Bing Targets SMBs With New Ads Express Service

Microsoft’s Bing has revealed its new Ads Express service, which will target small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and will conduct ad initiatives via its search network, according to a blog post by Ginny Sandhu, group product marketing manager for mobile and local advertising at Microsoft. The service is still in beta, and is currently only available in the United States.

Bing Ads Express will provide businesses with the opportunity to create a single pay-per-click (PPC) marketing project tied to their Bing business listing, which is quite similar to Google’s AdWords Express.

Bing’s Ads will allow companies to target their ad to show up in the search results pages based on users location. The service will enable firms to use their Facebook or other pages linked to their business, a service also very similar to AdWords which allows businesses to link to their G+ page if they do not have a website.

To set up a campaign, companies need to provide information such as opening hours, location, and other important details. They must then write the text of the advertisement, decide where it would appear, and set a maximum budget.

Bing then takes all that information and “does all the heavy lifting for you” – from creating the ad groups to managing the campaign, said Sandhu. He added that businesses are always in control – they tell Bing how much they want to spend per month, and the company makes sure that no more than the maximum is spent.

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Users Prefer Google and Facebook for Social Login

These days, social login features appear on many websites, allowing users to gain site access without having to undergo potentially annoying registration processes. Instead, a user can use their social media accounts in order to view content from another site.

According to a recent survey conducted by user management platform Janrain, Facebook is the top social login identification source, used by 44.9% of participants. This is followed by Google (32.9%), Yahoo! (7.1%), Twitter (6.5%), LinkedIn (2.4%), and Microsoft comes last with 1.9%.

It seems that Google and Facebook have definitely entered the battle for social login domination. However, the popularity of multiple login services vary according to the type of website the user wants to visit. For example, in the third quarter of this year, business-to-business website users were just as likely to use LinkedIn to enter a site as they were to use Google, though both websites lagged behind Facebook.

There are areas in the Internet where Facebook is reigning over all other social logins, such as on gaming and entertainment fields. According to Janrain, 62% of users on gaming and entertainment websites use Facebook login. Only 20% use Google sign-in, 8 % use Yahoo! and Twitter each, and Microsoft’s Windows Live is the biggest loser at only 1%.

The firm also found that social network websites are valued for their social sign-in features in regions with strong following. For example, Brazilian and Indian users of social networking and discussion website Orkut, which is operated by Google, also wanted to take advantage of the social network’s identification facilities.

This article was brought to you by Rocketfish Ltd

John Bonney Google+

93% Of London Marketers Believe Social Media Offers Great Brand Opportunities

A huge 93% of digital advertisers and marketers in London think that social media offers remarkable opportunities for brands, according to a study conducted by social media analysis and analytics firm Crimson Hexagon.

Approximately 70% of marketers believe that social media is essential for marketing success, and has the power to make or break advertising campaigns. In addition, 72% believe that social media is a more reliable source of public opinion, compared to traditional user or focus groups. Nevertheless, just 16% responded they use social media monitoring, and only 13% use social media analysis.

The vast majority of participants in the study, however, have concerns over insufficient investments companies are making in social media projects, technologies, and processes. 77%, or over two-thirds of brand marketers, said they invest insufficient amounts of money in this marketing sector, while 68% of ad agencies noted that current investments are just not enough.

The findings from this study show that while many professionals in the advertising and marketing sector are aware of the importance of social media analytics, the practice is not widely implemented. The influence and awareness of social sentiment could not be denied, and what the marketing sector needs is investment in the many tools that are able to extract raw data, give it context, value, and meaning, and use it in order to make better decisions, said Curt Bloom, president at Crimson Hexagon.

This article was brought to you by Rocketfish Ltd

John Bonney Google+

Britons Spend 43 Hours Online Every Month

Users in the United Kingdom spend approximately 43 hours per month on the Internet, with 33% of people mainly using it for social networking and entertainment. These statistics were taken from research conducted by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in collaboration with advertising trade association the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB).

Britons now spend one in every seven minutes on social networks. During the past year, social advertising budgets have grew by 53%, which in turn has helped total online ad investments to surpass £3 billion, according to IAB. The total digital advertising spend rose 17.5% in the first six months of 2013, up from £2.61 billion in the first half of last year, which is an increase of £435 million. During the same period, media ad spend hit £242.5 million.

