Is About to Lose Its Crown to Digital Media for the First Time Ever

    For the first time ever, television is about to be less popular than digital media among U.S. adults.

    At least that’s the word from eMarketer, who say that in 2013, Americans will spend an average of 5 hours and 9 minutes per day looking at media on digital devices. We’re talking Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and browsing the web. That’s up from 4 hours and 31 minutes in 2012.

    TV watching will fall from 4 hours and 38 minutes in 2012 to 4 hours and 31 minutes in 2013. That means that they predict American adults will spend 38 more minutes per day with digital media as they do watching TV.

    According to eMarketer, the big increase comes from mobile:

    “The most significant growth area is on mobile. Adults will spend an average of 2 hours and 21 minutes per day on nonvoice mobile activities, including mobile internet usage on phones and tablets – longer than they will spend online on desktop and laptop computers, and nearly an hour more than they spent on mobile last year.”

    It’s important to note that eMarketer’s data includes “multitasking” – for instance checking out Facebook while watching TV.

    Another interesting find is the rise in tablet use over the past few years. Back in 2010, Americans only spent 1 minutes per day on average browsing the internet with a tablet. In 2013, they predict that number will rise to 1 hour and 3 minutes – only 4 minutes shy of how much time people will spend on smartphones.

    TV still wins out in one metric, however – news consumption. A recent Gallup poll indicated that 55& of American adults say that TV is their primary source for news. 21% of adults say that about the internet.

  • The Rise Of Social Gaming Doesn’t Mean Gamers Are Becoming More Social

    Social and mobile gaming is huge. That fact can’t be disputed. What can be disputed, however, is a perception that people are increasingly playing games together. A new research study has found that to not be the case.

    eMarketer released the results of a study conducted by AYTM Market Reserch today that surveyed U.S. Internet users about their gaming habits. Interestingly enough, gamers, despite being more connected with others than ever before, are still preferring to play single player games. They found that a majority of U.S. Internet users (57.8 percent) predominantly play single-player games. Social network-based games come in a close second, however, at 41.2 percent. Multiplayer games and mobile games bring up the rear at 33.7 percent and 30.3 percent respectively.

    Gamers’ desire to play alone also carries over to their communication habits. The study found that 29 percent of gamers never communicate with somebody online while playing games, and 30.9 percent only rarely ever communicate with others online. Those who always or mostly communicate with others online only make up 25.6 percent.

    Even if gamers are still playing alone, they are embracing mobile games in a big way. The study found that 53 percent of U.S. Internet users play mobile games at least once a week. Console gaming comes in second place with 42 percent of U.S. Internet users professing to play their console at least once a week. Free-to-play games are all the way down at 27 percent, and subscription MMOs come in dead last at 10 percent.

    So, what does this all mean? Despite people in the U.S. using the Internet more than ever, most still prefer to play games alone. The findings fly in the face of game makers who claim the future of gaming is social. It’s true that social is becoming increasingly important to gamers, but those same gamers still seem to prefer single-player experiences more than other types of games.

    Hopefully, this research will send a strong message against the trend of forcing gamers to interact with others to progress. It should only be one of many options, with one option specifically serving those who prefer to play games by themselves.

  • With Its Emmy-Nominated Shows, Will Netflix Sway More People Away From Cable?

    The Emmy nominations are out, and three Netflix original shows have earned fourteen nominations. This is a good sign for the future of high quality original online programming. We’re talking about the Emmys here, and Netflix is just getting started. Its latest show Orange is the new Black is already getting as much positive buzz and as many positive reviews (if not more) than House of Cards did before it. House of Cards has nine nominations on its own.

    Suffice it to say that Netflix is getting off to a pretty good start with its original programming initiative, which largely just began early this year with the release of House of Cards. Prior to that, Netflix just had one original series with Lilyhammer, which hasn’t garnered the buzz that the rest of the shows have, but apparently has done well enough that Netflix decided to carry on with a second season, and the fact that the rest of the shows have generated so much buzz just might lead more people to check out Netflix’s first foray into original content.

