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Highlighting industry insights
Are Facebook video ads YouTube killer?
Before the advent of YouTube, Facebook video ads and other digital platforms for displaying video content, television was truly considered king when it came to getting the most exposure for your brand. Thirty seconds of airtime could land you tens of thousands of views, and could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the network and time. But now, anyone can spend money targeting their desired customers through Facebook video ads. So are Facebook video ads effective? How so? Discovery 76% of Americans who use Facebook say that they regularly discover new things through videos on their feeds. Facebook IQ describes this as the “universal language,” that is, that people are instantly communicative and engaged by visual information. In just one year, the number of video posts per person has increased 75% globally and 94% in the US. And every day, people upload more than 350 million photos on average to Facebook. – Source: Facebook for Business Customer Reach Forbes predicted that in 2015, Facebook would overtake YouTube for video views. As the world’s largest social network began to publicly show view counts, offer advertisers lots of metrics to test out the effectiveness of their campaigns, this put a lot of importance on embracing multiple digital channels to reach users. Fortunately for YouTube (and future emerging video ad platforms), there is enough space in the video ad platform to survive, even with Facebook’s growing success with the medium. Measurability and shareability are excellent indicators for success because they show true engagement with relation to the content displayed. A survey from BrightRoll that polled 120 agencies indicated that 72% believe video ads were more...
Google’s Mobilegeddon: Why You Need a Mobile Friendly Site
Google recently announced a massive overhaul in its search result algorithm—one that threatened to put as many as 40% of websites to pasture in its popularly dubbed “Mobilegeddon.” So what exactly was the so-called Mobilegeddon? Think of it like this: if a company site isn’t optimized for mobile, it would have a lower Google ranking, and would therefore appear further down the page on search results. Think about the site Overstock.com, which is (among many other things), a leather women’s boot retailer. Their site is mobile-optimized, so shopping on a phone or another mobile device is easy. When a potential buyer makes the search for “leather women’s boots”, Overstock.com is the first result that appears, even beating out Macy’s. Macy’s site is also mobile-friendly, though the company’s strongest mobile e-commerce platform would be their free app. Algorithm changes can be nasty. Many businesses rely heavily on Google to send traffic to their websites. Google controls two-thirds of the U.S. search market, and when Google changes its code, companies have to scramble to relearn how to optimize their sites for Google’s search. – Source: CNN Money The Cost of Mobilegeddon While it’s still early days with the updated Google algorithm, having a mobile friendly site is still imperative, no matter exactly how the update with pan out on the mobile scene. The rise of online mobile search results, and the increase of people shopping on their mobile devices means a huge potential for businesses to make their mark by having a mobile friendly site. Google is a business too, and it wants its search results to be as accurate as...