Furthermore, total ad spend on mobile devices in Britain, such as tablets and smartphones, reached £429.2 million, which is an increase of 127% year-on-year, and accounts for 14.1% of total spend in the first half of 2013.

The research shows that there is an increase of 1,260% in video ad spend on mobile devices, a huge jump that might be explained with the 4G network roll-out in October last year. Mobile video ad spend totalled £23 million in the first six months of this year, compared to only £1.7 million in the same period last year.

Additionally, total mobile display advertising spend, including video ads, rose by 195% on a like-for-like basis to £150.5 million in the first six months of 2013, according to IAB. This means that mobile today gets 20.4% of total digital display ad budgets, which reached £737.9 million in the first half of this year. This figure represents 24% of the total digital advertising spend.

John Bonney Google+

Google To Launch User-Based Endorsement Ads With Photos And Comments

Google has announced plans to roll out product-endorsement advertisements that will include photos, comments, and names of its users, in an effort to personalise ads and make them more social.

The new terms of service, which will come into force on November 11, will allow the search engine to use users’ names, photos, and product review posts via Google+ in advertisements that it sells to businesses. The information could include restaurant, product, and shop reviews, as well as information of items purchased by users on Google Play. This information will show up in advertisements to the users’ friends, along with their photo when they make searches on Google.

Users and privacy defenders find the new changes troubling, mainly because the option is set by default unless the user decides to change it.

However, Google made it clear that it will not show profiles, names, images, or reviews of users under the age of 18. However, these users will still be able to see shared endorsements from other users in advertisements.

It is important for users to understand that changing the endorsement setting will not have an impact on how users’ photo and name could look in shared endorsements that are not advertisements. For example, if a user was to +1 an application, their photo or name would still appear in that application’s listing page.

Google explained that it wants to provide users with the most useful information from their friends and connections, and it hopes that recommendations from people might help other users.

Onavo Acquisition To Strengthen Facebook’s Mobile Strategy

On Monday, Facebook confirmed that it has acquired Onavo, a startup company that develops data-compression software to minimise data usage on smartphones.

According to its blog post, Onavo will remain a standalone brand and will keep their Tel Aviv office, which will give Facebook a brand new office in Israel. The acquisition will provide Facebook with technology that will help them to develop a mobile app for its next one billion subscribers.

As Facebook expands into emerging markets, it is crucial to develop an app that is functional and affordable. Among the main barriers are data plans, as users cannot afford them, or do not have strong enough Wi-Fi connection to operate the application.

The social network has been working hard to solve this issue by building mobile applications with data usage in mind, and has been experimenting with older Android versions to simulate a situation in which potential users interact with the app. In order to understand the market, the social network giant sent engineers to the Philippines to buy the best mobile phone for less than $50.

As well as the development of a better application, the acquisition of Onavo will help Facebook provide internet access globally via Internet.org.

Facebook said that Onavo will be a great addition to the company, and that it expects Onavo’s data compression technology to play an important role in Facebook’s efforts to connect more users to the internet. In addition, Onavo’s analytic tools will help Facebook provide better mobile services.

Exact terms of the deal are yet to be disclosed.

This article was brought to you by Rocketfish Ltd

Instagram To Launch Photo And Video Ads

Instagram has announced that it will slowly introduce photo and video advertisements on their platform. In a recent blog post, the company said that this move is “natural” for the service, due to the many videos and photos users view from brands they follow.

Instagram said that it wants the ads to be creative and satisfying in the same way that high-quality and engaging advertisements are in magazines. The photo sharing website will also provide users with an option to hide advertisements they do not like, and in the same manner that ads on Facebook ask users for feedback, Instagram believes that it is appropriate to ask for insights on why a particular ad is not suitable.

The company noted that the roll-out will start in the United States first, from a small number of brands that are among the most important members of Instagram’s community.

Three years ago, Instagram was presented as an iPhone-only app. However, the application was later made available for Android devices and desktop, and today it has a 150-million user base. In April last year, Instagram was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion, as Facebook wanted to grow its mobile business which was not generating much of a revenue at the time.

After the acquisition, Instagram faced a negative reaction from its users after the company changed the terms of service that allowed it to sell the photos of its users to brands. However, Instagram quickly reversed the policy, and assured its users that their photos and videos will not be used or sold to third parties.

