A resource to help inform targeting platforms for site design
I was recently recommended NetMarketShare by @JamesGurd it was a new source to me, so I thought it would share since it’s sometimes useful to have data on the most popular platforms like browsers and screen resolutions to benchmark against. Of course, a business will know how its own users access the site through its own analytics, but it’s still useful to get an idea of trends of technologies you intend to invest more on in future.
Previously global analytics services like Hitbox (remember that?) used to be good sources which published their results, but I don’t know of any similar commercial analytics services that still do. Do you?
Methodology and data sources
You have to be really careful with these sources to make sure that…
A summary of key issues you should be considering when looking to choose an affiliate network
If you launch an affiliate programme you will need to ensure that you have a tracking solution in place. One of the most popular solutions is to work through an affiliate network.
Affiliate networks essentially act to facilitate relationships between affiliates and clients. The basic service they offer is tracking and payment of sales - but affiliate strategy, reporting and affiliate recruitment are also available depending on the service level you require. I thought it would be helpful to outline some areas I recommend considering when making the decision on which network to use.
What will it cost?
The first question marketers ask. Naturally! This will most likely be one of the main areas for you to consider because of affiliate marketing’s performance-based payment structure. Most networks will…
An overview of the options available for TrueView YouTube advertising
AdWords for video allows you to advertise in a similar way to the traditional TV advert - your advert can be displayed on a video before, during or after it or in the Youtube and Google Display Network search listings. The big bonus is that you don’t have to pay unless someone watches your entire advert. Adwords has been innovating a lot over the last year or so with its TrueView ads now available in a range of formats on mobile (from August 2012):
YouTube have also recently produced the ‘Advertiser Playbook’. It is a detailed guide (122 pages) to using YouTube and AdWords and includes the latest (2012) best practice information and strategies for building big audiences on YouTube and increasing traffic to your website.…
Google research shows changing patterns of digital media and content consumption
Recent research from Google offers new insight beyond the consumer's shift to mobile, revealing how consumers view content across a number of devices - tablets, smartphones, PC's and of course TV.
After polling 1,611 people in the US, over 8,000 hours of activity and 15,738 media interactions, the study reveals that the story here is one of integration when it comes to users accessing your web content. 90% of all of media consumption, equivalent to 4.4 hours per day, is happening across tablets, smartphones, PC's and of course TV. The remaining 10% is split across paper, press and radio.
This not only has implications for how content, services and web applications are designed, but how you plan journeys across them.
Smartphones and apps are used for a relatively short duration at 17 minutes per day…
Shortcuts give you quick access to your favourite reports and customisations
Importance: [rating=1]
Value for user: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Google Analytics Support Page
I’ve just been taking a look at this new Google feature. Although it doesn't involve a new report or big change to the interface, I think it’s worth sharing as a mini-tutorial since it could save you hours of time across the year if you know about it. I’ll certainly be flagging it up prominently on training courses.
What are Shortcuts?
Shortcuts simply remember your settings for an individual report. They’re like Favourites or Bookmarks for reports. Any Standard or Custom report can be added to your shortcuts but Goal reports, Real-time and Intelligence reports are excluded.
How do you set them up?
This is easy, for the report your currently viewing, just select the “Shortcut (Beta)” option from the options at the top of the report you want saving.
Here I've set one up…
By
04 Sep 2012
How Conversion Rate Experts helped Top Cashback optimise sign-up
We recently shared this case study of one of our clients, Top Cashback, who are ranked number five in a list of the UK's fastest growing companies. Dave Chaffey suggested we share it with Smart Insights' readers since he liked the level of detail on the process we used which we hope other businesses can learn from.
The Top Cashback team has kindly allowed us to describe what we did—with a focus on the techniques that are likely to be applicable to your own business. We can’t promise that the following techniques will get you an invitation to Richard Branson’s house, but we’d be amazed if some of them weren’t hugely profitable for you.
The problem
Dubious... That’s how a lot of people used to feel when they first visited the Top Cashback website. Meanwhile, Top Cashback’s owners wondered why more people…
How Facebook Test and Improve
It’s interesting to see recent details of how Facebook are now testing changes to their experience and ads using the vast amount of data at their disposal. I’ve been taking a look and thinking what this means for smaller businesses without this data and resource.
Facebook recently disclosed in a briefing on how it uses Big Data that its system processes a mind-boggling 2.5 billion pieces of content and 500+ terabytes of data each day. It’s processing 2.7 billion Like actions and 300 million photos per day, and it scans roughly 105 terabytes of data each half hour.
I’ve been reading about how they manage this in the Facebook engineering blog in this post by Andrew (Boz) Bosworth who is the Director of Engineering at Facebook and is naturally from Harvard and FWIW looks a cool dude!
…
Practical tips and an example of creating a content plan for SEO
This is the 11th step in the 12 part series on SEO. In this article I’m looking at the crucial role of content marketing and providing easy-to-implement tips on how you can use it to support your SEO program.
Why is content relevant to SEO?
There are several ways in which content can support SEO by boosting search presence:
1. Content drives search presence
It's simple, to be found by searchers and search engines, you have got to have something for them to find. But to compete it needs to be outstanding content. Moving into 2013, content is still king as it helps you build webpages & other content assets (e.g. videos) that can be indexed. This applies to database driven product pages for e-commerce as well as CMS driven content pages like Buying Guides and Articles.
2. Content variety can increase SERPs penetration
Search…
An introduction to issues to consider when starting a social listening or social media monitoring programme
In previous posts, we have shown the vast number of options when choosing social listening software (250 according to this report). But any tool is only as good as the process used to take advantage of the insight generated. While these are potentially immensely powerful tools, they can be a huge drain on time and productivity if not utilised for the right reasons and in the right way. As with any other marketing tool it has to be linked to business growth but just how do you use these tools effectively?
What is Social Listening?
Starting with the basics, you need to scope out what you're looking to use social listening for. Start by defining how you intend to use it to add value to your business. How will you explain it to colleagues. This is…
Interest targeting enables targeting by 350 interest categories and @usernames
Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Twitter advertising blog
The Twitter advertising blog has announced an improvement to targeting of its Promoted Tweets advertising which takes it closer to Facebook’s targeting options. Dubbed “interest targeting”, there are two options for targeting:
1. Targeting by 350 interest categories
Broad categories of interest can be targeted using selection from these categories:
2. Targeting by @username
Although the category-based targeting was most widely covered, more intriguing is the targeting by @username. This looks more useful for micro-targeting since you can create a custom segment based on related brands and celebrities. It’s similar to the Facebook feature to target ads according to the Likes of users. Note though, that this does not enable you to target specific users. Twitter explains:
“Custom segments let you reach users with similar interests to that @username’s followers;…
