Following are recent findings by various studies on marketing and advertising-related topics. For a more in-depth look at these subjects, visit our sister site, MarketingCharts.com.
A Lot of Big Companies Shun Marketing Metrics
Surprisingly few large companies have implemented a consistent, formal approach to measuring online marketing - at least compared to their small counterparts, according to a report released by Forbes Insights and MarketShare Partners. The study, "The Accountability Evolution: Marketers Turn to Metrics to Boost Their Strategic Value," looks at how approaches vary between companies with marketing budgets over $1 million and those under $1 million. It found, for instance, that marketers with budgets of less than $1 million favored metrics (58%), whereas marketers beyond the $1 million threshold felt that having a "big idea" was more important (58%).
Zero Percent of Respondents Willing to Pay for Twitter
While 49% of internet users said they use micro-blogs such as Twitter, zero percent said they would be willing to pay for it, according to the 2010 USC Annenberg Digital Future Study, produced by University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The study bodes well for internet advertising though: it found that half of internet users never click on web advertising, and 70% said that it is "annoying." Yet 55% said they would rather see web advertising than pay for content.
Travelers Most Likely to Opt In to Online Ads
A survey from Pontiflex found that more than 2.1 million people opted to share personal information with travel companies through sign-up advertising in Q2 2010. The Pontiflex E-Mail and Social Acquisition Report measured average CPLs for advertisers across multiple vertical industries for that period: While travel was the most popular industry with consumers, almost 550,000 signed up for ads from companies in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry and 306,000 gave their information to health companies.
Retail Search Important to Most Shoppers
A study by comScore and Searchandise Commerce found that two-thirds of consumers begin the shopping process online, and that half convert offline. The path to purchase, in most cases, starts with a combination of search engine and site search on retail websites for price, brand and feature information.
