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Our latest summary of ad clickthrough rates statistics in the US, Europe, and Worldwide is designed to help you benchmark your paid digital and social media ads, set marketing budgets, and define your goals

If you're forecasting your digital media spend, you need to compare the ROI of your display ads, paid social, Google Ads, and social media. Depending on your objectives, it's worth reviewing and benchmarking the latest metrics like average click-through rates, average cost per click, and cost per lead. I've put this compilation together to help marketing professionals create direct response conversion models for digital marketing campaigns. By creating budget models using known benchmarks for average CTRs and digital media click-through costs, you can better forecast your return on investment from digital media ads. Our budgeting and forecasting spreadsheets include: Simple digital channel planning spreadsheet Conversion and revenue model spreadsheet Month-by-month customer acquisition spreadsheet …

E-commerce inbound marketing means attracting customers to your online store with engaging and relevant content to increase sales and conversions

E-commerce has rocketed over the last 12 months - and with it, inbound marketing tactics by savvy e-commerce marketers have picked up the pace, competing to attract customers to their site and win that sale. While a healthy e-commerce marketing strategy will always include a mixture of outbound and inbound marketing, with demand and competition peaking in 2021, there's little doubt that now is the time to focus on your e-commerce inbound marketing strategy to increase your return on investment. The numbers speak for themselves with e-commerce purchases accounting for 16% of all sales in the US in Q2. In fact, 9 countries were predicted over 20% growth in e-commerce post-COVID, the Asian Pacific market alone forecast $2,448.33 billion of E-commerce sales. With that in…

It’s not always easy to tell at a glance which social media platform will offer the most opportunities for your brand

The past decade’s explosion in social media marketing has made it more important than ever to know how to effectively deploy a limited paid social budget. With so many social media platforms around, many small- and medium-sized businesses are focusing on cultivating a strong presence on one platform. It’s a good way for a business to avoid spreading its social budget too thin - but it does require choosing the right platform. The truth is that it’s not always easy to tell at a glance which social media platform will offer the most opportunities for your brand. It takes some research, vision, data-crunching and possibly a little soul searching about what your business is here to accomplish. If that sounds like a tall order, don’t worry. We’ll help you break it…

Using hashtags in a post caption or in the first comment can dramatically increase the performance of your Instagram marketing.

As far as social media channels are concerned, Instagram is a major player in the industry. Businesses that want to gain access to enthusiastic followers who love visual content should definitely learn how to successfully use hashtags to improve their performance on this platform. According to a recent study, using hashtags in a post caption or in the first comment can dramatically increase the performance of your Instagram marketing. [si_guide_block id="90264" title="Access our Quick Win – How to optimize Instagram marketing" description="This Quick Win will teach you a range of skills including post-planning tips, advice for creating powerful images, the best use of hashtags, and how to best caption your posts."/] The key is to always keep in mind your profile size while you find the right number of hashtags…

Nano-influencers are an amazing alternative to micro-influencers as they have in-person relationships with the majority of their community

The days when only big dogs like Calvin Klein and Glossier could afford influencer marketing are far behind us. Today, nano-influencers, a new breed of opinion leaders, allow both popular and emerging brands to get business results without spending much of their marketing budget. [si_guide_block id="115521" title=“Access our Quick Win – How to set up a micro-influencer campaign" description="Our micro e-learning course covers everything you need to know about micro-influencer marketing and how to get started with your influencer campaign"/] In 2019, there’s no need to be a world-known celebrity to affect consumer buying behaviour. With a great number of sponsored posts on Instagram, modern customers trust real and authentic personalities more than ever, so it’s no wonder that ‘nano-influencers’ campaigns are on the rise. Nano-influencers — those who are common social media users with less…

Facebook and Instagram are powerful platforms, but you need to make sure you are using them in the right way and at the right time

Social media has proven to be a really effective marketing platform for all sorts of businesses. Facebook and Instagram are hands down the top-picks amongst them, and here's why. Facebook enjoys over 1.4 billion active daily users and 500,000 more are added each day. Aside from serving as one of the top marketing tools for B2C businesses, it equally offers B2B marketers a great choice with its 'Page' and 'Group' features. Instagram, on the other hand, is emerging as a global marketing tool for B2C businesses. The latest statistics from Omnicore show that Instagram has inspired 72% of users to buy something they saw on the app. Nevertheless, it takes more than pure statistics for these two platforms to effectively impact your company.…

The latest on Google's June 2019 core update, Instagram's Paid Partnerships, the rise in digital ad fraud, junk food ads aimed at children banned, Google faces DOJ investigation

The big news this week is the rollout of Google's latest core algorithm update, which started on June 3rd and (as of today) is still ongoing. We've taken a look at what the industry knows about the effects so far. In good news for brands who work with influencers, Instagram is making it easier than ever to use their content. The social media platform has announced a new tool that could benefit both influencers and brands. A new report has suggested that ad fraud could result in costs of up to $30 billion this year, which will likely be put on the shoulders of smaller companies. The ASA has announced that eight well-known food brands had ads banned from Google after they were shown alongside content…

Twitter's new reporting tool ahead of elections, LinkedIn's new 'services' feature, Facebook suing a company for selling fake 'likes', Instagram replacing travel brochures, Sri Lankan blocks social media following terrorist attacks, Snapchat seeing user recovery and Google adds fun Avengers-themed feature

This week has seen another update to Twitter, this time to help stop the spread of misinformation ahead of elections. A new reporting feature will allow users to flag incorrect information that could influence people's election decisions. LinkedIn is helping freelancers and business-owners showcase their services on their profile with a new trial feature. Facebook has launched a lawsuit against a company and individuals who have been selling fake engagement on Instagram. New research has found that more people turn to Instagram to find holiday locations than travel agents, with many people choosing destinations based on how photogenic they are. The Sri Lankan government has blocked social media while investigations into the terrorist attacks…

These influencer marketing predictions will help you make more informed choices this year

With 2019 already roaring to a start, we want to give brands and influencers a leg up on the competition. So we've compiled a list of the top influencer marketing predictions that will rule 2019. Let's take a look.

1. Brands will be focussing more and more on video content in 2019

Why is video still the king? Because videos are more engaging and authentic than all other forms of content. [si_guide_block id="27934" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Influencer outreach guide for marketing professionals" description="This practical guide shows you how to use tools to find and interact with influencers on the best social media platforms for outreach, that’s Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and more."/] Authenticity has, undoubtedly, been one of the key drivers of the success and popularity of influencer marketing. It’s the predominant reason why people do not trust traditional advertising…

Travel brands must select the right influencers to work with in order to see the best results and create effective stories

Working with influencers can propel a travel campaign forward and help your company reach its audience more effectively. But when you pick an influencer to work with, you are aligning their brand with your own, this is why it's incredibly important to choose the right individuals to work with. This can mean selecting influencers is a daunting prospect, especially if you have little or no experience of working in this way. One of the biggest mistakes that first-timers make is not doing enough research into influencers before choosing who to work with. [si_guide_block id="35932" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Smarter Instagram marketing guide" description="Our Smarter Instagram marketing guide will help you tap into the consumer activity on Instagram to use it to grow your business."/] It’s simply not enough to select the…