    Beyond Lilyhammer, House of Cards, Hemlock Grove and Orange is the New Black all have second seasons in the works, and word is that the company is in talks to get another season of Arrested Development off the ground. The show’s creator has seemed pretty interested, so if all of the puzzles pieces come together on that (particularly the cast members), it’s highly likely that the show will continue.

    To make a long story short, people are interested in watching what Netflix has to offer, and when it comes to original series, it’s not like customers have to worry about titles going away before they get a chance to watch them like they do with other third-party content.

    Emarketer has compiled some interesting data about Netflix subscribers and their television habits. They point to a June study from Cowen and Company, which found that about three-quarters of Netflix subscribers in the U.S. kept their cable, satellite or telecom pay TV subscriptions, but that another 20% said they got rid of theirs. It seems fairly likely that the trend will move toward cord cutting as Netflix along with its competitors like Amazon and Hulu get more original content and make deals to get other well established content.

    “Cord-cutting is typically associated with those in the youngest age bracket, and the survey found this to hold somewhat true,” eMarketer says. “However, there was also a notable propensity to cut the cord among Netflix subscribers between 30 to 44 years old, with 41% having cut pay TV. Overall, this age group was more likely to subscribe to Netflix than 18- to 29-year-old respondents.”

    Netflix subscribers

    Original shows give Netflix an important weapon against its competition, though its competitors are working on similar strategies, but the licensing of third-party movies and television content will remain a critical component. As popular as House of Cards is, for example, it’s nothing compared to the popularity of some cable TV shows.

    The Wall Street Journal reports on a study by GFK, which found that House of Cards accounted for less than one percent of TV shows viewed by regular Netflix users during a week in April, compared to 3% for old episodes of AMC’s Breaking Bad and Mad Men (each). Star Trek (the combined catalog) accounted for 4%. Even still, other popular TV shows like The Office, Fringe, 30 Rock and Glee were also around the 1% mark, according to the report.

    Obviously Netflix knows how crucial it is to have the content people want to watch, which is why it constantly makes new deals to get it. Already in July, it has announced deals with Fox, CBS and PBS, which will enable it to exclusively stream reruns of New Girl, Super Why!, and The Bletchley Circle, as well as stream (non-exclusively) a variety of other popular shows. Meanwhile, to make room for stuff like this, Netflix also regularly filters out the stuff that people don’t watch enough.

    Netflix will report its quarterly earnings on Monday, so we’ll get an idea how things are doing on the business side of things. Either way, users and critics appear to be on board with Netflix’s strategy at large.

  • Native Advertising Trend Has Some (Including Google) Concerned

    Native advertising spend is on the rise, and is expected to reach $4.57 billion in 2017. For comparison, last year it was at $1.63 billion, and is projected to hit $2.36 billion this year.

    When we talk about native advertising, we’re talking about the kind of ads that take the form of content that users might expect to see on the site anyway. This can come in the form of videos, images, articles, tweets, status updates or other media, but all in all, it’s a trend that is rising quickly. Even as the trend is clearly pointing upward, some are concerned about what this means for the future of content and paid messaging, as a new eMarketer report indicates.

    Do you think native advertising is a good direction for online ads to be trending in? Why or why not? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    For a better understanding of native advertising, take a look at this infographic Solve Media put out a few months ago (via Mashable), attempting to explain it:

    Native Advertising

    Despite those trying to draw lines between adverotirals and native advertising, Google pretty much sees them as going hand in hand. This makes sense, because either way, it’s a message that is being paid for, and if it’s being paid for, and it’s passing PageRank, that is a violation of Google’s quality guidelines, and will get you penalized.

    In fact, while this is already something Google has frowned upon, the company has recently indicated that it will be cracking down on this more, so beware of that.

    We recently looked at a video from Google’s Matt Cutts in which he ran down a lot of the changes Google is planning on making in the coming months, and he specifically talked about advertorials and native advertising during part of it. Here’s the video again, in case you missed it:

    “We’ve also been looking at advertorials,” he said. “That is sort of native advertising – and those sorts of things that violate our quality guidelines. So, again, if someone pays for coverage, or pays for an ad or something like that, those ads should not flow PageRank. We’ve seen a few sites in the U.S. and around the world that take money and do link to websites, and pass PageRank, so we’ll be looking at some efforts to be a little bit stronger on our enforcement as advertorials that violate our quality guidelines.”

