Gartner: Search Engine Volume to Decrease by 25% Thanks to AI

For businesses (and marketers) that have relied on search engines to deliver traffic, there’s a big change coming. The folks at Gartner predict a seismic shift: traditional search engine volume is expected to plummet by a staggering 25% by 2026, with search marketing losing significant market share to AI chatbots and other virtual agents. If

Maps Reimagined if Streaming Services Were Countries

A new study by Mackeeper has analyzed which streaming services are bigger than entire countries! The US dominates global tech and is home to the majority of tech giants including streaming services, but this study shows which of these mammoth services are bigger than countries by comparing population to subscriber count. Throughout the pandemic, most

Which Companies Have the Most Personal Data about You?

The folks at Clario have put together a fascinating chart that breaks down which online platforms and brands collect the most data and what they know about us. I thought it was worth sharing. Facebook and Instagram top the list (no surprise). We all do it – click ‘accept’ on a cookie pop-up without reading

When Can I Measure the ROI of My B2B Campaigns?

When you launch an advertising campaign, you want results. For B2C products, a digital ad with an incentive, such as a discount or limited-time sale, can lead ROI in short order.  The sales cycle is short.  Sales can also stop the minute you stop advertising. For B2B businesses, the sales cycle is much longer.  74%

Big Changes Coming to Digital Ad Tracking: A Cookie-less Future?

We’re in for some big changes when it comes to tracking and advertising. While government regulators are making noise about taking action against major tech companies, the industry has not-so-quietly been making a couple of key changes that could lead to a cookie-less future. Cookies are those things websites use to track you as you

Mobile Speed is Crucial in Today’s Mobile World

Google and Deloitte combined forces to look at mobile load times for 30 days across four verticals: Retail Luxury Travel Lead generation (such as insurance or auto sites) The results, published in a Whitepaper titled “Milliseconds make Millions,” were clear: 1. Faster sites mean more customers will reach checkout 2. Faster sites encourage people to

U.S. Lags Behind the World When it Comes to Broadband Internet Speeds

Here’s a quick quiz:  Which of these countries do you think has the fastest average broadband speeds? Romania South Korea Hungary United States If you guessed the U.S., you’re wrong.  In fact, the U.S. didn’t even make the top 10 list for countries with the fastest average internet connection in the world.  For the past

Two-Thirds of Links on Twitter are Done by Bots

Call it the attack of the bots.  The majority of tweets linking to the most popular websites are not handled by human beings, but bots that post content without human involvement.  That’s the findings of a Pew Research Center random sampling of 1.2 million tweets last year to answer this question: “What proportion of tweeted

Marketer Study: Will COVID-19 Change Everything? Umm, No.

You can’t go online without bumping into an article about how the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has changed everything and how it’s all changed forever. When it comes to marketing, however, just 13% of marketers surveyed think COVID-19 has permanently changed branding, according to a study by Bynder.  57% agree that there will be a lasting

Advertising During Uncertain Times: 11 Research Projects Tell the Same Story

If you’re looking for hard data on what’s happened to brands that increased or decreased marketing during and after a crisis or recession, I’ve compiled the results of 11 studies into this article.  Every single one shows the same thing:  the companies that stayed the course or increased their marketing efforts grew at significant rates

Amid a Crisis, There Is Opportunity – If You Act Now

Consumer research and strategy company Magid works with brands and media companies and has been tracking media consumption and consumer attitudes for decades.  Their April research shows significant opportunities for brands and publishers:  69% of consumers say they are trying new brands right now. This represents an incredible opportunity for businesses to change perceptions and

Changing Consumption Habits During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Remember all the headlines about the death of network news?  It turns out the ABC World News Tonight with David Muir is the #1 program on television right now.  It’s not just the #1 news program; it’s the #1 program period – beating everything in prime time. During the coronavirus pandemic, consumption of media has

