Internet Marketing News

Apple leads booming growth in mobile video viewership.
Video technology firm Ooyala predicts that worldwide viewership of online videos will reach the 1.5 billion mark by 2016. The fastest growth in video viewership is coming from mobile devices, and in particular Apple's devices. Users of iOS systems accounted for two-thirds of mobile video viewership last year, with a strong lead over owners of Android systems.
ClickZ

The New York Times plans to use Twitter trends to package advertising.
The New York Times has launched a new advertising package called "Sparking Stories," which targets ads depending on how stories are trending on Twitter. The goal is to use those trends to get advertisements alongside the stories that are likely to attract the biggest audience at the time.
Marketing Pilgrim

Mobile penetration and click-through rates are changing digital advertising.
Marin Software has found that not only are smartphones and tablets growing in usage, they also provide higher click-through rates (CTRs) for ad campaigns. Compared to traditional computers, CTRs were 107% higher on smartphones, and 37% higher on tablets, making the cost-per-click (CPC) cheaper on mobile devices. However, Marin predicts that advertising costs for mobile platforms will continue climbing, and the CPC for tablets could approach the cost for desktop computers in 2013.
ClickZ

Tangible results from social media efforts still elude retailers.
A study by PwC found that even though 59% of consumers surveyed report that they follow brands on social media, only 12% actually bought anything through social media channels. Only 18% feel their buying behavior was influenced by information they gained via social media.
Media Post News

Google seeks to eliminate fake reviews from Google+.
Google has put businesses on notice that it has refined its spam-detection algorithm and expects to be able to do a better job of eliminating fake positive reviews from Google+. This includes reviews written by reputation management specialists or the companies themselves, even if they're posting online versions of testimonies that customers wrote down on comment cards.
Search Engine Watch

Local digital advertising gaining share of total ad budgets.
Borrell Associates forecasts that local digital advertising will grow at a 31% rate in 2013. That far exceeds the 8.2% growth rate forecast for overall local ad spending, raising digital to 25% of total local ad spending. Among small-to-medium businesses, placing ads directly with Facebook is the most popular form of local digital advertising.
eMarketer

Search crushes social media as referral source for online retail traffic.
This past holiday season 40% of retail web traffic accessed a brand's site directly. Adobe reports that 34% of traffic was referred by search and 25% by other websites. Social media was the source of just 2% of traffic referred to retail sites.
Marketing Pilgrim