34% of Marketers Did Not Have a Documented Plan Last Year – Just over one-third of marketers (34%) did not have a documented marketing plan last year, according to a recent report from Marketo. MarketingProfs
Mobile Now Makes Up 59% of Facebook’s Advertising Revenue – Facebook’s investments in mobile are paying off. The world’s largest social network reported $642 million in profit in the quarter ending March 31–a 193% increase from the same period last year. With $2.5 billion of revenue, the company’s top line jumped 72% year-over-year. Fast Company
Twitter Sharing Outpaces Other Platforms as Email Falls – In the first quarter of 2014, Twitter sharing is up by 43 percent, while email falls 25 percent. Social sharing on Twitter has outpaced other platforms, while email has taken a large nosedive, according to ShareThis’s Q1 2014 report. ClickZ
Facebook Referring Almost 20 Times More Website Traffic Than Twitter – Referral traffic from Facebook is rapidly increasing, to the extent that as of March, the social network referred more than one-fifth (21.3%) of traffic to the average website, according to the latest social media referral report from Shareaholic. Marketing Charts
Twitter Drives $0.62 Revenue Per Referral Visit (Facebook: $1.24, Pinterest: $0.65) [STUDY] – What’s the price of a Twitter user? According to a new study from Adobe, it’s $0.62 per referral visit, a figure which is up marginally from last year. AllTwitter
Schema Markup Shows In 36% Of Google Search Results, But Almost No Websites Use It [STUDY] – More than one-third of Google’s search results incorporate Schema.org rich snippets, but only a tiny fraction of websites are actually using the markup code. Search Engine Land
Facebook ad CTR is up 160% year-over-year: stats – After algorithm tweaks led to huge changes to a brand’s ability to gain organic growth, and a simplifying of the process of how to market your brand on Facebook using paid ads, it seems Facebook’s ad revenue is increasing in line with these changes. Econsultancy
Twitter’s Redesigned Web Profiles Are Here and Ready to Go – Twitter’s new Web profile design is here and now available to all. Earlier this month, ClickZ reported that Twitter would be redesigning its profile pages. Low and behold, just two weeks later, here they are. ClickZ
Schema For User Actions Now Available – Schema.org announced a new form of Schema they have introduced with support from Google, Microsoft Bing, Yahoo and Yandex named Actions. Search Engine Land
Facebook Reigns Supreme for Social Media Referral Traffic – Shareaholic released its Q1 report on social media referral traffic, naming Facebook as the reigning king. Pinterest and StumbleUpon also made big gains, while Google+, Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn traffic referrals remained relatively flat. SocialTimes
Twitter Launches Mobile App Promotion Suite – Twitter acquired MoPub way back in September of last year but, until now, hasn’t done much with the purchase. Well, be still your beating heart, as Twitter has just unveiled a new mobile app promotion suite which uses MoPub technology, which will allow marketers to promote their apps both on and off Twitter. AllTwitter
From our Online Marketing Community:
On Facts Tell, Stories Sell – The Importance of Story Before Marketing, Barbara Mckinney said, “Storytelling has been the buzzword off and on since advertising became a thing. It’s always coming out of the buzzword pile because, at the end of the day, it’s a timeless skill. Stories have been an essential driver of change throughout human history.”
Ryan Biddulph contributed, “My brand Lee is built on the story of a guy who went from overworked security guard to world traveling internet lifestyle guy. Tell stories. Draw in like-minded people. We all have such interesting stories to tell, if we’ll just tell them on a persistent basis. Awesome message.”
And Gab Goldenberg said, “Fascinating case study here Lee. I think it’s a great point and underscores that truth of marketing – people buy from those they like. Who do you sell to after you’ve sold to your brother and uncle? Make more relationships like your brother and uncle!”
Renee Groskreutz shared her thoughts on Online Marketing News: Photos > *, Twitter Has A Problem, Mobile Makes A Big PPC Impression, “I think that it will be interesting to see if Twitter can deliver paid ads to me that I care about. It seems that Hulu is getting close with this but not quite there yet. There was a time when Hulu would ask if the ad was relevant to me or not. If Twitter came out with something like this, it would be interactive and fascinating.”
What were the top online and digital marketing news stories for you this week?
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
Wow Ben….1/3….tough to believe but in truth, most people struggle online or offline with their marketing efforts, so it’s not too surprising. A simple, clear cut plan, even if you don’t follow it each minute of your work day, can help you attack your marketing campaign with a focused, orderly mind.
Great resource here. Thanks!
It’s always tempting to jump right in and start doing but having a game plan is important for giving direction to our tactics.