In particular, ad budgets earmarked for the desktop Web will shift to mobile in the next five years, propelling U.S. local mobile ad revenue to shoot up from about $2 billion this year to about $24 billion by 2016.

By then, Borell estimates that 88% of all local online advertising will be delivered on a mobile device. That growth will come directly at the expense of the desktop Web, where spending will decline 76% in the next five years.

Read more the rest at: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/166726/local-mobile-advertising-to-reach-24-billion-in-2.html#ixzz1kzvdmpKT

Higher Conversions on Mobile

There is a lot of evidence, which was presented last week at the  Real Estate Connect in New York City, which suggests that people are more likely to call or email an agent when they see a listing on a mobile device vs. a computer. For example, Realtor.com showed that Ipad and Iphone users were 160-300% more likely to contact an agent than regular desktop users.

Although laptop and desktop users still dominate by sheer numbers, the usage of mobile devices to find a home is on the up and up.

To read the rest of this eye opening article Click Here

http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/10/paypals-mobile-payments-4b-2011/

Enjoy

Let’s take a look at questions you should be asking and the answers you should be getting:

When I talk to people about what I do, there are always a lot of questions as to what SEO is, how it works, what I do to rank sites and so on. So I decided to write a book on the subject for those who know nothing about SEO but would like to learn. Even if you don’t plan on doing SEO on your website, and you plan on hiring a professional to do this, it is recommended that you know a little bit so that you can better manage them. Unfortunately in the SEO community, there are a lot of bad companies, and if you know what they are supposed to do to rank your site, it will be impossible to take advantage of you.

My new book, “Secrets of SEO Marketing: Strategies on How I Learned to Get to the Top of Search Engines and How You Ca Too” Walks you through the entire SEO process from beginning to end in a straight forward easy to understand manner.

SEO is really not complicated, it just time consuming. When you know what to do and you do a little bit each day, you will start to see some really great results in your rank. In this book I cover:

——How to choose the most profitable keywords for your campaign

—-The biggest SEO mistake most website owners make

—-A thorough understanding of how search engines work and what they look for so you can make your website follow their guidelines

—-SEO tools the pros use

—-A step by step plan to follow to rank any site in any market

—-Powerful link building strategies that get you ranked high which also bring you traffic

—-The #1 strategy to rank on page 1 within a couple of days

And much more……

If you are interested in this SEO Secrets book, Click this link  or for the kindle version go here.

You could also go the other way, which is the way that I went after barely breaking even with Adwords, and that is optimizing my site for search engines to come up on page 1 organically for terms prospects were searching to find the products I was selling. This by far had the biggest return on investment from any other marketing strategy I tried for my website which sells self defense products. And here is why:

For starters I was able to get targeted traffic that were looking for the products I sold. These people were looking to buy what I had, and it is my job to have them find me instead of my competition when they want to buy these products.

I received increased visibility in the search engines, which allowed me to get a sort of higher authority and trust factor just by being in the top websites for terms like self defense products and where to buy pepper spray.

SEO brings that site an average of 4,000 to 5,000 unique visitors every single month, from search engines and referring sites that host the links I placed there. If I were spending money per click to get those visitors I would be spending over $10,000 per month! Typically an SEO campaign at least with our company for a site like this can cost between $1200-$2000 per month. That is a huge savings compared to the alternative.

It is no wonder why statistics show that over 40% of SEO campaigns achieve ROI of over 500% while only 22% of paid search campaigns achieved the same value.

It is no question that SEO is not only more cost effective, but also has longer benefits that paid search. Because with SEO, if you stop doing the work for a few weeks or a month, you are likely to still keep your rankings for a little bit if you are not in a very competitive market. But with paid ads, the minute your budget runs out your ad comes down.

Another great thing about SEO is you are able to measure your results by monitoring your analytics. This will clearly show you how many conversions you got on your site from your SEO efforts if set up correctly.

One thing to note, SEO is an ongoing process, once you start you should not stop because remember, you are taking someone else’s place for that term when you get to page 1 and if you do not stay competitive then another company can come and take your place.

If you want more sales, leads and more traffic to from website hire a reputable SEO firm to help. See you at the top!

