With 11 Million Daily Users, Mail Online Stays on Top

ABC figures have proved the continuing popularity of the Mail Online, as Webwindows has learned it received 11 million visitors per day in May.

Webwindows Will Help You Craft a Killer Web Marketing Strategy

Are you looking for a web marketing firm with a range of key service offered by no other agency? If so, Webwindows – the web marketing expert – is here to help you craft a killer web marketing strategy, sure to lift your bottom line.

We’ve been in this game – offering web marketing expertise to businesses big and small – for over a decade now. We’ve increasingly learned that if you want your web advertising strategy to pack the most punch, you need to advertise on a site that attracts attention.

How Many People are visiting the Mail Online?

And the platform that attracts the most attention continues to be the Mail Online. ABC figures for May have revealed that whilst all major UK newspapers racked up year-on-year growth, the Mail Online continued its streak as most popular online news source.

The figures revealed that the platform racked up 11 million users user’s per day, only slightly down from its best ever performance in January 2014.  In that month, 11.8 million people used the website per day. Furthermore, figures show that back in April, 4.7 million unique browsers in the UK visited the site per day. A total of 6.3 million more, did so from the rest of the world.

Which Other UK Newspaper Sites Are Racking Up More Users?

Meanwhile, figures showed that the title of UK’s fastest growing newspaper site went to Metro. The site registered a rise of 204% year-on-year to reach 1.2 million users every day. This comes following news from Metro, released last March, suggesting its website wold be merged with the Mail Online. This hasn’t happened yet.

Meanwhile, the honour of second fastest growing national newspaper site was handed to The Mirror. It racked up an increase of 97.5% year-on-year, meaning that that it now receives 2.5 million unique browsers every day. Experts have suggested that this rise could have originated from the fact that since August 2013, The Sun, its main competitor, has been behind a paywall.

Online News Sites Are More Popular Than Ever

What these figures should show you, in Webwindows opinion, is the growing power of online news sites. Across the board, they are racking up more visitors by the day, meaning they are more effective than ever, as forums to use for your online advertising strategy. 

Advertise with the Sunday Times for Surprisingly Good Value

Webwindows have found that if you choose to advertise with the Sunday Times, you get surprisingly good value. It really is one of the best UK newspapers for your investment.

Webwindows: Crafting Effective Web Marketing Campaigns

Here at Webwindows we’re experts at marketing. Over the last ten years we have dedicated our team of professional experts to crafting effective web marketing campaigns for businesses of every possible size and type under the sun.

Essentially, we know what works and we’ve found that a smart advertising campaign presented in the right newspaper is extremely effective in communicating your message to your target audience. Newspapers are trusted sources of information by their readers, and as such, a reader will trust your advertisement exactly because they trust they have built up a relationship of trust with their publication of choice.

There are Distinct Advantages to Advertising with the Sunday Times

Saying that, the effectiveness of newspaper-based advertising strategy is entirely dependent on which publication you choose. The Sunday Times would therefore seem to be a bad choice, since it only prints once a week.

However there are distinct advantages to advertising in the Sunday Times. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), it has one of the country’s highest circulation figures, 840,000 per week, and a readership of 2.5 million people. Therefore one weekly issue reaches more readers of print than the Sunday Telegraph, the Observer and the Independent on Sunday combined.

Reach those Lucrative ABC1 Readers

It also has the ability to circulate your advertisement to more ABC1 readers than any other Sunday publication in this country. ABC1 refers to the most lucrative readership in the country, which typical includes the business community, c-suite executives, wealthy young professionals and university graduates. Studies have shown that a significant chunk of the newspapers audience falls into this category, earning over £75,000, per household, per year.

Furthermore, studies conducted by News 3.0 Initiative have concluded that Sunday Times readers still believe that printed media provides the optimum experience, and that readers are more likely to respond when adverts are placed in the relevant sections of the publication. Essentially, readers of the Sunday Times still value it as a trusted news source.

The Sunday Times is a Valuable Newspaper to Advertise With

There you are. Despite the fact that the Sunday Times is only printed once a week, it is a valuable paper to advertise with, as you are able to benefit from the publications formidable readership, as well as the trust that readership puts into the Sunday Times as a credible news source. 

Webwindows Begs You Not to Do What British Gas Did on Twitter

If you want to use Twitter to promote your ad campaign, great, but you need to use common sense. That’s why this week Webwindows begs you not to do what British Gas did on Twitter.

Twitter: A Double Edged Sword

We specialise in advising you about the wonderful world or web marketing here at Webwindows. In our ten years in the game, we couldn’t fail to notice just how powerful Twitter has grown as an advertising platform. With half a billion users, one carefully crafted Tweet can bring your ad campaign to hundreds of millions.