    “There’s nothing wrong inherently with advertorials or native advertising, but they should not flow PageRank, and there should be clear and conspicuous disclosure, so that users realize that something is paid – not organic or editorial,” he added.

    So, even as we see more and more of this kind of advertising saturating the web, webmasters better make sure they’re not also saturating Google’s index, because the search giant will not be shy about holding your site accountable, and that could have the opposite effect from the one you intended with the advertorial in the first place. Good luck finding advertisers when your site can’t be found in Google.

    Beyond Google, as mentioned, others are also concerned about the native advertising trend.

    “Although business prospects for native advertising are positive, the medium has its detractors,” says eMarketer. “Some media executives and marketers are wary of the blurring of lines between content and advertising that occurs with native ads, particularly in the context of news sites. Others question the return on investment of these ads, arguing that native ads cannot scale for multiple placements.”

    They point to recent research from MediaBrix, which found that a high percentage of U.S. Internet users find ads that appear as content misleading:

    Misleading ads

    “Despite the potential backlash against misunderstood native ads, media sites under monetization pressure are turning to native advertising to drive digital revenue,” says eMarketer. “Notable examples include Forbes, The Atlantic and The Washington Post. Others such as CNN and Hearst have said they are considering it.”

    You can find eMarketer’s report here.

    Are you concerned about native ads, or is this the future of online marketing? Let us know in the comments.

  • Japan Could Be The Next Big Facebook Market

    In 2010, Japan’s population was a little over 128 million people, according to census data. But only 4.68 million people in the country were on Facebook – a paltry percent that shows the worldwide giant which boasts 900+ users has a lot of work to do to penetrate what could be a lucrative market.

    Now, it appears that things may be looking up. According to eMarketer data, users engagement is growing pretty fast, up 61.6% as 7.6 million people in Japan logged on to Facebook at least once a month in 2011.

    The figures project even more growth in the coming years, as they expect Japanese users to grow by 51.5% in 2011, 43% in 2013, and 18.7% in 2014 – which would see the country with nearly 20 million users by the end of the projections.

    Facebook growing in Japan

    Although 20 million users would still only amount to 15.4% of the total population, eMarketer quotes a recent survey that shows Japan’s Facebook users (however small) are making it count:

    According to a February 2012 Macromill survey of Facebook users in Japan, translated by What Japan Thinks, more than half (52.8%) of Facebook users in Japan accessed the site on a daily basis, while a quarter accessed at least twice a day.

    What Japan Thinks reported that the percentage of users logging in twice a day or more tripled over last year’s figure of 8.6%. And users aren’t just logging on more often; they are spending more time on the site as well: 28% spent an average of 30 minutes or more on the site each time they logged on.

    In a market that’s struggling with adoption, Facebook can take comfort in quality of quantity when it comes to their users.

    Facebook’s problem in Japan (and other Asia-Pacific countries) has been well documented. A study of the reasons behind the problem by TechInAsia cites a lack of security and a complicated user interface. Also, the Japanese tend to value anonymity, and Facebook simply doesn’t provide what they’re accustomed to. If Facebook can begin to make ground in Japan, it could be great for the company as they can work to turn the newly engaged user base into a profitable one.

  • Do Paywalls Scare Off Media Professionals?

    Do Paywalls Scare Off Media Professionals?

    Paywalls seem to be straightforward: users pay to gain access to content. What could be simpler? The internet, however, with its ability to infinitely copy and immediately disseminate information, quickly makes whatever lurks behind paywalls worthless. The only paywalls that have worked are those catering to niche industries or groups of people (such as financial investors) who require instant access to breaking stories in their industry.

    eMarketer, a website specializing in digital intelligence reports, has just released a review of an April 2012 DigiCareers study in which U.S. digital medial professionals were polled about their feelings toward paywalls. Though a majority of them do not abide paywalls, there is evidence to suggest that attitudes toward the content-locking shcemes are becoming more accepting.

