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Does Joe Lunchpail Care 'What They Know'? A Roundup Of Surveys On Ad Tracking Sentiment

Consumers AdsThe balance between protecting consumers' privacy and reaching them with relevant targeted ads is a constant struggle for the online ad industry. And consumers experience a similar tension, according to several surveys published in recent months.

After a December 2012 survey of 2,000 customers in the US and UK, Accenture Interactive found that 86% of respondents said they were worried about websites tracking their actions, but 85% also said they understood it is a necessary tactic to properly target consumers.

There's no doubt that advertising online can be frustrating for consumers. In late February 2013, InsightsOne's 2013 Bad Ads Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, found that 91% of consumers reported seeing an annoying ad with irrelevant pop-ups – lottery scams and male enhancement ads as the most annoying.

"A lot of the impressions we're making on the customer may have a detrimental impact on the relationship with that customer," said Bob Dutcher, VP of marketing for InsightsOne. "In the age of social media, Facebook and Twitter, a lot of consumers are willing to give a little more information if it results in a better experience. The frustration is, and where marketers and companies can get in trouble, if they are leveraging that information but not giving something back to the consumer, not giving them a better experience. It has to be a two-way relationship."

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Samsung, Android Dominate Worldwide Mobile Sales

Mobile GartnerSmartphones – and Apple's iPhone in particular – may seem ubiquitous in the US (see AdExchanger's Q1 mobile RTB report). Yet worldwide, Samsung beat out Apple and Android-based smartphone sales in the first quarter 2013, according to Gartner.

Gartner found 426 million mobile phones were sold in the first quarter, up 0.7% from Q1 2012. Worldwide smartphone sales reached 210 million, just about half of all mobile phone sales (49.3%), and up 42.9% from last year's first quarter. As mobile phone manufacturers focus more on smartphones rather than upgrading feature phones, this could strain the market for the rest of the year, Gartner reported.

"Feature phones users across the world are either finding their existing phones good enough or are waiting for smartphones prices to drop further," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, in a statement. "Either way, the prospect of longer replacement cycles is certainly not good news for both vendors and carriers looking to move users forward."

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Placed Insights: McDonald's Was The Most Visited Business in March

David Shim, PlacedLocation analytics company Placed is now offering a ranking system for brick-and-mortar retailers, restaurants and other destinations, based on data from its Placed Panels and Placed Affiliate programs. In March 2013, McDonald's was the top US business based on the number of visitors, while Applebee's and Sonic Drive-In both saw increases in their rankings compared to January 2013.

According to the new Placed Insights, 49% of consumers visited McDonald's during the month; not far behind, Walmart saw 38.8% of consumers visit their locations. The other top businesses included Subway, Burger King, Starbucks, Wendy's, Walgreens, CVS, Taco Bell, and Target.

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As Facebook Evolves Ad Offerings, CPCs And CPMs Drop

FB Ads ReportAs Facebook continues to expand and adapt its advertising offerings, metrics including CPMs, CTRs and CPCs showed inconsistencies in Q1 2013 which are expected to level out as advertising normalizes on the social networking site.

Facebook strategic PMD Spruce Media highlighted these changes in its "State of Facebook Advertising Q1 2013," released this week, leading up to Facebook's Q1 earnings call set for May 1.

CPMs for all Facebook advertisements rose slightly by 3%, from $0.38 in Q4 2012 to $0.39 in Q1 2013. CPMs for desktop ads, or those ads on the right-hand side of the Facebook page, decreased by 24%; CPMs of desktop-only News Feed ads dropped by 18%, and those for mobile-only News Feed ads dropped by 31%.

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Two Reports Find Slow Adoption Of Data-Driven Website Personalization

OptimizationUsing customer data to personalize or optimize individuals' website experiences can increase conversion and customer satisfaction, yet a majority of digital marketing professionals do not prioritize it, according to two recent studies from Adobe and Econsultancy. As marketers leverage more digital tools, turning to real-time behavioral and existing customer data helps segment website visitors and personalize their experiences with product recommendations, search results and images or text.

The February 2013 "Realities of Online Personalization" study from Econsultancy, in association with optimization company Monetate, found that 94% of the 1,100 client-side and agency digital and ecommerce professionals consider the personalization of the web experience critical to current and future success. However, 56% of companies are not customizing the experience for consumers at all, and an additional 40% have only somewhat customized their sites.

