Why Do We Follow Brands on Social Media? [Infographic] – Did you know that social networking is the top online activity in the US, with the average American spending 37 minutes per day on social media sites? It’s also a fact that around 46% of web users look towards social media when making a purchase. Find out more about Why we follow brands on social. GO-Gulf
Google Confirms Changing How Quality Is Assessed, Resulting In Rankings Shake-Up – Earlier this month, many webmasters noticed significant Google ranking changes. Google has finally confirmed those ranking changes with us. Search Engine Land
STUDY: The Impact of Age Range on Facebook Ad Auction Price Tags – What effect does the age range selected during ad targeting on Facebook have on pricing in the social network’s ads auction market? SocialCode, a Facebook Marketing Partner, sought an answer to that question. SocialTimes
Bitly Introduces New Tool To Understand How People Share – Today, we’re thrilled to introduce Audience Intel, the new way for marketers to understand how customers interact with their content – whether created by you or by the Bitly Network. Bitly
Google Partners With Delivery Companies, Now You Can Order Food Right From the SERPs – Google has announced a partnership with six delivery providers across the United States, which will help facilitate a new service Google is offering within its search results. Search Engine Journal
STUDY: Global Social Media Ad Spend to Reach Nearly $36B in 2017 – Global ad spending on social media will total $23.68 billion this year and reach $35.98 billion by 2017, accounting for 16 percent of all digital ad spending worldwide, according to the latest projections from digital consultancy eMarketer. SocialTimes
Senior Digital Marketers’ Top Priorities and Challenges – Storytelling is both a top priority and a top challenge for senior marketers, finds Experian Marketing Services in its latest annual Digital Marketer Report [download page]. The survey results also suggest that profiling customers remains a challenge, although overcoming organizational silos is surprisingly not viewed as much of a priority. MarketingCharts
Digital Ad Spend Hits New $49.5 Billion High In 2014; Mobile & Social See Greatest Growth – Search remains the biggest spend overall, with desktop search as the biggest single channel at 38% of spend. Marketing Land
STUDY: Facebook Is the Dominant Social Network for Marketing by SMBs – Small and midsized businesses: Ignore Facebook at your own peril, according to new research from Gannett digital marketing company G/O Digital. SocialTimes
IAB: Search Was 50% Of US Digital Ad Spend In 2014, Desktop Still Bigger Than Mobile – Search was $24.6 billion of digital ad spend last year. Desktop outpaced mobile search spend nearly 4-to-1. Search Engine Land
Mobile to Represent More Than 11% of U.S. Local Media Revenue by 2019 – A new study from BIA/Kelsey shows that local media spend is steadily shifting toward digital, with mobile representing 11.5 percent of overall ad revenue by 2019. ClickZ
STUDY: How the NSA’s Prism Initiative Affected Americans’ Social Media Use – How have U.S. Internet users changed the way they view and manage privacy on their social media accounts since the National Security Agency’s Prism initiative came to light nearly two years ago? The latest study from Pew Research Center examines the changes in Americans’ perceptions and behavior since the news of Prism broke. SocialTimes
What were the top online and digital marketing news stories for you this week?
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
Infographic: GO-Gulf
