Internet can be a remedy to the credit crunch

Jonathan Bowers, October 10th 2008, 2:59PM

The latest figures for online ad spend are an eye opening read. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, internet advertising expenditure increased by 21% year on year in the first half of 2008, while the total ad market fell by 0.7% in the same period.

Now these figures do cover a period before the credit crunch truly kicked in but the slow down was already starting and confidence was already falling, so they do reflect behaviour in belt tightening times.

The main headline is that when the advertising market as a whole is cutting back, internet spend continues to rise. And why is this? It is because companies know that online advertising is affordable, accountable and effective.

Online ads have the potential to reach a world of consumers and many online ads only cost per click, so you don’t pay for ineffective advertising. Meanwhile, pay-per-click campaigns and banner leads alike can be monitored to record the direct correlation between advert - interest- spend, so scrutinising management boards can see the tangible results of advertising on the net.

So even when businesses need to cut overheads they have learned that to do so online is a false economy. In my view, if cuts can be concentrated elsewhere they should be because a continued investment in an online presence will always deliver a strong return.

In fact, a bold policy of actually injecting extra online advertising investment now could be the best business decision an MD makes all year. Imagine having your brand all over the internet when your rivals are hiding behind the office photocopier.

And those with an online business should be equally bold. Promote your business and be prepared for extra traffic by ensuring that your hosting solution is up to scratch. Don’t run the risk of downtime when the online marketplace is at the fore. Invest in a dedicated hosting solution to ensure that you are equipped to beat the crunch.

Tags: advertising, adwords, brand, e-commerce, hosting, internet, marketing
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Is the BBC website good value for money

Jonathan Bowers, June 11th 2008, 9:52AM

Here’s a thought – As the BBC website is available to the world and therefore can be read by non-licence fee payers, should it be funded by the license fee?

This is a pretty contentious point. With the validity of the licence fee as a whole already a hot issue, the idea of Jonny foreigner getting a service for free because we are already paying for it is likely to make some blow a gasket. Furthermore, the fact that new revelations have shown that the BBC overspent £36m on its website in the year to March 2008 certainly doesn’t make the sell any easier.

But should licence fee payers be unhappy? Or should we see the BBC website as an asset for putting UK plc in the global shop window and therefore great value for our money whatever the cost?

In reality the funding situation is not as black and white as suggested above. In fact, foreign IP addresses that bring up bbc.co.uk actually see adverts on the pages. This is because the BBC is allowed to generate revenue from foreign use of its website. So we don’t pay alone for overseas users’ benefit.

However, to be honest I wouldn’t mind if we did because the value to us in the UK is worth the expense.

First and foremost this is because the BBC website, and for that matter the BBC, is a great ambassador for the UK as a whole. Having the BBC website broadbanded into foreign homes spreads the word about UK productivity at its best. The BBC is still revered around the world as the best broadcasting network and it is therefore a shining beacon reminding the world of the fact that some things are still done best in the UK. The reflected glory can benefit us all.

Secondly, the BBC website provides a conduit to other companies in the UK. That is to say it can effectively operate as an indirect advertising medium for UK business. Consider a news story about a UK firm’s great new invention or a feature article on why the UK is becoming a hub of web hosting. Such articles that indirectly promote UK business will be read by overseas users. So the BBC can help to connect UK business to a wider customer base.

Finally, and most directly for our interests at UKFast , the spanking new BBC website shows that the UK internet industry is a world leader. It demonstrates that we as an industry are amongst the very best at designing, building, functioning, marketing and hosting the world’s fastest growing business and information medium.

But what about the overspend? Well at a total price of £110m the BBC website still only costs £5 per licence fee household and when you consider that Eastenders costs about £250,000 per episode, the BBC could easily afford its website if it cancelled the limp London soap!

So, I think to spend what is still a small portion of our licence fees on the BBC’s online presence is money very well spent.

Tags: advertising, internet, news, websites
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Online Community Messaging – the next big online marketing tool

Jonathan Bowers, May 30th 2008, 1:28PM

In their efforts to connect with potential customers online, businesses are already using online banner ads, site sponsorship and email marketing but can we predict the next big development to hit the mainstream? In my view it’s going to be online community messaging.