Twitter’s strength is also its weakness. If you happen to miscalculate your Twitter promotion it has the ability to anger those same millions, turn them against you, prompt them to create a campaign to hijack your ad campaign and render it practically impotent.

What not to do on Twitter: The British Gas Edition

If you don’t believe us, remember what happened to British Gas when they made this fatal mistake. By the time the trolls had finished with them, their ad campaign had been disgraced; it had made the headlines in practically every online British publication and ruined their page one on Google. It drove away customers in droves.

So what did they do? Well, as most energy companies have been lately, they decided to raise their prices. Naturally, annoyed customers who were looking for any chance to vent their frustrations.

Then they initiated a Q&A session on Twitter with the hashtag #AskBG. It was like lighting a match next to a powdered keg, as the company’s many frustrated customers gleefully took the opportunity to high-jack the hashtag to ask just why their energy company raised prices so high. Then British Gas made it worse by promoting the campaign on Facebook; the only social networking site with more users than Twitter.

Webwindows Asks: What Should You Take Away from This “Terrible PR Stunt?”

Here’s where Webwindows makes its case. Don’t be like British Gas. They’re a big company, they can handle bad press. Most companies can’t. A campaign like this that angers so many customers has the potential to ruin a smaller firm. If you take anything away from this terrible PR stunt, let it be that you need to know your audience inside out. 

Webwindows are also on twitter - Webwindows twitter.

Online Sales Set For Record Heights

The Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IABUK) reported  last week that online sales are set to reach a record high, as UK consumers spend more online than ever before. At Webwindows, we find this further shows how profitable an online advertising strategy can be.

E-Commerce, Online Advertising: A Marriage of Convenience

The advantages to online advertising are clear, however they’re never clearer than they are in e-commerce. One single truth that has shaped consumers since the dawn of time is that they like convenience. E-commerce provides said consumer with the ultimate convenience, as they only need to click a few links to act on the interest spurred on by the online advert they have just witnessed.

Furthermore there is clear evidence to suggest that online advertising is set to be more effective than ever before, as ad spend in this country is set to reach a record £20+ billion next year, as a result of large growth margins expected in emerging mediums such as mobile advertising and video on demand advertising. Finally, digital advertising is expected to reach more people than ever next year, as a record number of people spend record numbers of hours online, with tablet use growing particularly strongly amongst several sectors of the UK public.

Record Online Spending set to Spur E-Commerce to Milestone £107 Billion Revenue

This is compounded by the fact that IABUK has now found that the average UK household is set to spend over £4,000 online this year, which will aid this country’s e-commerce industry to measure a record breaking £107 billion in profit, according to research collated by IMRG and Barclaycard.

In 2013, this sector grew by a staggering 124% in comparison with the year before, and it’s also important to note that in the lucrative online music market, 79% is now bought over the internet. Other areas of e-commerce that are set to boom include airline tickets, concerts and cinema tickets, amongst many.

WebWindows on the Profitability of Online Advertising for E-Commerce

At WebWindows we recognise that many companies are adopting an e-commerce element, and as well they should, considering the profit this sector is set to record. The rise of this sector means it is more vital than ever to include an online element in your ad campaign, as UK consumers move completely towards digital platforms. 

Mail Online Pulls in Record Revenue

The clear advantages of including the Daily Mail in your advertising strategy became more apparent than ever this month, as the publication reported that its online platform, the Mail Online, pulled in record revenue for the first half of 2014.

Daily Mail and Online: The Best of Both:

Data has further proved in recent months that there are significant benefits to advertising online. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has found that not only are UK homes set to spend over £4,000 a year on average on the internet this year, but that the internet accounts for a larger share of ad spend in this country every year and that tablet use is growing by significant amounts, illustrating how the platforms people are using to access the world wide web are diversifying all the time.

It’s also important to note here the power of newspaper advertising; it creates a relationship with the reader based on trust, which in turns prompts them to trust the products it chooses to advertise. When you consider that a bare minimum of 4 million people read the Daily Mail every single day, you quickly see why it’s such an effective publication to advertise with.

£28 Million in Half Year Revenue Recorded by Mail Online

This would lead you to believe that an advertising campaign, such as the Mail Online, that enables you to take advantage of the benefits of both for less of an investment, would not only slim down the cost of that advertising strategy, but would provide heightened consumer exposure to said strategy. You would be right.

The latest figures from DMG Media (which includes the Mail Online) revealed that they saw a rise of 39% in operating profit in the first half of 2014, to £50 million. Specifically, DMG found that total revenue generated by the Mail Online rose by £8 million year-on-year to £28 million.

