It's so hard to keep up with the social media giants, as they seem to be releasing a new piece of advertising or marketing functionality every week. This time around, it's Instagram and Twitter that have brought in something new for us to play with, including a new ad format. 

1. Twitter launches conversational ads 

Twitter ads up until now have been pretty standard. Advertisers may be able to target to their hearts content, but getting people to click and engage may be difficult for the unseasoned...

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Digital ad spend grew at the fastest rate for seven years with UK digital ad spend up 16.4% to more than £8.6 billion, according to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau UK Digital Adspend report, conducted by PwC.

The rise is the highest since a 17.1% rise in 2008 and follows a 12% increase in the number of internet-enabled devices in each household. The report claims this now stands to 8.3 per household with connected TVs seeing the biggest rise in ownership at 27%. Smartphones...

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Social advertising spend is growing rapidly, according to a new report which shows that marketers spent 86% more year on year in the first quarter of 2016. The growth was driven particularly by a 122% rise in mobile ad spend.

An increase in spend on Instagram ads and Facebook Dynamic Product Ads also helped to drive the increase – a trend that goes against the normal seasonal ad buying patterns.

The figures, compiled by Kenshoo, showed that in paid search advertising spend rose 13%...

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We nearly always think that a downward spiral is a negative, a downturn, and a disaster. Not always. I disagree and make an exception when it comes to marketing and developing a ‘go to market’ digital cross-media or integrated strategy, selecting the media, and determining when to use that media to support your strategy.

I often explain to clients and students that a useful image to visualise when discussing the development of an integrated marketing program is a...

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There is a perception in eCommerce that a focus on promoting top selling products is a sound strategy.  That is perfectly logical, reasonable – and wrong.

Infact, promoting only top selling products is a complete waste of time, money and effort, which springs from a fundamental misunderstanding of the eCommerce challenge and how it differs from the offline world.

Intelligent exposure

Product promotion via recommendation and search builds on one of retail’s oldest...

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It’s one of the most fundamental eCommerce marketing tools in the book and yet a new report finds that half of small businesses’ websites in the US do not engage in SEO, reducing their chances of being found by potential customers. The survey also showed that of those small businesses surveyed only just over half (54%) had a website in the first place.

The report, from a small business digital marketing survey by Clutch, shows that cost was one of the main reasons why...

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Brands are missing out on app traffic, engagement and conversions simply by failing to let content from their apps show up in Google’s organic search results.

The claim follows research by search and content performance company Searchmetrics which showed that less than a third of iOS and Android apps are able to support Google app indexing (deep linking).

The company studied 100 of the most visible websites in Google US searches and found that 84% offer an Android app. However only...

I first wondered about the future of the infographic over three years ago. Every time I logged onto my preferred social network, I was inundated with facts and figures presented to me in an image based format. It’s fair to say that in its infancy, the infographic was an exciting new way for marketers to capture an audience hungry for visual content. Three years ago it seemed as though brands were transforming any words or facts they could into pictures. Anything could go viral, even if it had no...

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When trying to understand where to put digital marketing investment and budget, it is crucial to understand which route to market is the most effective for your customer base since you don’t want to be wasting investment on a path your customers don’t often tread.

A new study by TextMaster and Similar Web suggests that when broken down by country direct traffic dominates over other methods of accessing brands such as search, referral or social with direct traffic the...

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The majority of consumers trust friends, peers and family more than brands. But who do consumers listen to the most online? If celebrity names and high-profile personalities spring to mind, think twice. Consumers are a more discerning bunch than some brands may realise.

While many consumers follow celebrities with huge social media audiences (Katy Perry has a whopping 73 million Twitter followers at present), it’s doubtful they’ll rely on...