Google Connects Offline Behaviour To Digital Marketing

As car sales continue to plummet, marketers are tasked with convincing a smaller pool of consumers to buy. Tie that to reduced marketing budgets, and the challenge to tie offline consumer behaviour with online digital marketing has become somewhat overwhelming.
While car sales declined for the majority of the brands in the first quarter of 2009, search queries rose on Google. In fact, vehicle shopping-related queries rose 14% during the three months, spurred on by people looking for specific makes, models, prices and integrated technologies.
While greater adoption of digital tools, longer search queries and user-generated content have prompted great change, the biggest problem that automotive marketers face has been connecting offline purchases with online efforts. “We now understand the types of keywords people use at specific points prior to purchase,” says Davang Shah, head of automotive marketing at Google. “Six months prior to the purchase, we see roughly 56% of the auto searches buyers conducted were on non-branded search terms such as fuel efficient or hybrid sedan.”
Interesting is the shift from six months to one month prior to purchase. Fifty-two percent of auto searches were branded, meaning search terms shift to specific makes and models. It can guide the process by which marketers are connecting with consumers at different points within the purchase process.
Search plays a critical role throughout the purchase process. About 25% of new vehicle buyers who visit an OEM Web site six months prior to purchase were referred by search at least once. One month prior to purchase, 43% of new vehicle buyers who visited an OEM Web site within the month of purchase were referred by search at least once.
The data, related to paid, organic and display advertising as well as online marketing, includes the facts that 68% of buyers visit a manufacturer’s site in the six months prior to purchase, and 77% visit a third-party site. In aggregate, 84% visit at least one or the other.
About 70% of new vehicle buyers who visited an OEM site in the six months prior to purchase used the “build-your-own” feature. Marketers can analyze their online marketing strategies to drive more consumers to complete these actions knowing that buyers perform this function online.
Shah says Google will cut the data by brand and provide the information to manufacturers, dealers and third-party companies. Polk, which captures data from U.S. vehicle registrations — as well as Compete, which compiled the click-stream data from about 2.2 million people who opt into the panel — comprise the findings. A third-party company compiled the information. The two years of data in aggregate gives carmakers data to make more informed advertising decisions. The findings consider consumer behaviour six month prior to confirmed purchases for about 60,000 matches.
 

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Google Connects Offline Behaviour To Digital Marketing
 

As car sales continue to plummet, marketers are tasked with convincing a smaller pool of consumers to buy. Tie that to reduced marketing budgets, and the challenge to tie offline consumer behaviour with online digital marketing has become somewhat overwhelming.
While car sales declined for the majority of the brands in the first quarter of 2009, search queries rose on Google. In fact, vehicle shopping-related queries rose 14% during the three months, spurred on by people looking for specific makes, models, prices and integrated technologies.
While greater adoption of digital tools, longer search queries and user-generated content have prompted great change, the biggest problem that automotive marketers face has been connecting offline purchases with online efforts. “We now understand the types of keywords people use at specific points prior to purchase,” says Davang Shah, head of automotive marketing at Google. “Six months prior to the purchase, we see roughly 56% of the auto searches buyers conducted were on non-branded search terms such as fuel efficient or hybrid sedan.”
Interesting is the shift from six months to one month prior to purchase. Fifty-two percent of auto searches were branded, meaning search terms shift to specific makes and models. It can guide the process by which marketers are connecting with consumers at different points within the purchase process.
Search plays a critical role throughout the purchase process. About 25% of new vehicle buyers who visit an OEM Web site six months prior to purchase were referred by search at least once. One month prior to purchase, 43% of new vehicle buyers who visited an OEM Web site within the month of purchase were referred by search at least once.
The data, related to paid, organic and display advertising as well as online marketing, includes the facts that 68% of buyers visit a manufacturer’s site in the six months prior to purchase, and 77% visit a third-party site. In aggregate, 84% visit at least one or the other.
About 70% of new vehicle buyers who visited an OEM site in the six months prior to purchase used the “build-your-own” feature. Marketers can analyze their online marketing strategies to drive more consumers to complete these actions knowing that buyers perform this function online.
Shah says Google will cut the data by brand and provide the information to manufacturers, dealers and third-party companies. Polk, which captures data from U.S. vehicle registrations — as well as Compete, which compiled the click-stream data from about 2.2 million people who opt into the panel — comprise the findings. A third-party company compiled the information. The two years of data in aggregate gives carmakers data to make more informed advertising decisions. The findings consider consumer behaviour six month prior to confirmed purchases for about 60,000 matches.
 