When you don’t do proper keyword research, you may end up choosing phrases to target that have high traffic but low conversions. Or you may choose terms that have so much competition that it takes forever to get on page 1 or any real traction.

So how can you be sure you chose the right terms? One great way to do this is find keyword phrases related to your field, choose 5 or 10 you want to target for SEO and run an Adwords campaign to test out the terms. If you get a lot of clicks but no conversions, then those terms are probably not right for you and you can continue to test other terms until you find some that convert.

A lot of people get stuck on getting traffic and don’t pay attention to how that traffic converts. At the end of the day, you want traffic to make money, not just to have a bunch of people see your site.

Tip: using broad terms like “dentist” for example are not ideal because most people will search for a dentist within a 5 mile radius. Rather focus on terms like “dentist in (your city)” or “best dentist in (your city)”.  See what I mean? The latter will give you the real prospects who are looking to make an appointment and not just searching “dentist” for other reasons, like research.

Please share your comments below.

And still to this day, I come across websites all the time that have absolutely no on-page optimization whatsoever.

Now even though keyword research is the most important part of the whole process because without the right keywords the whole project you are working on will go to trash, the other steps along the way are also super important. And one of those important steps along the way is on page optimization.

On Page SEO is important because the search engines look at your site, and whatever you setup with your on page SEO techniques is how the search engines are going to be “judging your site”. And you need to get your on page SEO right if you are going to have the search engines “judge” your site correctly.

However, what I see most of the time is people who have their website address as their page title on all their pages, no meta description and either no keywords tag or too many keywords in the tag. Unbelievable!

What you need to do is find the keywords people are typing to find your products or services. You can easily do this by typing search phrases into Google’s keyword tool and seeing how much traffic there is for those phrases. Google will also give you suggestions based on what you search for related terms and those traffic stats as well.

Then you put keyword rich titles on your pages ( do not put more than 2-3 keyword phrases per page) and add a meta description using those terms., (For those of you who don’t know, the meta description is not seen on your page but it is the description shown in the search results for your site.)

Next load your keyword tags on your pages with the right phrases after your have done your keyword research. Do not exceed more than 10 phrases per page for this tag.

Last, you should always name your pictures with your keyword phrases in mind. All of this is going to help you become an authority in the eyes of the search engines for the terms you want to rank on page 1 for.

You would think this is common sense, but more often than not I see none of this done. No wonder your website isn’t generating leads! The only people who can find you, when you have your website address or worse your phone number as your title are the people that already know you. And chances are they are not searching online for you.

You need your website to generate new customers. Therefore pay attention to this or get a professional to help you get it right so your website is generating business while you worry less about where the next sale or client is going to come from.

Find the best SEO company for your needs as soon as possible, the longer you wait the longer you let your prospects go to the competition.

Mobile advertising is increasingly important, as cell phone adoption rates, especially smartphone adoption rates, soar. With a range of mobile advertising options, including SMS, WAP, mobile app display ads, search ads, rich media, video and push notifications, the landscape can be a bit complicated.

After a rough 2009, advertisers are expected to increase mobile and digital marketing budgets over the next year. With this in mind, it’s essential that advertisers keep up-to-date on their options in the mobile space.

Here, are five mobile advertising trends to watch over the coming year. Let us know which trends you’re keeping your eyes on in the comments below.

1. SMS Marketing

90% of the population in the U.S owns cell phones, according to CTIA’s semi-annual wireless industry survey, and 98% of those phones being SMS-enabled out of the box, SMS is one of the most popular communication methods in the world. The rise of texting can be attributed to its low cost and ease of use. If you have a cell phone, you have the capability to text — no downloads or installations needed.

And with the advent of unlimited messaging plans, texting has become the mobile communication option of choice for many people preferring to text rather than call. I know because I do it too.

The texting audience is large and still growing. Emarketer is projecting  that the growth of the global market for ad support of mobile messaging will reach nearly $12 billion in 2011, up from about $1.5 billion in 2006.

“SMS doesn’t get a lot of hype that the flashy apps do, but it works because it provides what all marketers seek — a one-on-one dialogue with a customer,” noted Jack Philbin, co-founder and president of  Vibes Media, a mobile marketing company based in Chicago.