Figures further illustrated that the Mail Online recorded a readership rise of 39.3% last month to hit 10.9 million international readers daily. They also revealed that the Mail online had 180 million global readers in March, with daily averages measuring around 11.3 million. The company has since pointed out that growth in online advertising has offset a 4% decline in its print revenue and 3% decline in circulation revenue.

Webwindows Comments on the Effectiveness of the Mail Online

Considering the fact that advertising contributes the maximum to Mail Online revenue and the clear popularity of the medium, at WebWindows it is clearer than ever that the platform can bring major interest to your ad campaign. It’s effective and efficient, which allows you to diversify your ad campaign in other areas to reach a larger share of your target audience than ever before.

EU Totals Record €27.3 Billion Online Ad Spend

If you’re looking to advertise in EU markets, then Webwindows and the latest figures for ad spend on the content suggest that you need to include an online plank in your advertising strategy to reach an evolving consumer base.
Online ad spend is climbing in every major market. The UK, for example, recorded an impressive £6.3 billion in online ad spend in 2013, and that number looks set to increase as the year plays out. Furthermore 22% of US ad spend last year was online.

The Annual IABEurope Conference

These latest figures show that the consumers in the EU are just as keen to embrace digital platforms as their US and UK counterparts and the these numbers from the Internet Advertising Bureau Europe (IABEurope) reveal just how the money is being spent in order to secure companies the most effective advertising space in the digital age.Specifically, IABEurope revealed at its annual conference this week that online ad spend on the continent had eclipsed €27.3 billion for the first time ever. Citing AdEx Benchmark research - which according to the Bureau acts as the definitive to the European online advertising market – IABEurope revealed that this meant that online advertisings share of the European market grew by 11.9% in 2013.

The IBAEurope Breakdown of Online Ad Spend

They then went on to further reveal that mobile online advertising has managed to clinch a double digits display market share for the first time; it recorded 11.5% of the growth value, further proving that smartphone technology is rapidly becoming the platform of choice for effective advertising.

Also IABEurope revealed that there has been strong growth recorded for ad spend in the online video market as well, as it increased a massive 45.4%  in 2013, to bring in €1.19 billion. This is a landmark in its own right, as this is the first time that online video ad spend has passed the €1 billion milestone.

IABEurope CEO Townsend Feehan spoke out on what the figures mean. Feehan said: “These results confirm the increasing value contributed by digital advertising to Europe’s economy. Technology innovation is driving growth and it’s important that we continue to foster our European digital businesses to enable a strong European presence on the world stage.”

At Webwindows, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves. These latest figures show that if you are looking to target a European consumer base, you need to involve an online element in your advertising strategy.

TV the Most Effective Advertising Medium?

A new study has been conducted by a group called Thinkbox, exploring the effectiveness of television advertising. Webwindows will discuss the findings of the report and talk about the mediums status amongst other forms of advertising in terms of their effectiveness.

The Report

The study analysed over 4,500 advertising campaigns dating back to 2008. They found that the average television advert provides a return of £1.79 for every pound invested between 2011 and 2014. This is an increase of 9p from the £1.70 return in the period from 2008-2011.

TV advertising also created 33% more branded online searches during the earlier period against the later. This is important information if you are implementing an online advertising campaign.

Webwindows can announce that TV advertising proved to have the highest return on investment (ROI) of any form of advertising over the period the survey was conducted. The ROI was driven by an the increasing sophistication of advertisers creating ad opportunities across various media platforms, higher quality content and the falling price of adverts.

The finding of the report was delivered at the annual Payback 4 Summary of TV, radio, press, online display, and outdoor advertising. Each medium was compared on a like-for-like basis. The report found that TV advertising was twice as effective as the next best performing medium, which was press or newspaper advertising. Webwindows recommends choosing a marketing campaign that is best for you - we will work with you to look at your target audience, your budget and resources and decide on the best marketing strategy which will best suit you.

Halo-Effect

The report also showed that TV advertising benefits from a ‘halo-effect’.  This sees product sales boosted for items that are not directly advertised. Also known as the ‘multiplier effect’, this increases the effectiveness of other campaigns running in tandem.

The Effectiveness Practice Leader at Ebiquity said ““TV has consistently demonstrated the highest ROI over a 7 year period, during a period of unprecedented economic and technological upheaval and change. TV is continuing to demonstrate its value as we see the first real signs of economic growth.”

Revenues

UK TV advertising revenues increased by 3.5% in 2013 to reach an all-time high pf £4.63 billion. Webwindows announced that advertising spend will reach £20 billion next year. The figure for this year is expected to rise again due to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.