Research: Business intelligence

There are 500,000 people coming online every single day for the
first time in their lives. By 2011, another billion are expected to join.
– Michael Dell

The number of internet users in MENA grew from 16.0 million in 2003 to 85.5 million in 2008. – Euromonitor International

eCommerce is a USD 6.8 trillion global industry that has grown 935%
since 2004. Within the United Arab Emirates the eCommerce industry
as estimated at USD 1.16 billion 2007. – Arab Advisors Group

Online Marketing Effectiveness

eMarketer / Forbes Insights

What is the best way to generate sales online?

While the answer may vary slightly depending on the size of the ad budget, a Forbes study says marketers of all sizes should start with search.

Forty-eight percent of marketers said that search engine optimization (SEO) was the best method for generating conversions online. More than one-half of marketers with budgets over USD 1 million agreed.

The next-most-effective conversion tactic for smaller marketers was eMail and Newsletters, followed by pay-per-click and search ads, behavioral targeting and page sponsorships.

For larger marketers, the list of effective online tactics was nearly the same, except search and eMail were flipped. Pay-per-impression ads were also more effective for larger marketers (presumably because they have the funds to experiment in an expensive medium).

To build, maintain or change brand perceptions required different tactics, however.

For both small- and large-budget marketers, site or page sponsorship and SEO were considered the most effective ways to build a brand online.

Display ad success beyond the click

eMarketer / comScore / dunnhumbyUSA / IRI

The research firms found that online ads were more effective than advertising on TV for increasing sales lift for consumer packaged goods (CPG).

The CPG sales lift among US consumers exposed to online ads in 2009 was 9% over three months, with 80% of campaigns studied showing a statistically significant lift.

That compares to 8% lift over 12 months for TV ads, according to Information Resources Inc. (IRI). Just 36% of the TV campaigns studied by IRI in its “How Advertising Works” research paper induced a statistically significant sales lift.

“These early results confirm the ability of online advertising to successfully build retail sales of CPG brands on par with the impact of television advertising,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore.

“It is likely that the more precise targeting ability of the internet – especially in terms of accurately reaching the desired demographic segment – is a key reason for its effectiveness.”

Portal potency

ITP

It is common knowledge that every company needs a website that often serve as portal into an enterprise’s world – with varying degrees of success – and allow customers and stakeholders to be greeted by a slick interface that acts as an electronic receptionist spurring strangers on to find the appropriate information about the business.

This can be seen as part of a marketing strategy, as it allows customers to window-shop through products and services, though this also needs to be viewed from a technological standpoint as a significant amount of grunt is needed to bring an enterprise’s content online.

Andrew Palmer, business development manager for the Middle East at Vignette, explains that the real leap at the moment is that CIOs in the region are very technology-aware and understand what’s required.

“They are very keen to leverage the web being their shop windows to their business and they understand they don’t want a static site and they are looking for a dynamic site with things like analytics.”

Andy Bellinger, EMEA marketing manager for web solutions at OpenText; “We’ve got a number of customers who are creating their own revenue streams from delivering their corporate knowledge from within the organisation, out to partners and out to membership type sites. Now people are going and using that and getting that extra level of knowledge that they would not of seen before.”

“What we’re actually seeing is the delivery of content is different to what it has been in the past. What it has been in the past has typically been internal to the corporation – companies are now looking at a much broader picture,” he adds.

Website addresses boost magazine ad response

Affinity

Study confirms that magazine ads with website addresses are more likely to drive readers to advertiser websites overall, across a range of genres.

Even if increasing web traffic is not the goal of the advertising campaign, including a website addresses boosts web visits for consumers who view the ad.

Connecting print to online is a key to creating more engaging advertising. The fact that some users are taking the extra step to type in a website address shows how well multi-platform campaigns work. And smartphones have the potential to help close the feedback loop and make them even more useful.

Affinity found that that when the website address was included in a magazine advertising creative the percent change in website visits tripled (from two to six points).

Online branding increases purchase intent

Al Click / Forrester Research

According to a Forrester Research report, companies have a difficult time justifying investments in online branding and website usability. But new tools shed light on the relationship between effective design and strong business results. What was the findings? That online branding drives purchase intent – as long as sites meet basic usability standards.

Impact of unclicked ads

Research Live / Compete

Web measurement firm Compete has developed a new service designed to help advertisers and web publishers understand what people do online after seeing an advert. The Ad Impact service looks at how ad exposure affects site visit and search behaviour, with results benchmarked against other campaigns and against competing publishers.

According to Stephen DiMarco, Compete’s chief marketing officer: “Identifying how exposure creates search activity or deeper brand engagement helps answer the question “What is the value of the 99.9% of advertising that does not get clicked on?”

To date the firm has analysed 75 campaigns. It says that empirical results show that online display ads drive an increase in brand search queries. One example given was for an unnamed blockbuster film, where exposure to the online campaign ad generated a 705% lift in site visits and an 85% rise in brand searching. Compete is part of TNS Media and has upwards of two million US panelists through which it collects clickstream data to map online behaviours.

Learn the web: Commercial possibilities on the internet

Communications And Information Technology Commission, K.S.A.

The number of Internet users has grown from 200.000 users at 2000 to 4.800.000 users at 2006. By December 2006 around 20% of Saudi Arabians used Internet, but the number of users will grow exponentially each year.