Almost 70% of all messages in people’s inboxes are non-personal, meaning they are marketing offers, social updates, receipts and more. This is both good news and bad news for marketers. The good news is the inbox is now more of a marketing channel than ever before. The bad news is there is more competition, and marketers need to work extra hard to stand out. Luckily, measuring email campaign performance is moving beyond opens and clicks. New measurements are available that can tell you not only how your campaigns are faring but also what’s working for your competitors. Email Forward [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Email Marketing | Email Marketing | Marketing Metrics

Google's switch to an all-paid shopping search experience, featuring Product Listing Ads (PLAs), was the single largest change to the retail paid search landscape last year, and the offering continues to evolve as the official release of PLAs on smartphones was announced last month. PLAs are not only a new ad format but also a new marketplace, with auctions running independently of traditional text ads although they're often being served alongside them on search result pages. Now that the new market has had time to mature, we can take the opportunity to step back and review what we have lea [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Google: Search | How To | Marketing Metrics | Search Marketing | Statistics: Online Advertising

Before getting into ad scheduling strategies for Google's Enhanced Campaigns, let's review Paid Search Trends for March. CPCs remained relatively flat month-over-month with little movement. Retail CPCs showed a slight decline for Google, showing relative softness compared to last year. It remains to be seen whether this is a temporary dip or a long-term indicator. Finance CPCs nudged up as the tax deadline approaches. Overall, Google CPCs are 1% up year-on-year, while Yahoo!-Bing is flat. March 2013 Cost-per-Click (CPC) Update, US Search MoM Change YoY Change [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Google | Google: Search | How To | Marketing Metrics | Search Marketing

Thanks to smartphones and tablets, email marketing has fundamentally changed. Best practices surrounding design and when to send are seeing some of the first major shifts since webmail clients were the dominant email platform. The good news for marketers is that people consume more email now. The bad news is that without the right analytics, most marketers are in real danger of being left behind. Top 100 Retailers’ Email Opens By Platform Return Path looked at the mobile email patterns of the top 100 Internet retailers in the last quarter of 2012 and found mobile, for the first time [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Email Marketing | Marketing Metrics

Cost-Per-Clicks (CPC) fell across the board month-over-month, as is typical for February, resulting in a 5% lower CPC for Google and 3% lower for Yahoo!-Bing, compared to January. Year-over-year (YoY), retail CPCs are stronger on Google, partially due to rising CPCs on Product Listing Ads (PLAs), ending at a 5% YoY gain for Google and a slight 1% loss for Bing. February 2013 CPC Update, US Search MoM Change YoY Change Google Retail -3% 7% Finance -10% 2% Overall -5% 5% Yahoo!-Bing Retail [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Google: Search | Marketing Metrics | Search Marketing | Statistics: Online Advertising

This is the first installment of a regular column following cost-per-click (CPC) trends in search marketing. We will focus primarily on the US market, but we'll also take a regular look at international markets, as well as providing additional insights into segments that appear to be significant short-term trend drivers. Google’s CPC drop has finally bottomed out in January, our analysis finds, supported in part by increasing CPCs and click share on tablet devices.   January 2013 CPC Update, US Search MoM Change YoY Change Google Retail [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Google: Search | Marketing Metrics | Microsoft: Bing | Search Marketing | Statistics: Online Advertising

This is a follow up to my previous article "Oh, What A Tangled Web We Weave" which discusses eight common ways we practice self-deception, particularly in the context of metrics, analytics, and continuous improvement testing. Continuing with our earlier list, here are four more ways a marketer might self-deceive: #5: Confuse Accuracy With Precision Example: "Our Average Customer is 32.47 years old" Apparently, your average customer was born June 21. Ok, and your point is....? Do you honestly think you can measure average age of your customers to within three days (i.e., hundredths of a [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Marketing Metrics | Statistics

"Oh, What A Tangled Web We Weave, When First We Practice To (Self) Deceive" With apologies to Sir Walter Scott for my mangling of his most popular turn of phrase, I'd like to take some time now to discuss how people −and particularly people involved in metrics and evaluation of "how did we do this week/month/quarter?" − are prone to self-delusion. Along the way, I run the risk of insulting you, but I see that as a necessary risk when confronting a topic like this. It takes a healthy sense of self-worth to say "holy crap! I'm a dufus!" Now, let's start off with some assumptions. [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Marketing Metrics | Statistics

The average Facebook user has nearly 250 friends, according to research conducted by The Pew Internet And American Life Project. Have you checked out the “Friends of Fans” metric for your Facebook Page? This one metric alone shows the huge potential in getting your fans to share more often -- reaching this massive “Friends of Fans” network. But what can you do to get your fans to share more? Based on research conducted at Buddy Media between December 18, 2011 and February 11, 2012, of more than 76,000 posts from 1,200+ pages, we have some tips to increase the virality of your Facebo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Marketing Metrics

Today’s internet users are bombarded with content.  As a result, they are tuning out the noise and raising the bar on the content they choose to pay attention to. For social media marketers, this means that it is more important than ever to understand what content will resonate with target groups and which will fall flat.   Without good ways to identify the content preferences of target groups,  the only option is to throw marketing mud against the wall and hope that it sticks -- an approach that is costly, more likely to fail, and may damage the credibility of budding social media pr [...]

Related Topics: Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Marketing Metrics | Social Media Marketing