Pay Per Click – Advertising Statistics and Trends [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

July 20, 2012

Pay Per Click

Businesses and marketers are always keen to observe the trends with pay per click advertising, as pay per click advertising may be proving to be more beneficial than just aligning efforts to rank sites through organic searches.

Pay per click advertising, essentially paying for advertising to rank at the top of search engines, is an effective method to generate more traffic to websites.  In a world of overwhelming information available over the web, it is advantageous for businesses and marketers to have links and information readily available at consumer’s fingertips and in plain sight.  Hence the reasons, search engine sites have sponsored ads lining the top part of the pages and right columns.  These areas of web pages result in the greatest number of user clicks.

Some interesting pay per click (PPC) advertising statistics and trends are highlighted in this infographic from WordStream:

• Pay per click ad results outweigh organic search results by nearly 2:1 (commercial content)
• PPC accounts for 64.5% of clicks (high commercial intent)
• Top 3 Sponsored links at the top of the Google search page account for 41.1% of the clicks
• Sponsored ads on Google account for over 85% of the page above the fold
• If companies already rank organically, adding pay per click ads results in 89% new visitor traffic
• Click through rates for Google ads are 600 times higher than paid ads on Facebook pages

Check out some more information and trends on pay per click advertising, comparison of SEO and pay per click, and options in paid advertising.

Source:  WordStream

Businesses and marketing specialists should carefully weigh the options of marketing and advertising activities.  As in all business activities, marketing plans should be developed, identifying marketing activities and budgets.  Pay per click advertising may form part of the advertising campaign, and with all activities, the results of efforts should be tracked, measured and analyzed.  You may want to compare the return on investment in pay per click advertising to other forms of marketing and advertising activities in your business.

More on Marketing:

• Marketing Tips for Better Customer Engagement and Results [infographic]
• Online Retail – Strategies That Lead to Better Sales [infographic]
• Digital Marketing – Conversion Opportunities for Business
• Product Mix – Designing Products and Services for the Consumer
• Content Marketing – Targeting Local Markets [infographic]
• Color and Design – Factors Influencing Commerce [infographic]

More business blogs of interest:

• Business Plan – The Next Steps

• Business Intelligence – Keeping you Wired In
• SEO Guide to Higher Conversions with a Few Steps [infographic]
• EService, Social Media and Customer Service Trends [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Use of Social Media for Marketing, and Other Marketing Activities

Strategy Plan One

May 4, 2012 

Use of Social Media for Marketing

Gone is the traditional method of advertising in the newspaper and radio and in with current social media marketing and advertising platforms.  Or are those methods gone?

For sure social media is in and it continues to grow exponentially.  Just when you thought user bases were leveling out, a new interest in a platform keeps the level of growth consistent.  It seems every week a new wave of more interesting social media platforms emerge.  However, business owners must not forget the other forms of marketing that would add value to the marketing mix.

Social media marketing involves the promotion and attention of your business, and engagement between users of social media platforms and your business’ products and services.  The use of social media for marketing would be the purpose of gaining traffic and attention to your business.

Whether through short bursts of information using Twitter or detailed Facebook or LinkedIn pages, the absolute benefit to businesses using social media, is that information can be shared quickly across massive audiences.  It has been a business to consumer and business to business trend over the past era, but not known if this marketing trend will be long-lasting.  If it will be long-lasting, social media marketing may evolve as fast as the whole social media industry itself is evolving.

Marketing Activities – Considerations other than Social Media

Marketing plans could be chalked full of a mix of marketing activities, new and traditional forms.  An entrepreneur should dig into developing activities that would be applicable to promoting and getting out the appropriate message on their own product and service mix.  Yes, social media may work to a certain extent, but may not be the best avenue for local, personal marketing for example.  Entrepreneurs may have to consider forms of advertising and that promote products and service in person, such as trade shows, and promotional events.  Differing from social media marketing, trade show events give you the ability to showcase products and services to masses of potential customers, with colourful, interactive displays manned by representatives (actual people) promoting the business.

Marketing Plans

When developing detailed business and marketing plans, consider the mix the marketing activities based on your intended audience, and what type of method you will use to effectively engage with your audience and raise attention.  You may find social media works well in junction with other forms of marketing activities.  Carefully weigh your options for marketing activities and measure results from activities.  Best results may occur when revising your marketing activities mix.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Baseball and Social Media Facts and Stats [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

April 5, 2012 

Just like any other industry, social media is deeply integrated into professional sport marketing.  With billions of social media users, sport is frequently mentioned, liked and followed across Facebook and Twitter.  Social media is a marketing strategy must for messaging business product and services to a mass audience.

Produced by Banyan Branch, this infographic illustrates facts and statistics of Major League Baseball on social media sites.

Some interesting social media facts and stats (as of March 28, 2012) :

• Yankees are the most popular team on social media (5.3 Million Likes; 550,000 Follows)
• American League edges out National in Facebook discussions (53% and 47% respectively)
• Nick Swisher – Most Followers (1.48 Million Followers)
• C.J. Wilson – Individual Player All Star Tweeter (12,917 Tweets)
• Giants – Team All Star Tweeter (18,000 Tweets)

Source:  Banyan Branch

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Social Media Sites Sources of Revenue & Money (Infographic)

Strategy Plan One

March 19, 2012 

Check out this interesting, colorful infographic from USBundles.com illustrating how social media sites make their piles of money.  To note, the ad-based revenue has been strong and is projected to continuing growing.

Infographic courtesy of USBundles.com

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One