Mobile devices have become in integrated tool in our shopping habits. Whether it’s looking up store locations and hours, comparing prices, or checking out crowd sourced reviews on YouTube, we are burning through our data plans like never before. In fact, Google has determined that “4 in 10 shoppers visited a store online or in-person as a direct result of watching a video online.” They predict that 57% of apparel sales will be influenced by online in 2012.
So what are the latest trends?
Chief Marketer recently published the findings of their Business-to-Business Lead Generation Survey, revealing the strategies that nearly 350 B2B markets planned to employ this year, compared to 2011. What they found was that 51% of the marketers said their companies planned to primarily focus and finding new customers in 2012, no surprises there. The more interesting statistics lie in how they plan on finding those new customers.
The most popular tool for lead gen last year was email, and it was expected to grow from 86% deployment to 90% this year. What sticks out to me are the three tools that were projected to experience some of the biggest percentage jumps in 2012: Social Networks, Pay Per Click Ads, and Retargeted Ads.
On the WordWatch blog we’ve discussed how phrasing and language can impact your CTR. This week Thi Thumasathit wrote a great piece in Search Engine Watch about the impact of keyword order on revenue. I really liked his approach and his results aligned with informal observations we’ve made at WordWatch.
Thi was curious whether it is worth bidding on secondary phrases, and whether they would show profitability. For example, “blue suede shoes”, “suede blue shoes”, and “shoes blue suede” are keyword phrases in different order.
Have you ever noticed that when you’re looking at a search query report (Ad group > keywords > keyword details) there’s a row at the very bottom called “Other search terms?” Once you have noticed, isn’t it impossible to wonder just what those queries consisted of and WHY Google won’t tell you?
The good news is, a lot of the time the reason you can’t see the term is that it’s happened within the past 24 hours.
All clicks and impression data for searches entered within that time period start in the “Other Search Terms” row before joining the rest of the search query report.
We went on a day trip on the weekend to a big tourist destination. There were people from around the world. In fact, there was little English to be heard. These were people who’d come a long way. The popularity of the iPad was nothing short of incredible.
Everywhere I looked there were tourists using them to take photos and videos, and to update Facebook. Many were sitting on benches using them to search for things to do/see. They are remarkably versatile and integrated in to everyday life. We have a couple in our home, one provided by work, one which we got for the kids. They are at the kids’ schools.
