Online advertisers expect budget increases in 2004 and 2005

More than half (56%) of the marketers Millward Brown surveyed indicated that their total marketing and media budgets increased in 2004 over 2003, and 60% expect the upward trend to continue through 2005. Optimism about budgets swelled, with 81% of marketers with budgets above $400 mln expecting increases, compared to 44% of marketers with budgets under $25 mln.

Looking forward, the largest portion (28.2%) of survey participants named Web advertising as the online marketing application that would grow the most over the next five years. E-mail marketing was a strong second with 19.2% expecting the most growth, followed by search (16.3%), online promotions (13.9%), and affiliate marketing (9.8%). ITFacts

Consumers reluctant to buy financial products online

Research shows 87 per cent of consumers are using the internet to make purchases more now than they did five years ago - but reluctance remains in relation to financial products.

When it comes to buying financial products it seems people are more reluctant to go online. For example, only 23 per cent of those who have applied for a personal loan over the past five years did so on the internet. This reluctance appears to be based on several misconceptions: nearly a fifth (19 per cent) believe that they will get a better deal talking face to face with someone.

Over a third of us (38 per cent) buy something online every couple of weeks - and in the last year alone, the average consumer spent £770 on goods via the internet. MyFinances.co.uk

Free Email Marketing Guide from CRM Technologies

Specialists in sales lead management, CRM Technologies, are offering a free email marketing guide according to sourcewire. Aimed at marketing professionals working in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer environments, the guide provides hints and tips designed to help the execution of email marketing campaigns more effectively and importantly, within the most recent legal guidelines.

“It covers the fundamental aspects of every email marketing campaign,” explains Andrew Freeman, Director at CRM Technologies. “From avoiding the ‘spam’ label and maintaining credibility, to handling responses and analysing failure. Most importantly though, it also details a pre-campaign checklist of legal requirements related specifically to email marketing,” he continued.

For a free copy of the guide, or for further information about email marketing, download Email Marketing Guide

SEO- 10 steps to success

SEO is complex, but it does not need to be. As with any strategic activity if you develop a methodology or process you can give yourself a pre-defined set of stages which drastically simplifies the process. This is summarized and explained in a very comprehensive way on sourcewire

10 Stage Methodology

1. Site Performance Audit
2. Objectives Setting
3. Project Plan
4. Keyword Analysis & Selection
5. Content Development
6. Site Structure Optimisation
7. Link Building
8. Search Engine Submission
9. Reporting & Analysis
10. Maintenance & Improvement

This article is a shortened version of an 18 page White Paper titled 'How to Implement Successful SEO'. This paper is available to download from http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/resources/white-paper.php

TradeDoubler sets the pace for online marketing and sales in Europe

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – September 8, 2004 – TradeDoubler, the leading provider of solutions for managing online marketing and sales activities, today reinforced its market position by announcing revenues of €27.1 million for the six months ended June 30th 2004.

The six month audited results demonstrate rapid growth which almost equals the total revenue for 2003 of €28 million. For the same period of 2003, the company generated revenues of €11.1 million, which means that year-on-year growth for the first half of 2003 to 2004 is 144 per cent.

Having tracked and generated sales revenues of €400 million in 2003 for its clients, this figure has increased to just under €100 million in August 2004 alone and the company expects this to rise to well in excess of 1 billion Euros for the full year.
e-consultancy

Pop-Up's successful- or Not

Myth: Since people go dyspeptic over ubiquitous, in-your-face marketing techniques like pop-up ads, they either tune them out or close them down without even seeing the product or service advertised.

Fact: Despite popular perception, pop-up ads are among the best performing of all online ads. Michael Bailey, interactive media supervisor at GSD&M Advertising of Austin, Texas, said, "'Pop-ups generate roughly 5 to 10 times the response rate of standard banner units" because "people are more apt to notice them."

This doesn't mean that most people like them. A study conducted by Dynamic Logic found that almost 70 percent of those surveyed had a "very negative" opinion of pop-under ads and almost 80 percent held similar views on pop-up ads that launch a smaller browser window. Wired

Spam successful- or Not?

