Yellow Pages Local Advertising - Is it worth it?

Just received, this morning, new edition of our local Yellow Pages covering the Edinburgh postcode area which includes Central Borders and Livingston areas.

If you have received your own you will have noticed that it is advertised on the front cover as New look, New content, New handy size.

It is indeed a new size and if handy means smaller, it is about a third smaller in page size, then yes 'new handy size'.

Not sure about the new look as it looks very much like the old one although a new Local pages section has been added at the beginning but that looks about it!

As far as new content is concerned, checking a randomly opened Floor Cleaning & Treatment category there were 4 display ads in old directory but only 3 in the new one (25% less).

Tags: SEM | Google Maps | Google Places | Internet Marketing | Advertising

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UK Internet/Digital Advertising shows another year of growth

Online/digital advertising expenditure in UK showed a 4.2% increase to £3.5 billion in 2009 bucking the trend seen in other areas of the advertising industry.

Search advertising exceeded £2 billion with video ads showing the greatest growth. The figures for online grew during 2009 despite an overall decline in the total UK advertising spend.

Is this the death knell for traditional advertising?

Tags: PPC | Advertising | Search Marketing | Video

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Video display ads expected to lead growth in digital publishing

Results from the yearly census of the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) (published 17 March) reports that a good number of the country's largest online participants have started this year with a renewed sense of confidence.

Digital publishers in the United Kingdom expect to see a considerable increase in display advertising revenues in 2010, driven by growth opportunities around online video media according to the published report.

Tags: Promotion | Internet Marketing | Advertising

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Advertising Association confirm regulation changes may be in place by end of year

Online advertising regulator the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) will take on the regulation of companies' social marketing page content by the end of this year, according to advertising industry proposals.

Two thirds complaints about SM (Social Media)

Tags: Advertising | Internet Marketing | Social Media | SMM

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US trade bodies adopt badge scheme

It's almost an everyday occurence now for consumers visiting web sites to have ads displayed that are selected based on their previous online habits, including data from websites and services they have visited.

Behavioural targeting of advertising works on the principle that when you click on any displayed ad you are expressing an interest in the target content. That interest is recorded either locally by a cookie entry or by the adserver so that similar content can be pushed to you when next visiting ad supported sites.

Tags: Behavioural Targeting | Promotion | Internet Marketing | Advertising

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OFT is to investigate ecommerce and behavioural targeting

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the UK consumer protection watchdog, has indicated that it will investigate internet advertising techniques and online pricing tactics that mislead consumers.

As part of its brief it will also include price comparison sites and the increasing application of behavioural targeting in relation to online advertising.

An outcome of the investigation could result in an industry code of practice on advertising and pricing if the OFT finds significant evidence of misleading, unfair or unethical behaviour being employed by online retailers.

Tags: Advertising | Internet Marketing | Ecommerce | Copywriting

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Internet advertising on the increase but needs to be different than traditional model

A recent new LinkedIn Research Network/Harris Poll has found that the majority (92%) of advertisers are using Internet advertising in their media campaigns as reported on WebProNews.

It's not surprising that there is a trend towards all the forms of internet advertising given the size of the mall and 'footfall' but...

Tags: Copywriting | Google Adwords | Advertising | Internet Marketing

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Is the jury still out on Twitter?

Twitter is only one of a number of 'social' sites and the main reason for creating a Twitter account was to test whether it could be useful or just hype.

I posted a blog entry titled "Website optimisation - what good can it do?" and posted a tweet "To SEO or WSO, that is the question?" pointing to the blog post.

Tags: SEO | Promotion | Advertising | Twitter | Social Media

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If you can't measure it, don't do it!

... as Peter Drucker, regarded as the father of modern business management practice is noted for saying, "if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it".

And if you can't manage it you can't control its effects or impact on what you are trying to achieve.

I would go one step further and say that "if you can't measure it, don't do it!". Unless, of course, you are prepared to make, at least, some small effort in the attempt.

And, I would add, that it should apply to every form of marketing activity regardless of the medium.

Tags: Analytics | Conversion | Google Analytics | Advertising | Internet Marketing

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