This article was brought to you by Rocketfish Ltd

Microsoft Launch “Bing It On” Campaign

Microsoft has launched the “Bing It On” campaign in the United Kingdom, which is aiming to compete with Google by inviting users to compare Bing’s search results to Google’s.

Google has been reigning in the US search market with a 65% share, while in the UK the number is even higher – up to 90%. However, Microsoft does not seem to be put down by these figures, and as it launched its campaign, the software giant pointed out a study among 1,000 Britons who favoured Microsoft’s search engine.

The survey, conducted by independent research company Answers Research, stated that even though people used Google’s top search results, after 10 searches, 53% of users chose Bing’s results more often, while 34% preferred Google’s results, and only 13% picked both Google and Bing results equally. When comparing queries, out of 10,000 searches performed, Bing results were chosen more often – 39% of the time, compared to 32% for Google, and 29% for both engines’ search results.

There have been studies in the past showing that Google is losing ground in the United Kingdom. A research from 2012 conducted by marketing services firm Experian Hitwise UK showed that Google’s share in the country had declined below 90% for the first time since 2007.

Microsoft has been defending the Bing It On campaign fiercely after a professor questioned the results and methods of the search engine last week. Google’s head of spam, Matt Cutts, shared the study results in Twitter and in Google+ , and commented that the campaign’s flaws were obvious. In turn, Matt Wallaert, Bing’s behavioural scientist, responded with an article in the Bing blog that defended the campaign.

This article was brought to you by Rocketfish Ltd

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Optimising video – is what we do at http://www.rocketfishltd.co.uk

Whether you are looking for a Corporate Video, Case Studies or Training Video, Customer Testimonials or Staff Interview Videos we can create and optimise them for you. If you want to drive more traffic to your website by getting your videos on the 1st page of the search engines Rocketfish can help by optimising video.

5 Tips to Increase Email Productivity

Sorting through your daily emails can be an awfully time-consuming affair, and can take a real chunk out of your working day. According to the technology marketing firm Radicati Group, the average corporate worker receives around 100 emails a day, much of it being spam. 

It takes just over two hours for the average worker to sift through the raft of daily emails. That’s around 25% of a persons work day, if you base it on an eight-hour day. Sifting through them is a real slog, and that time that would be much better spent doing something far more productive. If you’re a small business owner, time is even more precious, as you will be juggling various jobs for your business.

Well there are plenty of apps out there that can seriously reduce this margin and help increase productivity. Here are 5 of our favourites.

1.Email Game: Clearing your inbox to zero might sound might seem fairly simple, but the reality is that very few people have email accounts that have an inbox of zero. Baydin’s Email Game is a useful Google Chrome extension that turns the process into game by setting a time limit for dealing with each message in your inbox and awarding points for each message you handle. If this is achieved you can prioritise and deal with messages in an orderly, uncluttered fashion.

2. SaneBox This handy app sorts your emails in order of importance, so all of your trivial and spam letters are shoved down at the bottom of your email list. SaneBox is an extremely flexible app, as it works on just about any platform you can think of including, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Apple Mail, Outlook, iPhone and Android. It doesn’t come for free, but the cost of the service is fairly reasonable, and they also offer a free trial.

3. Unroll.me: This is a great tool for dealing with the ever-present problem of spam. Sure you can block senders of spam, but the sheer volume can get on top of you fairly quickly, and individually adding senders to your block list can be a painstaking task. What Unroll.me does is heard all of your unwanted spam and place them all in one, utterly disposable email. There is also a button that allows you to unsubscribe to emails. The only snag is that the service is only supported by Gmail and Yahoo Mail, but most people tend to have at least one of these.

4. Yesware: If you’ve been in the same position long enough it is inevitable that you will have been asked the same question umpteen times. Writing the same generic response can be time-consuming and lets face it, pretty mundane. Apps like Yesware, there are many more in the same vein, allow you to create generic responses to specific questions and then allows you to categorize them. Yesware is available for free and has more than enough options for the average user, but there is a paid-for version for those who think they would benefit from the advanced options on offer.

5.FanMix: This is a great tool for social media professionals. There are plenty of websites out there that allow you to manage all your various social media platforms in one go. What FanMix does is allow you to manage all of your emails and notifications. The Gmail-themed inbox also allow you to view all of your posts,  conversations and private messages. It is guaranteed to save you tons of time, and it is absolutely free.