Philbin explained that click-through rates (CTRs) and conversion rates for text messaging are much higher than rates for e-mail and Internet display, two channels that win larger percentages of marketing budgets than mobile. The average CTR for text messaging is 14.06%, while the average conversion rate is 8.22%. E-mail brings in an average CTR of 6.64% and an average conversion rate of about 1.73%, and Internet display doesn’t even hit the radar with an average CTR of 0.76% and average conversion rate of 4.43%, according to the Direct Marketing Association’s 2010 Response Rate Trend Report.

These response rates are surely attractive to any direct marketer which is why i is important to pay attention to this advertising medium and begin adopting it as part of your overall marketing strategy. What’s perhaps one of the most interesting reasons to advertise via SMS is that “about 90% of all text messages are read within three minutes of their delivery, and over 99% of all text messages are read by the recipient,” according to a whitepaper on conversational advertising [PDF] by SinglePoint. The immediacy of SMS is currently unparalleled by any other marketing channel.

2. Experimentation with Rich Media

With Google’s acquisition of AdMob and Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless, which led to their introduction of iAd, we’re bound to see a pretty heated tech battle in the coming year, as both networks will be going head-to-head, focusing on rich media advertising.

Eric Litman, CEO of Medialets, a rich media advertising and analytics platform for mobile, discussed why experimentation with rich media is bound to happen.

First, Litman pointed out that rich media ads offer more in-app interactivity via video, sound, gaming, and so on. He believes that the aesthetic value is an obvious advantage that will attract advertisers and ad creators. Furthermore, with the growing adoption of smartphones as the device of choice, Litman believes that rich media is the natural progression towards more engaging ads.

The engagement rates back up his predictions. Litman explained that “engagement rates in mobile blow away the best of online rich media, and engagement times in mobile rival those of television [advertising].” He also explained that he has seen engagement rates as high as 33% on rich media ads, with rates consistently hitting above 20%. At the low end of the spectrum, simple, expandable ads reach 6-7% engagement rates, which is still high when compared to other advertising options in mobile and online. These rates are “unheard of in the online world,” Litman commented.

Wow!

Srini Dharmaji, CEO of GoldSpot Media, a rich media and video advertising platform for mobile, also illustrated the pros of rich media, including higher CPMs (cost-per-thousand impressions), but he pointed out a few downsides as well. He said that one of the biggest barriers to adoption of rich media is the need for the time and skills to create the ads. He pointed out that the lead time for creating one iAd campaign is currently about 8-10 weeks, due to Apple‘s tight control of the process. “Media planners do not have the time to sit down and create a lot of these ads,” he said frankly. “A big company like Apple can do that, because they have the budget and clout. But smaller businesses do not have the time and money for it.”

An iAd running on the Dictionary.com iPhone app

Even with the lengthy creation process, publishers and advertisers are taking an interest in and experimenting with rich media ads. For example, Dictionary.com is a publisher of iAd ads on their iPhone and iPad apps, which have eight million and 500,000 downloads, respectively. Pictured above is an ad that is currently running within the Dictionary.com iPhone app to promote The Switch, a movie being released this week. Within the ad, users can watch videos, take a quiz or “build a baby.”

Ads like this one have already proven successful for Dictionary.com. Since enabling iAd ads, Dictionary.com has seen its overall iPhone mobile app eCPM (effective cost-per-thousand impressions) increase by 177%, and with the iAd network they are experiencing a 246% higher eCPM when compared with other ad networks, according to a representative of Dictionary.com.

3. Mobile Sites vs. Mobile Apps

One of the biggest decisions for mobile marketers this year is whether they should build a mobile app or mobile site— or both. And for advertisers, the question is whether to advertise on mobile sites, apps, or both.

But there is a bigger question here on where mobile is going. With Google betting on mobile web and search as the future, and Apple taking the app route, it is still not clear which platform consumers will prefer in coming years. Because of this fragmented mobile browsing experience, developing either can seem like a huge commitment to marketers, especially since mobile spending currently makes up less than 5% of advertising budgets in many organizations.

