Internet Marketing Weekly News Update #024 December 2, 2009

Search and display: Microsoft goes after mobile clicks.

Microsoft has announced a mobile advertising initiative called "Microsoft Mobile Marketplaces." This combines elements of display advertising with search results in an attempt to generate higher click-through rates from mobile device users. In its soft-launch phase, the approach garnered click-through rates of 20%, which is five times the average for mobile search, though this may be partly due to early-stage curiosity.

Bing finds a new way to pay for attention.

The latest move in the heavy publicity push for Microsoft's Bing search tool was to have representatives hand out 1,000 MasterCard cash cards, worth $15 apiece, at the Boston and Seattle-Tacoma airports on the day before Thanksgiving. The locations tie into the original launch of Bing's Price Predictor travel tool.

Early online holiday sales show modest strength.

While traditional retail stores had more or less flat sales over the Thanksgiving weekend, initial reports from cyperspace are of modest sales growth over last year. While the traditional stores saw more shoppers but less average spending this year, early reports of online sales from comScore showed a 3% overall increase for the early part of the season, including an 11% increase for the day after Thanksgiving.

Online bargain hunting on the rise.

Online customers may boost spending this holiday season, but they are expecting more for their money as they research deals and coupons first. In November, Google searches for online coupons were 8% over the prior year, searches for coupon codes were up 20%, and searches for layaway terms were up 10%.

Zappos.com seeks to lure customers with clickable video.

Video advertisements have traditionally held the advantage of being more dynamic than static online displays, but have had the disadvantage of not offering the same opportunities for immediate click response. Online shoe retailer Zappos.com is seeking to change this by experimenting with videos in which users can click on products they see and be forwarded to a product detail page.

Where the boys are--identifying social media audiences by gender.

According to Pingdom, 16 out of 19 social media sites studied have more female than male users. The exceptions? Slashdot (over 80% male), Reddit, and Digg. At the other extreme, the three most female-dominated sites are Bebo, MySpace, and Classmates.com. Obviously, along with overall visit figures, this data will be valuable for targeting advertising.

B2B online marketing spending slated to increase in 2010.

According to BtoB Magazine, online B2B marketing should see an increase overall next year. Six out of ten survey respondents plan to increase online B2B marketing spending in 2010. The big areas of attention are company Web sites, where 71% of executives plan to increase spending, followed by e-mail (68%) and search (62%).

Cyber Monday 2009 shows definite signs of growth.

While in-store sales for the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy have shown only modest growth so far, early indications are that online sales were up strongly on Cyber Monday. According to Coremetrics, 2009 Cyber Monday online sales were up 13.7% over last year's Cyber Monday sales. The most striking statistic was the rise in average online order, which increased 38.2% from $130.24 to $180.03 for 2009 vs. 2008.

Online spending shows double digit year-over-year growth in November.

SpendingPulse, an information service of MasterCard, reports that retail e-commerce was up 12.3% in November of 2009, as compared with November of 2008. Some analysts consider the broader November comparison more significant than those focusing just on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, since many sales and promotions started earlier this year.

Strong growth forecast for geo-targeted display ads.

Digitial media consulting firm BIA/Kelsey forecasts that geo-targeted display ad spending will more than double between 2008 and 2013. Geo-targeted display ads, which tailor content depending on where the user is logged on, are currently about 10.2% of display ads, but this share is expected to grow.