ErinMoloney.com: Paid Advertising Less Effective in 2011

I thought this article had some fascinating stats regarding methods of online advertising and which ones can be more effective in driving clicks to your site. However, paid advertising can still drive brand impression benefits for you. Take a look at how social media has increased as a traffic driver.

Amplify’d from www.b2bbloggers.com

Trends And Strategies To Market Your Website In 2011

61% of adults say they still find websites using natural search results

The next biggest traffic driver is referrals

Paid advertising is now the least effective method of driving traffic to a website

The effectiveness of paid search advertising has dropped by 10% since only two years ago.

A mere 3% of surveyed adults say they visit websites from paid advertisements.

Social media marketing has been holding steady as a major traffic driver. 16% of adult internet users find websites through social media profiles and links.

20% of users who view a paid advertisement online choose to search for that website’s organic results before visiting the website.

Your paid ads aren’t worthless just because other forms of marketing are taking center stage. Consider that your paid ads can offer you real-time analytic information along with their functionality as ads. This analytic data is useful for improving all aspects of your campaign.

mpressions matter. Just because your ads don’t seem to be driving clicks directly doesn’t mean they aren’t adding to the overall awareness of your brand. Remember that many users now view search results after viewing an ad and then navigate to a website – focusing on multiple aspects of your campaign can help target these users.

Mobile marketing is of growing importance. 1 in 3 internet users under the age of 18 browse the internet at least once a week on their mobile phones. Target these users to increase your success.