Furthermore, with the number of different device types, operating systems, and screen sizes available, the decision can be even more daunting. Even for advertisers, mobile ad creation can be a pain, as ad unit sizes vary across platforms. Because of the intricacies with mobile, less than a third of U.S. marketers think optimizing the mobile marketing experience is important to their customers, according to an April 2010 survey by eROI. Furthermore, just 23% of marketers responding to the survey reported having a mobile-optimized website.

However, launching one at a time if possible for your organization can pay off for you. Maybe start with a mobile friendly site and create simple apps on different platforms as you move on. Depending on your goals you can create apps for lead generation, advertising revenue or direct revenue by having a paid app.

“What does this mean for companies and organizations? If they depend on their web presence in any way, it’s important to start thinking about mobile now… checking how their website looks and works, or doesn’t, on mobile devices. Mobile internet use is growing faster than nearly anyone realizes. To them, I’d say: Don’t wait until 25% of your website visitors are using handhelds — that’s like waiting until a quarter of your backyard is on fire before grabbing a water hose! Start thinking NOW about how to make your website work hard for you on mobile devices.”

In the coming year, expect to see a larger debate on where mobile is going. With the onslaught of app stores, including Blackberry App World, Android Market, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, the App Store for Symbian, the Palm app store, and, of course, Apple’s iPhone app store, it doesn’t look like the app is going anywhere anytime soon. But it should be an interesting debate at the very least.

4. Interest in Geo-Location

With location being the talk of the year, we’re looking forward to the evolution of location-centric mobile apps, and in terms of advertising, we’re excited to see how advertisers will utilize them. We’ve already seen a healthy usage of the popular location-based checkin app Foursquare by many brands, especially newspapers, magazines and other publishers, including Bravo TV, the History Channel, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, and even Mashable. To a lesser extent, marketers have even tested the waters beyond Foursquare with other location-based apps, including Gowalla, Whrrl, Brightkite, Loopt, and SCVNGR.

However, a recent study indicates that this year may not be the time for location-based marketing, as only 4% of the adult Internet-using population has utilized any kind of location-based service, and just 1% of all adults check-in to a location at least once a week. Regardless of the stats, marketers are still taking an interest in the new technology.

For advertisers, marketing within apps is as easy as creating an ad-campaign targeted to a specific audience. For example, the Brightkite app can target consumers by precise geography, by behavior, and within a given time frame.

An XpresSpa ad running on the GateGuru iPhone app

Dan Gellert, CEO of GateGuru, an iPhone guide for airports, explained that all the ads for their platform “are location-based offers from airport retailers to drive people into stores.”

Gellert explained a recent campaign with XpresSpa, an airport spa:

“We launched this campaign across 13 airports, which collectively represent about 20 stores for XpresSpa. Since June 1st, we have delivered 20,000 impressions to them on the Amenity List View [pictured left], and over 500 impressions on the Amenity Offer [pictured right]. The CTR (between the Amenity List View to get to the full page offer) has continually increased, and in our latest report hovered at about 6%. Of those 500 impressions, we delivered 75-100 into the store, which is a number we are very excited about.”

A conversion rate of at least 15-20% is quite amazing, and it goes to show that location-based ads can provide value for consumers when they are optimally placed and timed.

5. The Growth of Mobile Video

Lastly, with the explosion of Internet video consumption, it is assumed that mobile video will also be largely adopted in the coming years. While video isn’t a huge focus for advertisers right now and many cite broadband and technology inadequacies as barriers, many predictive stats tell the story of video’s increasing importance.

The number of mobile video viewers in the U.S. will grow nearly 30% in 2010 to reach 23.9 million, according to eMarketer’s forecasts, representing a reach of about 7.7% of the total U.S. population and just under 10% of mobile phone users. Those numbers are set to double by 2013 and increase still further in 2014.

By 2013, some even believe that video will be so widely adopted that it will be a significant driver of mobile data usage — occupying an estimated 66% of mobile traffic, Cisco forecasts.

With video taking an increasingly important role in the mobile market, advertisers should keep their eyes open for opportunities to try out new advertising options.

We’re keeping tabs of these five mobile advertising trends. Which trends are you watching? Let us know in the comments.