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Will Digital Marketing Prove Profitable?The economy is putting ever-increasing demands on marketers to make every dollar count and demonstrate positive ROI.

According to the “2009 Promo Interactive Marketing Survey” from PROMO magazine, the demand to perform is driving marketers online. More than one-third of marketers surveyed believed that interactive marketing ROI would be more profitable than traditional marketing—such as TV, radio and outdoor—this year.

While 29% of the marketers surveyed were not sure whether digital marketing ROI would be more profitable or not, only 7% of them believed that digital marketing would be less profitable.

So it comes as little surprise that 22% of the marketers indicated they would shift dollars from traditional media into the digital space.

The problem with shifting funds to digital initiatives is that consumers are gravitating to areas where the metrics are still pretty shaky, such as blogging, social networking, video and word-of-mouth.

Paradoxically, under much pressure and with little choice, the drive for performance seems to be pushing marketers into spaces where they have few means to measure ROI—and prove performance.

Marketers are moving dollars to emerging media—even though, among the marketers polled, 38% didn’t know or didn’t measure their online ROI.

Go figure…

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When the Going Gets Tough, the Rich Get OnlineInfamously, when he was asked why he kept robbing banks—and getting caught—Willie Sutton answered, “Because that’s where the money is.”

In this tough retailing environment, merchants might wish to ponder his advice, which has come to be known as “Sutton’s Law.”

Should you keep advertising the way you always have, or should you start targeting the people with the money?

According to TNS Media Intelligence, due to economic pressures, the number of affluent households in the US (defined as having a net worth over $500,000) dropped last year, falling from 16.4 million in 2007 to 15.6 million in 2008.

Nevertheless, the rich still have money to spend, which is more than many customers can say.

“A household with $1 million in investments that has lost even 30% in value has by no means slipped to middle-class status,” says Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Affluents Online: Living the Luxe Life in Private. “But many of those households are reining in spending and evaluating purchases carefully.”

And they are going online to shop.

“On PCs and mobile devices, affluent Internet users are more active than ever,” says Ms. Phillips. “Their numbers continue to grow, even in a severe recession.”

comScore found that over 50 million people with household incomes of $100,000 or more were online in March, up 3.4% over March 2008.

More importantly, they represent more than one-quarter of the total US Internet audience. Merchants should not have too much trouble locating them, but…

In January, the Spectrem Group announced that one-fifth of millionaire households had sustained declines of 40% in their asset values. Respondents anticipated a prolonged economic downturn and 55% feared they would not have sufficient assets to maintain their present lifestyles.

Bain & Company predicts that global sales of luxury goods will slide 10% in 2009, to $201 billion.

“Luxury brand marketers must stay top-of-mind with wealthy Internet users by offering superior customer service, personalized products, and exclusive offers and invitations,” says Ms. Phillips. “Other marketers hoping to catch the affluents who are ‘trading down’ must raise the bar in their online efforts—not merely by advertising, but by explaining how their products or services fit in with the ‘new’ affluent lifestyle.”

For online retailers, keeping up with the Joneses will not be easy.

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Microsoft plans to publicly demonstrate a new search engine for the first time, as well as announce launch plans at next week’s D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, Calif., confirmed a source in the know. 

The search engine’s debut, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, should put Microsoft in a better position to compete for advertising dollars against others in the space. Code-named Kumo, the search engine is expected to position Microsoft better against Google and new computational knowledge engine WolframAlpha, which has received a lot of attention in the past few weeks.

“Microsoft is a distant third and dropping,” says Charlene Li, Altimeter Group founder and co-author of “Groundswell.” “They have struggled to gain traction. There are so many users that rely on other Microsoft products such as Hotmail. But instead of using a Microsoft browser, they open another engine’s like Google or Yahoo.”

Li says this is an opportunity for Microsoft to win back people “already in the Microsoft orbit.”

Americans conducted 14.8 billion searches in April — up 3% from March, according to comScore. The research firm reported that Google led the U.S. search market with 64.2% of the searches, followed by Yahoo at 20.4%, and Microsoft at 8.2%.

