Social Media Advertising: Study Predicts an Upcoming Boom

by | Jun 5, 2013

Original Article from www.businessinsider.com

It’s not difficult to understand the lure of social media advertising.

Social Media Advertising

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are daily destinations for millions of consumers. Increasingly, their ad products offer targeting according to specific demographics, social connections, interests, and habits. 

As brands look across a fractured media landscape, where few digital properties offer any scale, social networks offer them an interesting proposition. 

New Study of Social Media Advertising Shows Growth 

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we analyze the state of social media advertising and where it is heading, offering a comprehensive guide and examination of the advertising ecosystems on Facebook and Twitter, offer a primer on Tumblr as an emerging ad medium, and detail how mobile is an important part of this story as mobile-friendly native ad formats fuel growth in the market.

Here’s an overview of some major players in the mobile advertising ecosystem: 

  • Social media advertising offers a potentially unique advertising opportunity: As brands look across a fractured media landscape, social networks offer them an interesting proposition. Social networks have scale –  enormous user bases and deep databases. And they have high engagement and desirable demographics – Americans were spending an average of 12 hours per month on social networks as of July 2012, with 18-24 year olds averaging 20 hours. 

  • Even conservative estimates predict huge growth: BIA/Kelsey recently came out with a study that offers one view – forecasting $11 billion of social ad spend in 2017, up from $4.7 billion last year. Social media advertising is a young and growing market and, so far, it only represents 1% to 10% of ad budgets for a wide majority of advertisers. There’s significant opportunity for that share to grow.  
     
  • Increased mobile usage will be a huge growth driver: Both Twitter and Facebook have passed the 50% mobile usage mark and, given the continued growth of mobile devices, it will only rise. Mobile accounted for 11% of Facebook’s ad revenue last year even though it didn’t release mobile ads until the tail end of the second quarter. By the fourth quarter, it was up to 23%. And now, Twitter is reporting that its mobile ad revenue now regularly outpaces its desktop ad revenue.
     
  • As in-stream advertising, easily transferable across devices, drive the change: According to social ad optimization platform TBG, Facebook’s mobile ads have the highest click-through rates by a substantial margin. Furthermore, native in-stream ads are perfectly transferable across devices, whereas display ads can have issues on a smaller screen. The BIA/Kelsey prediction calls for mobile to account for only $2.2 billion of that in 2017 – a 20% market share. It seems highly unlikely that mobile will account for only 20% of the social ad market come 2017, especially as usage habits continue to change.

In full, the report includes:

Designing a website with SEO in mind is crucial for improving its visibility in Google searches. Here are some key aspects to consider for optimizing your website design for SEO:

### 1. **Keyword Research and Implementation**
– **Conduct Comprehensive Keyword Research**: Identify relevant keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs.
– **Strategic Placement**: Integrate these keywords naturally throughout your website, including in titles, headings, meta descriptions, and body content.

### 2. **Responsive Design**
– **Mobile-Friendly**: Ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices as Google uses mobile-first indexing. Responsive design makes your site accessible and functional on both desktop and handheld devices.

### 3. **Site Structure and Navigation**
– **Logical and Intuitive Structure**: Organize content using a clear, hierarchical site structure. This helps search engines understand the organization of your content and improves user experience.
– **Breadcrumbs and Internal Linking**: Use breadcrumbs and a robust internal linking strategy to enhance navigation and authority distribution across your pages.

### 4. **Page Speed Optimization**
– **Fast Loading Times**: Optimize images, leverage browser caching, and minimize HTTP requests to improve page speed. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can help assess and improve load times.

### 5. **Content Quality and Originality**
– **High-Quality Content**: Regularly update your site with high-quality, original content that provides value to your audience. This engages users and encourages sharing and backlinking.
– **Content Freshness**: Updating content with the latest information can improve its relevance and ranking.

### 6. **Meta Tags and Descriptions**
– **Compelling Meta Descriptions**: Write concise and compelling meta descriptions that incorporate primary keywords to improve CTR (click-through rates).
– **Title Tags**: Ensure each page has a unique title tag that includes keywords and accurately describes the page content.

### 7. **Use of Headers and Formatting**
– **Proper Use of Headers**: Utilize header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure content and highlight important information, making it easier for search engines to understand the hierarchy of your content.

### 8. **Optimized Media**
– **Alt Text for Images**: Add descriptive alt text to images using relevant keywords to improve image search ranking and accessibility.
– **Video Optimization**: If you use videos, ensure they’re properly optimized for fast loading and include transcriptions or captions.

### 9. **Secure and Accessible Website**
– **HTTPS**: Ensure your website runs on HTTPS to secure user data and improve trust and ranking signals to Google.
– **ADA Compliance**: Make sure your website is accessible to all users, which can also positively affect your SEO.

### 10. **XML Sitemaps and Robots.txt**
– **Submit an XML Sitemap**: Submit a sitemap to help Google understand the structure of your website and prioritize crawling.
– **Optimize Robots.txt**: Use the robots.txt file to guide search engines on which pages to crawl and index.

### 11. **Local SEO Considerations**
– **Google My Business**: Ensure your business is listed and updated on Google My Business if you target local audiences.
– **Local Keywords**: Include location-based keywords and create content relevant to your local audience.

By implementing these strategies, you’ll lay a strong foundation for your website to be more easily found and ranked by Google, ultimately increasing your site’s visibility and organic traffic.

Why Your Web Designer Should Be Using Figma

Overlooking the importance of utilizing design systems and tools like Figma in web design can greatly impact the success of your online presence. While many web agencies may not prioritize this, incorporating Figma into your web design process can provide numerous...

37 Ways to Level Up Your Design

Ever been working on a design that feels too plain? Let’s look at a few dozen simple ways to spice things up. Get ready to bookmark this page, because you’ll want to reference this list in the future. It’s unbelievable how many incredible pro-level designs feature...

Powering Creativity: Exploring the Pros of WordPress Page Builders

In today's digital age, building an eye-catching and functional website is crucial for businesses and individuals alike. WordPress, the popular content management system (CMS), offers a wide range of page builders to simplify the website creation process. In this blog...

Website Menu Accessibility

Heading Order One of the easiest accessibility improvements you can make to a website with big impact is adding headings to break up content and using them in  the correct numerical order. When you’re building websites, always use headings in the correct order to...