Online Marketing

Retailers at the top end of the market are turning to affiliates and other methods of mobile marketing to help them win back consumers. New data from LinkShare, a performance marketing company, reveal that sales via its affiliate network have increased by nearly 40% year on year on 2011 compared with the market average of 18%. [Read On]

Ecommerce businesses should concentrate on their newest and most exciting tactics when planning their online marketing strategies for Christmas. [Read On]

Paid mobile search is a very new concept here in the UK, but our friends ‘across the pond’ have already started making serious investment in this area. A report released last week from banking and investment firm Macquarie Group shows that nearly five per cent of paid search spending in the United States is now allocated to paid mobile search. Assuming this growth continues at the same rate, that figure will be 10 per cent by the end of the year. [Read On]

Microsoft has just announced the release candidate of Internet Explorer 9. Included is a 'safety' feature called Tracking Protection which, in principle, is a good idea. Unfortunately, they've added the URL for Google's Analytics service, google-analytics.com, to the list of addresses that user's should be protected from. The feature is turned off by default but including the Google address is bound to encourage users to block it and at the very least sow seeds of doubt about a Google associated domain. [Read On]

The social media site LinkedIn, which describes itself as hosting the largest professional network on the internet with over 90,000 members, has unveiled its new pay per click (PPC) advertising platform called DirectAds. The idea behind DirectAds is that adverts only appear to users who are likely to purchase a company’s product or services. The PPC platform targets LinkedIn’s user base not only on the criteria of geography and industry, but also on the basis of an exact job title, company name and the member’s LinkedIn group membership. [Read On]

Following the recent announcement that Google is to be scrutinised by an EU anti-trust probe, the search giant received a further blow this week when France’s competition watchdog, Autorite de la Concurrence, stated that the company did hold a dominant position in the online advertising market, as it applies to search engines. Although the regulator were quick to point out that Google could, and would, only be sanctioned if they abused this position, the search engine were equally speedy to jump on the defensive, describing themselves as ‘one of many options for advertisers’. [Read On]

It’s a good end to the year for Microsoft, who announced at an investors’ conference last week that the software/search giant merger is working ‘better than we could have hoped’. The announcement was made by Microsoft’s General Manager of Corporate Strategy, Charles Songhurst. The two companies merged earlier this year, in a deal which saw Microsoft’s Bing take over the mechanics of the search engine and Yahoo take on the advertising side of search to create a super- engine known as Yahoo-Bing. Initially the move was a compromise after Microsoft failed to buy Yahoo outright, but it may yet prove to have been the best solution all along. [Read On]

There are hundreds of potential Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) by which you can judge your website’s performance across any given period. The ones you choose to focus on will largely depend on your marketing goals and long-term business strategy, but here are some key ones to consider: [Read On]

It’s barely November, but already the stores are full of advent calendars, Christmas puddings and mince pies. That means it’s time to start considering your Christmas marketing campaign, as shoppers habits shift to accommodate their present buying. Online shopping has become increasingly popular around Christmas time, as it removes the hassle of dragging yourself to the store and fighting with the gift-hungry hordes. This year it is expected 40% more people will shop online in December as compared to October. [Read On]

The big news on Google Adwords blog this week was the announcement of a new course in  remarketing. The initial course was a one hour interactive presentation, in the form of a 'webinar', delivered by an Online Media Specialist from Google. The course, hosted via the Adwords Online Classroom, was first delivered on Wednesday 20th October, with very little forewarning. It’s seen by industry insiders as a trial for rolling out further courses in the area of pay per click advertising across a variety of subjects. [Read On]