Our latest summary of ad clickthrough rates statistics in the US, Europe, and Worldwide is designed to help you benchmark your paid digital and social media ads, set marketing budgets, and define your goals

If you're forecasting your digital media spend, you need to compare the ROI of your display ads, paid social, Google Ads, and social media. Depending on your objectives, it's worth reviewing and benchmarking the latest metrics like average click-through rates, average cost per click, and cost per lead. I've put this compilation together to help marketing professionals create direct response conversion models for digital marketing campaigns. By creating budget models using known benchmarks for average CTRs and digital media click-through costs, you can better forecast your return on investment from digital media ads. Our budgeting and forecasting spreadsheets include: Simple digital channel planning spreadsheet Conversion and revenue model spreadsheet Month-by-month customer acquisition spreadsheet …

A quick guide to different types of advertising for different purposes

This article explores different types of advertising online. Which ones are effective? Which among them actually help businesses reach their bottom line and business goals? In Digital Marketing: Integrating strategy and tactics with values, published 2014, Ira Kaufman and Chris Horton wrote that we’re well beyond the stage in which digital media is a fad. In fact, over the last 10 years, digital media has become the means by which consumers communicate with their friends and families, especially when making purchase decisions. This is the main reason why marketers embrace and invest in digital marketing and advertising. But, alongside these welcome developments in customer behavior and expectations, marketers are faced with increasing challenges - algorithm updates, changes in tracking, and increased noise in the digital landscape to name just three. As Anatolii Labinskyi put it 'change is…

How are programmatic marketing and digital display advertising defined and what are the opportunities for all types of business?

In the 15 plus years since the birth of programmatic marketing, it has really delivered on its original promise to be the future of advertising on the web. But what is programmatic marketing today? Now a fundamental part of most omnichannel marketing strategies, programmatic marketing is a term used to describe the complex use of data and machine learning to enable hyper-segmentation based on your customers' behavior. The exciting thing about programmatic is that as technology develops, marketers are exposed to more and more opportunities to find and engage their key customers. So, naturally, programmatic marketers will need to stay on their toes to keep up to date with the latest trends and innovations. Furthermore, with iPhone's incoming changes in privacy policy, it pays to think ahead when planning your advertising activities. In…

Tips and tricks to help you get the most out of paid search on China’s largest search platform

With Google claiming less than 2% of the market in China, the search engine landscape is markedly different from that in most Western markets. While there are several key players, including Haosou, Sogou, and Shenma, in the space, Baidu is undoubtedly the first port of call for most companies looking to run search marketing campaigns in China.

So, why Baidu?

There are several reasons why advertisers turn to Baidu when looking to advertise their products or services to Chinese consumers, the most important of which are outlined here.

Highest market share

Baidu search has the highest market share across both desktop and mobile users. According to Statista, Baidu boasts 74% of the Chinese search market, with…

Not many organizations are taking advantage of account-based advertising yet, but get ahead of the game and you could see significant growth in 2020

How do you command attention from your preferred companies when the online world is awash with so much content that it’s easy to get lost in the crowd? In the past, creating good-quality articles and sharing them on social media might have been enough to drive buyers to your site. But this tactic is no longer sufficient if you want to stand out. With the advent of technology to accurately identify companies browsing online, the ability to place advertising in front of them has become possible. We call this approach account-based advertising (ABA). Not many organizations are taking advantage of it yet, but get ahead of the game and you could see significant growth in 2020.

What is account-based advertising?

The idea of ABA is very simple. It uses technology…

With a little planning, you can tweak your campaigns to extract the most data, brand loyalty, and sales.

The new decade offers an exciting market for many businesses. With so many consumers actively shopping online, it’s the perfect opportunity for digital ads and promotions to lure consumers away from the competition. Unfortunately, when they create digital ad campaigns, some marketing departments fall into the trap of setting and forgetting. That often means your campaigns become outdated and irrelevant to consumers — and that’s not to mention the tech you’re using to advertise. [si_blog_banner_cta] The tech industry continues to change at a rapid pace. If your ads aren’t keeping up, you’re leaving money on the table. Automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are all aspects of the online ad scene that have changed drastically over the past year. There are also entirely new platforms appearing all the time, such as TikTok, whose ad power will…

Adverts have 'positive impact' on society, LinkedIn hits new records, Google announces new chatbot development and Facebook sees income slow

Although last year saw confidence in advertising take a tumble, it seems as though the UK public believes that adverts can have a positive impact on society. In positive news for LinkedIn, the platform has reported a new record in terms of total members, as well as huge increases in engagement. The news isn't as positive for Facebook though, as it has seen net income fall following a number of privacy scandals. Finally, Google has announced that it is working on a new chatbot system that better matches and understands human speech, which could transform the chatbot industry. We've got all the information on each of these news stories below. [si_guide_block id="98899" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Paid media and digital advertising playbook" description="This paid media planning guide will provide marketers with a structured…

87% of UK public wants stricter political ad regulations, Facebook bug removes political ads ahead of UK election, media prices are on the rise, Twitter announces new team to explore decentralized social media networks and YouTube updates its harassment policy

New research has revealed that the majority of the British public wants stricter rules around political advertising. Facebook's political ad transparency tools saw a failure a few days before the UK general election, removing a large number of political ads. Falling audiences are seeing media prices increases as more brands go digital. Twitter has announced that it is exploring a decentralized social media network model with the creation of a new independent team. YouTube has updated its harassment policy, introducing stricter rules and harsher punishments in a bid to make the platform a safer place. We've looked at all the details in our news roundup.

UK public wants stricter rules on political advertising

Following weeks of political…

Christmas advertising is bigger than ever, but are brands delivering festive cheer this year? We've taken a look at the biggest Christmas adverts from 2019

It seems like Christmas advertising starts earlier every year, with brands determined to make an impact with high-budget ads that tell stories and promote a festive feeling as well as their products. But is this push actually paying off or are brands failing to deliver the messaging that people want at Christmas time? We've taken a look at Christmas ads from some of the biggest UK brands to see whether they think they were worth the marketing budget.  

Ikea - James Story

Making a Christmas-appropriate advert that avoids all the hits (Santa, snow, large present boxes, etc.) is a challenge and Ikea takes a decent stab at things here. It’s distinct, but I’m struggling to get past…

Programmatic advertising to grow in 2020, Google faces new lawsuit, Aldi has top Christmas ad and TV ads are "least risky" option

New forecasts have suggested that programmatic advertising could reach record investment this year, with its popularity continuing in 2020. Google is back in court with a company suing for damages due to the tech giant's anti-competition rules. UK consumers have named Aldi's Kevin the Carrot as the top Christmas advert this year. A new study has revealed that TV could offer the least amount of risk when it comes to advertising channels. We've got all the details for each of these stories with this week's news roundup.

Programmatic advertising expected to grow in 2020

Despite rising concerns over digital ad fraud and brand safety, it seems as though programmatic ad spend is going to continue to increase in 2020. The latest forecast from Zenith shows that around 69% of media will be traded programmatically by…