    After encountering a paywall, 52% of digital media professionals immediately leave the site. 42% stick around to weigh whether the pricing is fair. Oddly, 4% of respondents “applaud the site for their business acumen.”

    As for what respondents are willing to pay for, Hollywood might be winning its public relations battle in that area. While only 8% said they had paid for radio, 47% paid for movies and 35% paid for music. Of course, these percentages are still a minority, suggesting that a simple paywall scheme for entertainment content may not be the best model.

    90% of survey respondents expect a “freemium” model where at least some content is free before hitting a paywall, and 63% expect no ads once they pay. Almost as many, 61%, are willing to see ads behind a paywall, as long as it lowers the paywall toll price. In what might be the most interesting news from the survey, only one-quarter of respondents said they had a negative perception of sites that use paywalls.

    With so much free content available online these days, what could possibly get viewers to pay for content? The answer isn’t surprising. eMarketer cites an Accenture study that shows over one-third of viewers are willing to pay more for content that is either higher-quality or has reduced advertising attached to it. Viewers will gladly pay for new, high-quality content; they just don’t want to feel cheated. If content creators offer their products in an easy, straightforward manner, in quality as good as that available through piracy, viewers will buy it.

    (via eMarketer)

  • Twitter Is Now Growing Way Faster Than Facebook

    Facebook is a behemoth. But because it’s already so huge, its growth is slowing and is going to get even slower of the next couple of years. Twitter’s growth will also slow, but will remain much higher than Facebook’s, according to a report from eMarketer.

    Over the last year, Twitter grew its user base 31.9%. Facebook only grew their 13.4%. This is a flip-flop from 2010, which saw Facebook growing at a staggering 38.6% and Twitter at 23.5%. So, according to eMarketer, 2011 marked the first time that Twitter overtook Facebook is user growth.

    Although both growth rates will fall over the next couple of years, it appears that Twitter will continue to grow 3-4 times faster than Facebook. Check out the growth graph below:

    According to eMarketer, Facebook just doesn’t have anywhere to go, while Twitter could increase it’s user base to 37.6 million (monthly users) by the end of 2014:

    Twitter’s size, which is fairly small, is one factor that makes such growth rates possible. Facebook already reached an enormous audience of nearly 133 million US internet users at the end of 2011, a figure that will surpass 150 million by 2014. Twitter, in comparison, had a US user base of less than 24 million at the end of last year. Still, between 2010 and 2014, eMarketer predicts, Twitter will about double its US user base, reaching 37.6 million microbloggers by the period’s end.

    Of course, the forecast is only talking about Twitter’s growth rate exceeding that of Facebook’s. When it comes to active monthly users, Facebook is still the king – by a longshot.

  • Google Reigns As Search Ad Spending Increases

    Google Reigns As Search Ad Spending Increases

    With elections in the United States and the Summer Olympic Games across the Atlantic pond in London this year, U.S. ad spending is expected to continue a strong growth throughout 2012, according to eMarketer. The digital marketing analysis firm estimates that search spending will jump up to $19.5 billion, which is a 27.9% increase from last year. In the upcoming years, however, search ad spending is expected to slow down although the total amount spent will likely near the $30 billion mark by 2016.

    As if this is any surprise to anyone in the Internet know, Google’s revenues will continue to grow in 2012 but eMarketer expects that Microsoft will eventually surpass Google’s growth rate 2013 and 2014. Still, they point out, by that time Google will command 10 times the search ad revenue that Microsoft will claim.

    Even with Microsoft’s greater growth rate in the next few years, Google will undoubtedly remain atop the search ad market in the United States. eMarketer expects that Google will collect 77.9% of all U.S. search ad revenues this year and, by 2014, its total market share will be 79.8%. In a bit of good news for Microsoft, who seems to be a fatal second place to Google in search ad revenue, eMarketer anticipates that the company will pull further ahead from Yahoo! and AOL as both of the latter companies are expected to lose “more than half” of their search ad revenues between 2011 and 2014.