Adobe meanwhile found that 65% of companies present less than 20% of their visitors with targeted content, while only 13% of respondents said that more than half of their onsite visitors see optimized content.

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Survey: How Marketing Data Connects To Loyalty

Acxiom LoyaltyMarketers wanting to build customer loyalty must connect their marketing efforts with data on consumer behaviors, as well as other departments. Yet integration is a challenge, according to Acxiom and Loyalty 360 in their "Loyalty Divide" survey.

Of those marketers surveyed by Acxiom and Loyalty 360, more than half said they are hindered by a lack of information or accessibility to data. While marketers are collecting data from their efforts, access to other data has kept them from expanding customer relationships.

In the survey, 68% of marketers said they collect outside customer data to inform their marketing campaigns, but 53% do not integrate third-party data into CRM efforts, 72% do not recognize and leverage referral value, and 89% do not use net promoter scores for segmentation and measurement.

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IAB: Mobile Ads Captured 9% Of Online Ad Spend In 2012

IAB 20122012 was another banner year for the online advertising space, with revenues up 15% over 2011. Mobile and digital video led much of that growth.

Mobile ad spend grew 111% compared to 2011, the second year of triple-digit growth,  accounting for 9% of total internet advertising revenue at $3.4 billion. Digital video revenue increased 29% to $2.3 billion, up from $1.8 billion in 2011. Total online ad spend for the year was $36.6 billion.

"The impact of multiple screens and people spending more time in front of multiple devices is one of the trends we believe is driving such a large growth rate," said David Silverman, a partner at PwC. "That's increasing the amount of inventory that is available and is forcing marketers to shift their dollar spend as well."

While display advertising continues to grow, it has not surpassed search revenues, according to the "2012 Internet Advertising Revenue Full-Year Report" released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) (full report).

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Thanks To Deal-Based Ads, Last-Click Attribution Was More Accurate In Q4

visual-iq-last-click-april2013Online display advertising is still undervalued when it comes to attribution based on last click data, but during the holiday season 2012, last click attribution was slightly more accurate, according to marketing intelligence company Visual IQ.

The company analyzed cost per acquisitions for Visual IQ clients for the time period August to October 2012, and found that most display ads were undervalued. Visual IQ has its own TrueCPA metric, which it compares to the traditional last click CPA, creating a Cost Per Acquisition Skew, which determines how over- or under-valued the ad is.

"We use a set of algorithms to re-calculate clients' metrics so that it takes into account all cross-channel and cross-campaign influences so our clients are not basing their optimization strategies on last-click metrics, where 100% of the credit for the conversion is being given to the last click," explained Visual IQ CMO Bill Muller. "This conversion skew reflects the difference between those attributed metrics and last-click metrics."

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Forecast: RTB Ad Spending To Be One-Fifth of Total Display Advertising in 2013

eM on RTBeMarketer updated its forecast for ad spending purchased through real-time bidding, which will make up 19% of total digital display ad spend in the US in 2013. The previous forecast, out in November 2012, was increased slightly and the company added its 2017 forecast.

According to eMarketer, US RTB digital display ad spending, for all display formats served to all devices, will reach nearly $3.4 billion in 2013, a 73% increase over 2012. This will grow to $4.6 billion in 2014, a 36% increase, and by 2017, ad spending in the US RTB market will be $8.5 billion, or 29% of total digital display ad spending.

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'Hunches' Still Rule Marketing Decisions, Says IBM Study

hunch-ibmMarketers are missing out on potential revenue from consumers because they cannot adequately analyze the deluge of data they receive from increasing sources, according to a new study called “Marketing Science: from Descriptive to Prescriptive” released by IBM. The study found that only 32% of the 358 chief marketing officers surveyed feel they actively engage with customers despite having more information available to them.

An average of 25% of those surveyed felt that they can identify new insights about their customer base and new markets for growth. In addition, 82% still use past experiences and personal hunches to make decisions regarding future strategies instead of data-driven analysis.

IBM’s study concludes that marketers need to learn “marketing science” in order to better analyze and understand increasing amounts of data. As transactions, web traffic, customer feedback, and even social media increase, marketers need to learn to architect their data, apply science, and work with others in their organization to advocate their analysis-based approach to future strategies.

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