Why? Firstly, community messaging has the power to deliver a business’s ad direct to the audience. Secondly, using the wealth of personal data held by community sites, marketing can be targeted right down to the individual.

Thirdly, it avoids the potential problems that have developed in using email for advertising, such as spam filters and users recognising and rejecting marketing emails. And fourthly, it offers an exciting, new interface, which we could call ’partnering’ or ‘piggybacking’.

If we take Facebook as an example we can see the huge potential for online community messaging marketing.

Facebook has a number of features that offer an effective message service through activity linking. The most direct model involves creating a fan page of a brand or product and inviting members. As people join their network friends are automatically alerted to the action, which spreads the word about the brand. This marketing style generates what is known as ‘Fansumers’ and it has the added benefit that brands are not just promoted but also endorsed.

The ‘partnering’ message is Facebook’s latest initiative. If a user messages a friend with reference to a commercial entity, the business can pay to include an ad that accompanies the message. The example Facebook uses is a restaurant. A user messages a friend saying they have visited a particular restaurant and included in the massage is an ad for that very restaurant.

Online community popularity continues to go from strength to strength and it offers unique characteristics to help businesses get their message across. So a big part of the future of online marketing certainly involves online community messaging.

Tags: advertising, brand, e-commerce, facebook, internet
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Microsoft opens up the search market?

Jonathan Bowers, February 6th 2008, 3:56PM

It has been almost a week since Microsoft put a deal on the table for Yahoo! to consider. While we don't seem to be hearing much yet from Jerry Yang and his board of directors the rest of the industry has plenty to say - especially Google.

Google is vocal but not quite uniform in its response. One minute, MD for UK Sales Mark Howe is welcoming the competition and the next, senior vice president David Drummond is appealing to competition commissions that a merger will give rise to unfair dominance.

Naturally, the online marketing community is welcoming a long overdue challenge to Google's advertising strength but there's more to this bid underlying Google's concern than many realise. Focus has been placed on the online applications side of a deal but Microsoft has for a while now been developing its demographic ad/search capabilities and has only one rival in this area - Yahoo!.

It is difficult to get hold of accurate figures, but Wikipedia cites Windows Live Hotmail as having 260million accounts in existence which means a hugely valuable database of user information activated when users browse after login. In recent statistics, comScore places Yahoo as the web mail leader with 255m accounts so while something is a little awry it is clear is that Microsoft - with the addition of Yahoo's user data would indeed be a very formidable force in the digital advertising market.

With Google's sign up email (gmail) tiny in comparison, the ability to target ads to the right demographic is one of Google's weaknesses within the market. And with the search leader's DoubleClick acquisition moving forward Microsoft needs to do something to avoid being left behind entirely. The Yahoo! bid brings it back in the eyes of all involved as a force to be reckoned with.

I for one am very excited about how this will develop over the coming weeks and months.

Tags: advertising, google, microsoft, search, yahoo!
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Web content that improves your return on investment

Jonathan Bowers, January 31st 2008, 12:09PM

In relation to other advertising mediums, the internet is just emerging from infancy. It's no surprise then that many people are still not getting sponsored links right and essentially throwing money away by delivering poor relevance.

Search engines reward on relevance for a very good reason - it's what the user wants. So if you place an ad online and it doesn't lead to a page that delivers on the promise of that ad - you are punished two fold. Users will not stay on your site and Google will in turn hold back from rewarding you.

How can Google promote a website that the user doesn't want to see?

There are some very simple rules you can follow in preparing the landing pages for your online advertising that will help to keep the visitors from reverting back to the search results never to return again.

First off, you should make sure your 'Creative' which is the descriptive text within the advert is an exact distillation of the page they will click through to. Then ensure that this page is the most relevant page on your website for these keywords. Do not require your user to click further to find the information they need.

To give yourself the best chance of converting the visitor make sure that the navigation across the website is very simple and user friendly so that your landing page is as few clicks away from a transaction as possible.

There is one major 'don't' with landing pages too. Do not place them in an area that requires a login or registration process before the user can reach the information they require. This is a sure way to send them straight back to the search results with a bitter taste in their mouth.

At UKFast we create new pages for every keyword that appears in our advertising campaign. It's an ongoing process that can be very rewarding when done correctly.

Tags: advertising, adwords, websites
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