    Given that Google’s ad revenue growth over the next three years is expected to drop off precipitously, I wonder if it’s just a symptom of Google peaking. There’s only so much you can advertise, right? Then again, maybe since this is a big year for commercialized events (U.S. elections, Summer Olympics) the next couple of years might just be “off” years until 2014 when the World Cup begins in Brazil and the Winter Olympics in Russia.

  • US Advertisers Will Spend More On Online Ads Than Print Ads In 2012

    Just because Google is testing the waters of print adverts in the United States doesn’t necessarily mean there’s going to be a resurgence of print advertising in the future. In fact, total spending on print advertising is projected to continue it’s downward spiral in 2012.

    According to people who understand the marketing market, the decline in print ad spending in the U.S. is expected to fall $33.8 billion this year while the amount of money funneled into online advertising is expected to seesaw upwards to $39.5 billion. Online adverting spending already grew 23% in 2011 and this year’s speculation would see an additional growth of 23.3%. Actually, barring any paper robot revolution, print ads are looking to remain static from here on out.

    If bar graphs aren’t your thing, eMarketer explains:

    “Advertisers’ comfort level with integrated marketing is greater than ever, and this is helping more advertisers—and more large brands—put a greater share of dollars online,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer principal analyst.

    The growing amount of time consumers spend with digital platforms and advertisers’ view of the internet as a more measurable medium—especially as the soft economy forces businesses to be more accountable with their ad dollars—are both significant contributors to digital’s growing footprint, Hallerman added.

    TV advertising spending, however, forecasts sunnier skies if you’re looking to sell some ads. eMarketer estimates that spending on TV advertising is expected to grow 6.8% this year and will continue to generate growth over the next few years.

    One reason eMarketer states that TV advertising will continue to grow is “a result of the rapid rise of digital advertising and brands’ continued confidence in television advertising, despite increasingly fragmented viewership and the soft economy.” Duh. The television market will always be a fertile ground to plant ads because people will never stop watching television. Hasn’t anybody ever seen Wall-E?

  • People Ditching Print Media, Spending More Time On Phones, Internet

    According to research firm eMarketer, it has finally happened. U.S. Adults are officially spending more time on their smartphones than they are reading newspapers and magazines combined.

    This year’s figures show that the average adult is spending an hour and five minutes on their mobile device, but only 26 minutes reading a newspaper and an even less amount of time reading magazines (18 minutes). Combined, traditional print media is taking up 44 minutes of your day, a full 21 minutes less than mobile activities.

    Time spent on mobile devices is up a whopping 30% from last year. Generic “internet” time is also up, 7.7% to be exact from two hours and 35 minutes to two hours and 47 minutes.

    TV and video still rules the average adult’s day, however. Despite a small drop from 2009 to 2010, time spent watching the tube increased from 264 minutes to 274 minutes in 2011.

    It’s important to note that the “time spent doing X” data is not exclusive to X. “Time spent with each medium also includes all time spent with that medium, regardless of multitasking, so an hour of watching TV while simultaneously on the internet is considered an hour of each activity.” So the rise of time spent online could have something to do with the rise in time spent on mobile devices, and vice versa.

    So what do we take from this? Really, this confirms the general notion that print media is falling off a bit. Of course, mobile time increasing doesn’t necessarily mean that people are forgoing the news to play Angry Birds all day. Mobile and internet use increases probably means that people are just choosing to get their news online.

    It is also interesting to see the TV and video usage rise this year. Since the eMarketer data limited this to a “traditional television set,” this could mean that fears about everyone “cutting the cable cord” could be unjustified. Or, this rise could be attributed to increases in streaming video services’ availability, like Netflix and Hulu on Xbox and PS3 consoles.

    Another interesting find from the study concerned ad dollars. Most of the U.S. ad spending shares correlate almost perfectly with the percentage of time the average adult spends on the specific media. For instance, TV takes up 42.5% of the average adult’s day, and it receives 42.2% of the ad dollars.

    The only discrepancy is when you look at ad dollars spent on mobile and print. I’ll let you take a took for yourself, but it appears that ad spending might be a little behind the times.

    While print is clearly not “dead,” this data confirms that people are moving in the opposite direction. Have you noticed that your mobile and internet consumption has cut into your print media consumption? Let us know in the comments.