Networking Now

Hi All,

Thought i would let you all in on a little information i have regarding online advertising from my research.

(Information obtained from the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau))

Further research: (data collected from IAB Jan – Dec 08 reports)

These are the topline findings from the IAB Online Ad spend Study showing details for the full year 2008. The topline figures were reassuring news, confirming that advertisers are continuing to see the value of online advertising to their marketing communications in what has been a very difficult marketplace. This tracking study, dating back to 1997, presents the official industry measure and acts as the barometer for the health of the market.


Total market size – Jan-Dec 2008 (data collected from IAB Jan – Dec 08 reports)

• Still showing growth: Online ad spend for the full year 2008 came in at over £3.3 billion - £3,349.7m.

• Growth: Spending on internet advertising grew by 17% year on-year on a like-for-like basis. The advertising industry as a whole declined by -3.5%.

• Market share: Online’s share has grown to 19.2% for the full
year 2008, up from 15.5% in 2007.


Advertising formats 2008: (data collected from IAB Jan – Dec 08 reports)

The online industry has experienced strong growth across all advertising formats.

• Display: Display advertising accounted for 19% of online advertising during 2008 with £637.4m spent across all display formats throughout Jan-Dec 2008.

• Search: Paid-for listings maintained its position as the largest single format with a 59.3% share of the market. £1,986.9m was spent on search in 2008.

• Classifieds: Accounting for 21.4% of the market, classifieds continue their strong growth to £715.2m.

• Solus Email: Solus e-mail accounted for £10.2m taking a share of 0.3% of the market.


Growth in context 2008: (data collected from IAB Jan – Dec 08 reports)

• Internet advertising is the only medium to show growth across 2008.

• The UK advertising market as a whole declined by -3.5% year on-year to £17.5bn – a decrease of £638.2m.

• Online added £537.1m of new money in 2008.

• In 2008 online share was 19.8% over- taking press display (19.7%).


Analysis: (data collected from IAB Jan – Dec 08 reports)

The IAB tracks dozens of drivers that are maintaining the market and growth. Among them, the main catalysts include:

Online audience:
There are 34.7 million people now online in the UK). 23.6 million People access the internet every day, with 15.3 million using the internet more than once a day (Source: NOP/UKOM Jul-Dec 2008). The internet remains ahead of radio as the second most consumed medium after TV.

Broadband:
Broadband penetration is now 94% of the online population. It is therefore no longer about whether a consumer is on broadband, but rather how fast their connection speed is. 62% of UK broadband users have a greater than 2mb connection speed. This compares to 54% the same time last year (Nov 08 vs Nov 07).
Furthermore, almost half of broadband users have used a wireless connection in the last month (BMRB Internet Monitor Nov 2008)

Ad Networks:
The rapid rise of advertising networks, (which is now worth 44% of total online display expenditure) as efficient, streamlined businesses selling display advertising for the internet’s ‘long tail’ are opening up online to more advertisers and providing an even greater return on investment.

Catch up TV:
Services such as BBC iPlayer and Channel 4’s 4oD are breaking the barrier between video entertainment and the internet as a communications or shopping tool. More online familiarity means more time online, again attracting more advertisers.

General entertainment:
As a result of cheap, fast internet access, whether by fixed line broadband, fast wireless or 3G, the internet, once the home of online shopping and searching, is as important an entertainment medium as an X-Box or Nintendo Wii. Social media, music and movie downloads, catch up TV, online news and magazines make the internet a one-stop shop for entertainment.

Social networking websites:
Social networking sites generate higher consumer demand for fast broadband, increasing time spent online and boosting overall consumer confidence in the online experience. This is likely to increase advertiser interest in the medium and lead to a continued growth in advertising expenditure for
years to come.

Another bit of Useful advertising info direct from the horse mouth as to say:

This was part of an email i have just received from Goole Today!

Top tips for great keywords

A great keyword is:
Ideally, 2-3 words long
Specific (keywords that are too broad or general will not reach users as effectively as keywords that are highly targeted)
Directly related to the text in your ad
Directly related to the page your ad links to (specified by the destination URL)


What keywords should I choose?

First, look at your website content and write down every word, word combination or phrase that describes each category of your business. This is the starting point for creating your keyword lists.

Include all brand and product names as well as plurals, synonyms and alternate spellings for each word or phrase. Capitalisation does not matter. Take out keywords that are very generic, irrelevant, or obscure.

Then, group your keywords into close-knit themes and create a new ad group for each theme. Put your keywords into these new ad groups. For example, if your campaign is for digital cameras, you can group together mini digital cameras in one ad group and SLR digital cameras in another.

Try using negative keywords. Negative keywords prevent your ad from showing when a word or phrase you specify is part of a search term. If you specify the negative keyword -repair, for instance, your ad won’t show for search terms such as digital camera repair.

Want more keyword information and examples?

How can I tell if my keywords are working well?
Check your keyword performance regularly in the 'Keyword' tab of your account.

An 'Eligible' status means your keyword is eligible to trigger ads. Click on the icon in the status column to get more detail on your individual keyword performance.

Then, one of the most important metrics to assess is the clickthrough rate (CTR), as it shows the proportion of people who clicked on your ad after they saw it. Keywords that produce a relatively low CTR (e.g. less than 1% on the search network) can often be improved. Implementing the tips above will help improve your keyword performance. A higher CTR will help to increase your ad's position on Google.

Learn more about what keyword metrics to look out for.

How do my keywords impact how much I pay?
If your keywords are well chosen and you follow the tips above, your ads may show in a higher position or at a lower cost.

AdWords bidding works on an auction-style system, with advertisers bidding for keywords that will trigger their ads to appear. As multiple advertisers will often bid on the same keywords, Google must determine which ads will show, and in what position on the page. To do this, it looks at both CPC bids and the quality of your keywords:

> Cost-per-click bids (Maximum CPCs) are the amount you are willing to pay when someone clicks on your ad
> Quality score relates to how relevant your ads and keywords are to searches on Google, which is determined by a number of things, including your CTR
Find out more about how keyword bidding and quality can affect your ads.

If you'd like more information about keywords, you can find all this and more in the online AdWords Beginner's Guide.

Very interesting Steve, seen as my adwords is doing nothing for me at the moment, organically we are fine, but want some more clients nationally, have a friend that has a PPC company and he did tell me he would go in and have a look for me, need to remember to call him!

My key words are pooh, between 3/10 & 7/10 at best match.