Adobe Finds Google's CTR Growing Faster Than Its CPC

Google’s click-through-rate (CTR) growth is outpacing its cost-per-click (CPC) growth, according to Adobe's Digital Index’s Q4 Digital Advertising Benchmark report.

The report, which was released this morning, was based on consumer data from brand sites during 2013 and 2014, captured through Adobe Media Optimizer and Adobe Social. The software company looked at more than 400 billion Facebook post impressions, and 500 billion more from Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Google’s global CTR was up 19 percent year-over-year, while CPC only increased 8 percent. "Google is so far along; marketers have been using it for such a long that they’ve been able to dial in their click-through rates," says Joe Martin, digital index manager at Adobe.

Yahoo and Bing, which Adobe analyzed collectively, had a CPC growth of 7 percent and no CTR growth, showing that marketers haven’t optimized those sites as effectively.

Looking at Facebook, Adobe found that quarter-over-quarter, retailers’ posts were up 31 percent and their paid impressions up 53 percent. This is unsurprising given that the holidays are in the fourth quarter. On the other hand, organic impressions are down 32 percent. While Facebook changed its algorithm in August, the 36 percent increase in interaction rates – comments, likes, and shares – shows that marketers are able to adjust their strategies quickly enough to keep up.

"In previous reports, I wouldn’t have expected to see the change for six or seven months, but they were able to make the change in one quarter," Martin says.

Additionally, the index found that retailers are increasing their overall campaign spend. Google Shopping Ads, formerly known as Product Listing Ads, increased 47 percent from 2013 to the end of 2014.

But while text ad spend accounted for two-thirds of all retail SEM clicks, it was down 6 percent overall, demonstrating that advertisers are gravitating toward "image-based shopping experiences." However, the rate of clicks on image-based Facebook posts stayed the same year-over-year, while more people clicked on posts with links.

Adobe also looked at different days of the week, determining which are best for different types of digital advertising. Friday has the highest frequency of Facebook posts, impressions, and interactions, while desktop search ranked highest on Mondays. Consumer search click frequency is highest during weekends, with Sunday accounting for 17 percent more mobile clicks than the average day.

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Consumers doubt the value of online personalisation: study

Personalisation is considered to be an extremely effective way of driving sales and conversions, with 94% of businesses stating that personalisation ‘is critical to current and future success.’

In fact data included in our Realities of Online Personalisation report shows that for two-thirds (66%) of client-side respondents, both improved business performance and customer experience are the main drivers for personalising the website experience.

However two new studies suggest that consumers aren’t blown away by personalised experiences online, or at least that’s their perception.

In a global consumer survey by Adobe 42% of respondents said they were ‘neutral’ about the value of personalised product and service recommendations online, which is as good as saying they either don’t care or aren’t aware of it.

A third of respondents (33%) said that they find personalisation somewhat or very valuable, while 26% claimed that it’s either not very or not at all valuable.

How valuable do you find it when a website makes personalised product and service recommendations to you?

But a separate study from Lyris suggests that consumers are quite receptive to certain elements of personalisation.

When asked which personalised features they preferred the most in the context of brand communications, 48% of respondents said they like to receive product recommendations based on their interests compared to 20% who gave a negative response.

Opinion was more closely split when it came to personalisation of webpages based on age and gender, with 37% saying they appreciate this kind of targeting compared to 31% who said they don’t.

The Lyris survey also asked about personalisation in regards to marketing messages, with 63% of respondents stating that they receive so many messages that use their name that it no longer makes any difference.

However a further 22% said they appreciate personalised offers as they are more likely to meet their needs than mass-market offers, while 20% said that they like getting messages that include details of their previous transactions or other personal details as it makes them feel that the company values their business.

Privacy

Much of the negative sentiment towards personalisation is driven by privacy concerns and a mistrust of business motives.

In the Adobe survey 84% of consumers agreed that there are too many technologies tracking and analysing their behaviour, while 68% said they find targeted advertising creepy.

Please rate each of the following statements based on whether you agree or disagree. (Agree)

(VIA)

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Consumers believe traditional media trumps digital for ad effectiveness: study

In spite of ever-increasing digital ad budgets and declining newspaper revenues, people still think that traditional media outlets trump digital channels for advertising and credibility.