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Facebook Could Make Actual Millions With Virtual Payments
 

Facebook will soon begin testing a system that would let members use its virtual currency to make purchases within applications in the social network, providing a potential new revenue stream for the company.
Until now, people have only been able to use Facebook “credits” ($1 buys 100 credits) to purchase items in the site’s virtual gift store. But extending that virtual currency to the site’s thousands of third-party applications could possibly bring in millions of dollars in additional revenue for the company.
The blogs Inside Facebook and VentureBeat estimate that developers this year will generate between $300 million and $500 million in revenue from transactions within Facebook applications that currently offer payment options via credit card, PayPal and other providers such as OfferPal and SuperRewards.
Through its own gift shop, which sells things like virtual birthday cakes and flowers, Inside Facebook estimates that Facebook will make $45 million to $55 million in 2009. That would amount to about 10% of a projected $500 million in total revenue for the company this year.
Going a step further by creating a “universal” virtual currency system for applications “could be a powerful revenue driver for the company, which to date has largely abstained from directly monetizing the sea of applications running on the Facebook Platform,” wrote Inside Facebook’s Justin Smith, in a post Tuesday about Facebook’s plans to trial its virtual currency in apps.
Indeed, the company has come under criticism for not doing more to make money from its developer platform, while helping companies like Zynga, Rock You and Slide to flourish by distributing apps on Facebook.
A Facebook spokesperson Wednesday confirmed the test, but indicated that it was too premature to provide details. “We’re starting a very small alpha test in a few weeks with a handful of developers that explores ways for users to use their Facebook credits with third-party applications on Facebook.com,” he said.
Facebook initially announced plans to begin beta testing a payment system for application developers in December 2007, but the company appeared to put that effort on hold while it focused on growing its user base and other priorities.
But that has not stopped competitors from pushing ahead with their own e-commerce initiatives. Social network Hi5 in March launched a virtual currency system for developers, and MySpace is reportedly looking to develop its own payment system for third-party applications.
With Facebook and other social networks still struggling to monetize their vast amounts of inventory through advertising — especially amid the economic downturn — any supplemental e-commerce revenue they can produce is welcome.
But why should developers who already offer various payment options want to add another from Facebook? The company says it would give members more places to use Facebook credits and developers another avenue to monetize apps. Smith adds that Facebook’s own currency would have the benefit of being more deeply integrated into the social network’s ecosystem than a third-party service.
While no details have been disclosed, Smith speculates that developers who agreed to accept Facebook credits would be reimbursed by Facebook for currency spent in their apps, less a small percentage the company would take as a commission.
Source

Facebook Could Make Actual Millions With Virtual Payments

Facebook will soon begin testing a system that would let members use its virtual currency to make purchases within applications in the social network, providing a potential new revenue stream for the company.
Until now, people have only been able to use Facebook “credits” ($1 buys 100 credits) to purchase items in the site’s virtual gift store. But extending that virtual currency to the site’s thousands of third-party applications could possibly bring in millions of dollars in additional revenue for the company.
The blogs Inside Facebook and VentureBeat estimate that developers this year will generate between $300 million and $500 million in revenue from transactions within Facebook applications that currently offer payment options via credit card, PayPal and other providers such as OfferPal and SuperRewards.
Through its own gift shop, which sells things like virtual birthday cakes and flowers, Inside Facebook estimates that Facebook will make $45 million to $55 million in 2009. That would amount to about 10% of a projected $500 million in total revenue for the company this year.
Going a step further by creating a “universal” virtual currency system for applications “could be a powerful revenue driver for the company, which to date has largely abstained from directly monetizing the sea of applications running on the Facebook Platform,” wrote Inside Facebook’s Justin Smith, in a post Tuesday about Facebook’s plans to trial its virtual currency in apps.
Indeed, the company has come under criticism for not doing more to make money from its developer platform, while helping companies like Zynga, Rock You and Slide to flourish by distributing apps on Facebook.
A Facebook spokesperson Wednesday confirmed the test, but indicated that it was too premature to provide details. “We’re starting a very small alpha test in a few weeks with a handful of developers that explores ways for users to use their Facebook credits with third-party applications on Facebook.com,” he said.
Facebook initially announced plans to begin beta testing a payment system for application developers in December 2007, but the company appeared to put that effort on hold while it focused on growing its user base and other priorities.
But that has not stopped competitors from pushing ahead with their own e-commerce initiatives. Social network Hi5 in March launched a virtual currency system for developers, and MySpace is reportedly looking to develop its own payment system for third-party applications.
With Facebook and other social networks still struggling to monetize their vast amounts of inventory through advertising — especially amid the economic downturn — any supplemental e-commerce revenue they can produce is welcome.
But why should developers who already offer various payment options want to add another from Facebook? The company says it would give members more places to use Facebook credits and developers another avenue to monetize apps. Smith adds that Facebook’s own currency would have the benefit of being more deeply integrated into the social network’s ecosystem than a third-party service.
While no details have been disclosed, Smith speculates that developers who agreed to accept Facebook credits would be reimbursed by Facebook for currency spent in their apps, less a small percentage the company would take as a commission.
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