Most experienced web surfers will tell you that the most annoying aspects of life on the internet are pop-up ads and spam. But in the online marketing game there are a number of popular misconceptions floating around:

Myth: Spam can't possibly work because no one is stupid enough to fall for come-ons for penile enhancements, lower mortgage rates and Nigerian scams.

Fact: If only that were true. "Spam does work, but in a relatively artless way," said David Schwartz, a director of sales at Claria, an online behavioral marketing firm. Since there is almost no cost associated with sending out millions of e-mails (unlike, say, with mail-order catalogs that require hefty postage), spammers require a miniscule click-through percentage. If a bulk e-mailer sends out 1 million messages for a product that he sells for $20, he only needs 0.1 percent to purchase it to earn $20,000. Wired

Rising Keyword Expenses Reducing Profitability

The cheap keyword prices found by search engine advertising's early adopters are disappearing, which is making the great early returns on investment harder to find. Profitability, in the eyes of one Internet expert, will now come only with a little creativity. Good returns on investment are apparently still there, but increasingly with second and third choice keywords and phrases. ecommercetrends

Overture Shifting To Default Broad Match

Within the next few weeks, Overture will make a major switch to matching terms on a broad basis, rather than the traditional exact match default it has followed since the company's launch. Finally, some might say, as Google has offered the service since the start. The change will make it easier for advertisers to gain more traffic, as they'll no longer have to think of each exact term they want to target. This makes tapping into the "tail" of search queries, the relatively low-volume searches that happen, easier to target.

The change will likely increase Overture's revenues, as well. Not only will advertisers probably to target more terms, but they'll also likely pay more as previously low cost terms get rolled into the same bid price as more expensive terms. SearchEngineWatch

Few companies use SEO effectively

A new analysis performed by Oneupweb indicates that the number of companies effectively using SEO is quite small — only nine of the 100 companies in the study. Oneupweb's criteria for effective use is based on the practice of both "ethical" and "unethical" SEO methods. "Ethical" methods include pertinent keywords in tags and relevant titles and body text, whereas "unethical" methods include invisible text and image links, keyword tags not related to the business sector and other methods used to trick search engines.

However, Oneupweb finds that search engine optimization can pay off. Companies with effective SEO often end up in the top 10 search results on Google for their respective keywords. eMarketer

SE Trademark Case Moves Forward

A federal judge has let insurer GEICO's lawsuit against the two biggest providers of search-based advertising move forward, setting the stage for closer examination of whether the burgeoning form of online ads breaks trademark laws.

The court decision is significant because it essentially states that GEICO's facts, when accepted as true, could prove trademark infringement. But the case is far from resolved, legal experts say. eWeek

Blacklisted By Google: Is Your Company Next?

A new released book on Search Engine Advertising explains how companies that outsource their optimization campaigns are at risk of hiring firms that engage in search engine spam. "The problem isn't that the SEO firms get banned. It's their clients who pay the consequences" says author Catherine Seda.

Being banned by a search engine could arise from actions such as:
- Doorway pages loaded with keywords, often containing hidden links then placed within advertisers sites.
- Posting thousand of links to client web sites inside guestbooks or classified ads.

"There is a right way to boost your site's link popularity," says Seda. "Secure links from content-relevant site that have already achieved high rankings. Think quality, not quantity. And if you want to hire an SEO firm, ask how they get rankings for their clients."

Advertising UK

Net ads grow at high speed

The Internet has finally emerged as a major advertising platform, with the latest audited results revealing the market grew to $300 million in advertising revenue last year.

The Audit Bureau of Verification Services said the greatest percentage growth came from general online advertising, which lifted revenue 70 per cent to $104.7 million.

That was followed by search and directories advertising (up 61 per cent to $92.6 million), then classified advertising (up 45 per cent to $102.6 million.)

Total revenue in the 2004 financial year grew 58 per cent beyond the previous year to $300 million.

The Mercury