Trust in News Sources: The Great Political Divide

Americans may be more polarized than ever when it comes to news about politics. While that may not be a shocker, we now have hard data to show just how it plays out and the differences between party affiliation and trust in news organizations. The research from Pew Research Center tested 30 news organizations as

Video Consumption Up 33%; Local Broadcast TV Still Gets the Bulk of Viewing

Consumers spent way more time watching video in 2019 compared to previous years, according to a Parks Associates study reported in Fierce Video.  Video consumption rose by 33% in 2019 compared to 2018.  When it comes to where people watch video, TV still ranks as the #1 destination.  TV sets account for more than half

Report: Fake Accounts and Bots are Proliferating Online; Social Media Companies Aren’t Stopping Them

Let’s say you were able to positively identify more than 15,000 fake social media accounts.  You reported a significant number of them to social media platforms as fake.  Nearly a month later, who many do you think would still be on the platform? If you said 95% of the fake accounts were remaining online, you’d

TV’s Influence on Purchase Decisions Exceeds All Other Media Combined

Once again, consumers cited traditional television advertising as having the strongest influence on their purchasing behavior, greater than the influence of all other media combined.  That was the key takeaway from a research study, 2019 Purchase Funnel, conducted by GfK which measured the influence of media on consumers during their purchase decision-making process. Other key

More Bad News for Organic Search + New Research on Paid Search, Social Media, and Mobile Ads

If you’re hoping organic search is the way to increase conversions on Google, we’ve got some sobering news for you:  organic search on Google is producing just 22% of site visits, according to the new 3Q 2019 Digital Marketing Report from Merkle. Here are a few of the others insights from the report. Paid Search

Content Omnivores: Video Consumer Want It All

With the increased attention focused on OTT (Over-the-top) TV and streaming services, there are some interesting trends developing. 65% of US consumers say they stream content at least once a week. Two-thirds say they stream more video online than they watch of broadcast, cable, or satellite, according to Horowitz Research’s Focus OTT & SVOD 2019

Marketers #1 Goal in 2019? Get That Email Address

“Personalized experiences are about delivering contextually relevant experiences to your prospects and customers, based on what you know about them, where they are in the purchase journey, and what they are looking to achieve. It is becoming more evident that marketers who consistently deliver personalized cross-channel experiences are seeing moderate to substantial conversion improvements.” –

Changing Channels: Direct to Consumer Brands Are Moving Digital Dollars Back to Traditional Advertising

Many D2C brands are moving digital dollars back to traditional marketing channels. Rising costs of digital mediums Need to build brand awareness, trust, and credibility They are finding out that the direct response type campaigns that can work on search and social media channels will only take you so far.  “As you evolve,” Melanie Travis,

Digital Divide Affects 100 Million U.S. Consumers: How Your State Stacks Up

Cell phones, apps, connected TVs, tablets, streaming media devices:  they all need broadband internet connections to be used to their full potential.  Yet, according to the a study by The NPD Group, nearly a third of Americans don’t have that kind of internet connection. NPD defines broadband as having at least a 25Mbps download speed

IAB: TV Ads Are Still the Best for Generating Awareness

When the TVB (Television Bureau of Advertising) puts out a study that says TV ads are the best marketing solution for businesses, some critics say the results are skewed because it’s a TV-focused organization. If that happens in the future, you can now point to the survey done by the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau).  They

“Belief-Driven Buyers” Are Playing a Bigger Role in Brand Trust

Why do customers trust brands? The top reasons are all about product or service quality, according to the latest edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer. It delivers good quality products or services The brand gets good ratings and reviews It charges a fair price It has always treated me and others well Farther down the

Internet Trends 2019: Mary Meekers’ Annual Report Shows Big Changes

Mary Meeker is a venture capitalist and former Wall Street security analyst. She’s ranked by Forbes as one of the top 100 most powerful women in the world.   When she unveils her annual presentation on Internet trends, it makes news. This year’s report is no different.  You read the full report here:  Internet_Trends_2019.  It’s 333 pages