A new Adobe survey shows that global consumers still rely on family and friends (51%) and consumer forums (35%) if they want credible information on products and brands.

Traditional media, such as newspaper and TV, came in third with 28%, while company websites scored just 17% compared to 8% for blogs and just 3% for branded social media pages.

The fact that people trust recommendations from their peers above all else is to be expected as research has consistently shown the value of consumer reviews in ecommerce, however the disparity between traditional media and official company channels may come as a surprise.

The same trend is apparent looking the best source for marketing and advertising, with traditional media considered the most effective channel (47%), followed by family and friends (31%) and consumer forums (25%). Company websites scored just 18% while blogs came last with 8%.

What source is best for marketing and advertising?

TV is still king

Though digital media allows for more effective ad targeting it seems that consumers are still more impressed by the scattergun approach of TV advertising.

When asked which is the best advertising opportunity for companies to reach them 40% of consumers answered TV.

Coupon offers were deemed to be the second most effective channel (22%), reflecting the consumer hunger for freebies and discounts.

Digital channels such as social ads (5%), online video (4%) and mobile apps (1%) are thought to be far less effective in comparison.

What is the best advertising opportunity for companies to reach you?

It’s obviously important to point out that these results are based on consumer perceptions of ad effectiveness, so the truth may actually be quite different.

However it shows that digital advertising still has an image problem in the eye of the consumer.

This is reiterated by a question asking whether respondents agreed with the statement that online advertising is not effective. Almost a third (32%) of global consumers agreed with the sentiment, while half of respondents (49%) agreed that web banner ads don’t work.

Please rate each of the following statements based on whether you agree or disagree. Agree.

(VIA)

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STUDY: 35 Percent Of Social Network Users Do Nothing When Their Friends Like Brands

A total of 57 percent of social media users in the U.S. have liked their favorite brands, but when asked what impact their friends’ likes had on them, the most common answer (35 percent) was none, according to new study by Adobe on the state of online advertising.

The majority of respondents in South Korea (59 percent) and Australia (54 percent) also said they liked their favorite brands, while the other countries examined by Adobe fell below the 50 percent mark: the U.K. (44 percent), France (38 percent), Japan (36 percent), and Germany (33 percent).

When users in the U.S. were asked why they liked brands on social media, the most common answer, at 53 percent, was that they regularly buy that brand’s products or services, followed by:

• Promotions, 46 percent
• What the brand stands for, 39 percent
• Brand’s style and personality, 38 percent
• Desire to buy its products or services, 17 percent
• Urged to like by the brand itself, 13 percent
• Know someone who works at the company, 7 percent
• Friends liked the brand, 5 percent.

When looking at the other countries Adobe studied, only 12 percent of South Koreans liked brands because they regularly buy their products and services, while just 14 percent of Japanese respondents were drawn by promotions, but 49 percent of Japanese respondents said they like brands because they aspire to make purchases from them.

As stated earlier, 35 percent of U.S. respondents said seeing that their friends liked brands on social networks had no impact on them, and that was followed by:

• Check out the product, 29 percent
• I do not visit social networking sites, 20 percent
• Visit the product’s website, 14 percent
• Visit the product’s social media page, 11 percent
• Other, 6 percent
• Comment on the product, 4 percent
• Hide that person from News Feed, 2 percent
• Recommend the product to others, 2 percent
• Purchase the product, 2 percent
• Defriend that person, 1 percent

Those figures were relatively consistent across the other countries in the study, with 39 percent of South Koreans saying they would check out the product, and 10 percent saying they would like the product, while 34 percent of respondents in France claimed to not visit social networking sites.

Digital advertising as a whole did not fare well in Adobe’s study, with 32 percent of respondents saying that online advertising is not effective, and 49 percent panning banner ads, in particular.

Adobe Chief Marketing Officer Ann Lewnes said:

Digital marketing has created a remarkable opportunity, but it comes with higher expectations from consumers. They expect a story tailored specially for them, a level of trust and transparency with the brands they do business with, and, most important, a great experience. Brands delivering anything less will ultimately be ignored. These survey results demonstrate that we aren’t quite delivering on digital marketing’s full potential yet. We now have the technology and know-how to target relevant and personalized marketing messaging and media to our customers. 

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