Here are some of the most interesting digital marketing statistics we’ve seen this week.
Statistics include Enhanced Campaigns, on-page SEO, mobile content, Google Play, and football’s most social team.
For more digital marketing stats, check out our Internet Statistics Compendium.
Informed SEOs generally in favour of Enhanced Campaigns
- To get further insight about the perceived impact of Google’s new PPC model, Enhanced Campaigns, we asked more than 500 search marketers for their opinion of the switchover as part of the new Econsultancy/Netbooster UK Search Engine Benchmark Report 2013.
- It’s worth noting that the research was carried out before the system was finally rolled out in July, but it transpires that the largest proportion of both agency (43%) and in-house (56%) respondents still weren’t sure what impact Enhanced Campaigns would have on paid search campaigns.
- However for those that did have an opinion on the matter, a higher proportion of both companies (29%) and agencies (35%) thought that the change will have a positive effect on their paid search marketing.
Do you think ‘Enhanced Campaigns’ will have a positive impact on your/your clients’ paid search marketing?
Consumers more engaged with mobile content
- New research by Outbrain shows that users reading articles on mobiles and tablets always display a higher click through rate (CTR) than on desktop, regardless of type of content they are consuming.
- The data showed mobile CTR is a third (34%) higher compared to other platforms. CTRs vary depending on the specific type of content being read.
- Entertainment articles: compared to desktop, mobile CTR is 54% higher, tablet 37% higher.
- Sports articles: compared to desktop, mobile CTR is 36% higher, tablet 39% higher.
- And the most popular type of content via mobile is electronics articles with CTRs 91% higher than desktop, and tablets 45% higher.
On-page factors have higher impact in search rankings
- A new report from Searchmetrics shows just how the influence of on-page SEO has changed in the past 12 months by examining the correlation of various factors with high Google rankings.
- Virtually all criteria – ranging from the image count to Adlinks – have apparently increased in importance, with a site’s word count showing the biggest difference compared to last year.
- ‘Title character length’ is one of only two factors showing a slightly negative correlation, however this can be interpreted positively: the shorter the page title of a document, the better the ranking.
Correlation changes since 2012
QPR are Football League’s most social team
- New data from RadiumOne shows that QPR is the most socially savvy football team ahead of the 2013 Football League season, with more than double the audience of Facebook and Twitter followers – over 330,000 combined – more than anyone else in the three leagues.
- The social runners up in the Championship were Reading (153,745) and Wigan Athletic (144,345) – both of which were relegated from the Premiership last season. Portsmouth held its own in League 2 with a 55,000 strong following making it the 15th most social club.
- AFC Wimbledon too, trounced its league position coming in at the 25th most social.
Google Play on the rise
- Data from App Annie Market shows that the Google Play platform has seen a 10% increase in downloads compared with rival Apple iOS during the second quarter of 2013.
- However, the Android market has failed to capitalise on this growth as iOS apps bring in double the revenue.
- The data also shows that Russia has joined the USA as the only countries to be in the top five rankings for Google Play and iOS according to app downloads.
- However iOS popularity may be under threat as leading Russian mobile operators have agreed to cease selling the iPhone.
- Games remain the most downloaded and top revenue earner in the iOS and Google Play market.
Holidaymakers turn to price comparison sites
- More than half of travellers use performance marketing sites – such as price comparison, loyalty and reward, voucher code or cashback – to help them find the best price: 59% for holidays, 57% for hotels and 53% for flights.
- The research from Tradedoubler found that even at the research stage of choosing a holiday destination, 44% of travellers are using price-focused performance marketing sites – almost as many as those that seek out ideas and information via online travel agents (50%).
Age and gender affect showrooming
- New figures from eDigitalResearch and IMRG have revealed the effects of age and gender on customer behaviour through mobile in-store.
- The figures revealed that 54% of 35-44 year old and 53% of 45-54 year old respondents had browsed mobile retail websites while in the store of another retailer.
- The 25-34 bracket appear to be the leaders in terms of follow-up in-store mobile activity, with 28% of them going on to order items while actually still in store. Of those who went on to make the purchase from a competitor, 66% stated that price was the main reason for shopping elsewhere.
Online display and outdoor see biggest growth in global adspend
- According to Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report, television remained the dominant media type in terms of advertising investment in the first quarter of 2013 with a 59% share of media spend share and 3.5% growth globally.
- Online display advertising, though measured in a smaller subset of countries, grew a significant 26.3% for the first quarter. Display internet ad growth was particularly impressive in the Asia-Pacific (33.2%) and Latin America (48.2%). Internet even bucked the trend in Europe, boasting growth of 10.4%.
- Following display internet, outdoor experienced the largest percent increase in ad spending – up 4.3% to a 3.3% media spend share.
Digital growth can’t yet stem print’s decline
- Stats from the Alliance for Audited Media show that sales of US consumer magazines dropped by 10% year-on-year in the first half of 2013, but sales of digital editions also nearly doubled over the same period.
- Unfortunately digital sales are still a tiny part of overall sales. Digital editions grew to 10.2m, or 3.3% of total circulation, compared with the 5.4m digital editions recorded over the first half of 2012.
Digital usage to overtake TV in the US
- A new report from eMarketer has revealed that the amount of time US consumers spend with digital channels each day is set to surpass TV viewing for the first time.
- It predicted that the average adult would spend five hours and nine minutes with digital media every day this year, an increase from four hours and 31 minutes last year.
- The corresponding figures for TV stood at four hours and 31 minutes in 2013, a decline of seven minutes from 2012.
- The shift has largely been driven by mobile, as non-voice usage has increased to two hours and 21 minutes per day from just over one hour 30 minutes last year.
