go-Digital Blog on Digital Marketing

Source: Kenshoo [download page]

Notes: Mobile application installs grew by 346% year-over-year in Q2, representing a significantly faster rate of growth than experienced during 2014, reports Kenshoo in a recent study. Ad spend (+293%) also saw rapid growth, though these metrics are at least in part affected by new entrants and titles tracked. Of note, while costs-per-click (CPC) grew by 16%, cost-per-install (CPI) dropped by 12%, with the CPI gap between iOS and Android sharply narrowing this year. › Continue reading

Source: Monetate [download page]

Notes: Q2 2015 was “pretty good,” declares Monetate, noting overall increases in conversion rates, average order values and revenue per session on a global basis, though bounce rates also increased. Also of interest, average order value for visitors referred by social networks grew each quarter during the previous year, but still lagged direct, email and search. Within the US, smartphones’ share of e-commerce visits increased again; however, these devices continue to trail tablets and desktops in conversion and add-to-cart rates.

A majority of consumers don’t trust websites that suffer from security and usability issues, says Neustar in recently-released research [pdf], although inaccurate content is the most common complaint of those identified. Indeed, 91% of the more than 750 adults surveyed for the report said that they don’t trust websites that contain errors or mistakes. › Continue reading

Source: Flurry

Notes: Apps continue to dominate US time spent with mobile, says Flurry, reaching 90% of mobile minutes in June 2015, up from 86% share in Q2 2014. Breaking down mobile internet consumption by app and browser categories, the data shows Facebook’s app by itself occupies 19% share of time spent, meaning that it alone accounts for almost twice as much time spent with mobile as browsers. The study also finds that time spent with gaming apps has shrunk, while mobile users are spending more time with entertainment and messaging/social apps. › Continue reading

Almost one-third (31.6%) of US media ad spending will be allocated to digital media this year, with mobile capturing the majority share of that spending, estimates eMarketer in a recent forecast. In fact, for the first time, the share of media ad spending allocated to mobile (16.6%) will exceed the share allocated to print (15.8%). › Continue reading

Source: eMarketer

Notes: Facebook will grow to account for 20.3% of all US mobile ad spending in 2017, up slightly from an estimated 19.4% share this year and 18.5% last year, per eMarketer’s latest estimates. (That would be in line with the 19% of mobile internet time spent with Facebook.) While Facebook’s share of mobile ad revenues is expected to grow slightly, the opposite is true for Google, which is projected to see a sizable decrease in revenue share this year (from 36.9% to 32.9%). › Continue reading

Source: Jumio

Notes: A majority (56%) of US smartphone owning adults have abandoned a mobile transaction, according to Jumio, though this figure is down from 66% in a similar survey conducted in 2013. Among those who have abandoned a mobile transaction, purchase uncertainty (45%) was the top reason cited, followed by slow load times (36%) and difficulty with navigation (31%). These usability concerns appear to outweigh security concerns around payment (27%) and personal (26%) information, per the survey’s results, though other research suggests security con! cerns ar e still prevalent.

According to a detailed study from Ofcom, the UK version of the FCC, different generations have vastly different attachments to internet devices: the grandparents can’t live without the TV, and (surprise surprise) you’d have to wrest the smartphones from millenials’ cold, dead hands.

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Earlier this week, Amazon confirmed it was shutting down its pay-per-click “product ads” that showed links and photos at the bottom of search results and diverted traffic out to other sites.

Product ads were popular among e-commerce brands because the format allowed them to partner with Amazon, but without Amazon seeing their transaction data. Ad sellers like Google were able to use the ads to get information about Amazon’s users, which enabled them to hone up ad targeting on their own platforms.

Amazon is now plugging that hole, which was allowing hundreds of companies to essentially steal chunks of its online advertising share by using its own data (for a price.) Now brands that want to advertise their products on Amazon.com will be pushed towards selling their ads on Amazon.com too. Amazon is offering an olive branch for those that still want to link out of Amazon.com to their own sites by testing “text ads,” but as the name indicates, these won’t offer the imagery that is more likely to capture users’ attention and will be less of an attractive offering to retailers.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about the reason for the discontinuation of product ads. A spokeswoman e-mailed this statement to Reuters: “At Amazon we are constantly reviewing the services we offer partners to ! help the m best reach our customer base and grow their businesses.”

According to analytics company Similarweb, Amazon sent 3.4 million desktop visits to Google.com ads over the past six months (February to July) in the US. That might, on the surface, seem like just small change to Amazon: outgoing visits to Google.com are less than 0.1% of the total 4.5 billion US desktop visits to Amazon.com over the same period. But each of those 3.4 million visits provided Google with valuable data.

Moshe Alexenberg, head of content at SimilarWeb, told Business Insider: “That does not seem significant to me, in terms of revenue. However, the data that Google collects through these ads may have more value than the percentages suggest. Thus, Amazon may want to prevent Google from collecting such information on its users and their online shopping habits.”

By shutting off outside access, Amazon’s move is in-keeping with a wider trend of platforms building up “walled gardens” around their advertising technology stacks. Earlier this month Google confirmed it was restricting marketers from buying YouTube ads via third-party companies through the DoubleClick ad exchange.

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