The research company says that the currently, the predominant ad format on social networks is display, spending on which the firm expects will increase from $2.1 billion in 2010 to $7.7 billion in 2015. While revenues from non-display ad formats (i.e. Twitter’s “promoted products”) are currently minimal, BIA/Kelsey expects that in the coming years non-display formats will continue to grow as an ad genre on social networks, and expects the social non-display segment to grow from zero in 2010 to $600 million in 2015.

Of course, Facebook currently dominates most of the revenues generated from social media advertising. eMarketer reported in January that Facebook’s ad revenues came in $1.86 billion in 2010, while MySpace ad spend plummets.

BIA/Kelsey says that its version of social media advertising does not include virtual goods and rewards, social gaming, social commerce or social marketing, all of which are booming areas in advertising as well.

Ninety per cent of people aged 15-24 use the social media site, and two-thirds log onto Facebook every day.

Teenagers aren’t the only ones signing up on Facebook – one in five 55-64 year olds have a Facebook account.

Ipsos-MRBI also had a look at usage of microblogging site Twitter. Seven per cent of the Irish population uses Twitter, the figures show, with 30pc of Twitter users checking their accounts daily. This is an 18pc increase from six months ago.

Accounts on the business networking site LinkedIn have risen by 9pc, a 50pc hike in six months.

Facebook has nearly 600m users worldwide.

We believe that if Google can understand its users’ interest and preferences better by stitching their information across different platforms to build a profile, it could provide better targeted ads to its users. It will then bring about higher ad user engagement levels, which will in turn improve Google RPS (Revenue per 1,000 searches). RPS is a critical parameter for Google and its improvement could provide some lift to the $632 Trefis price estimate for Google stock, which is close to the current market price.

The Threat From Facebook

According to Hitwise, Facebook became the most visited site in the U.S. for the first time surpassing Google and Yahoo. What could Google do in this situation? As mentioned above, Google could improve its users ads engagement in order to compensate for the loss of user visits to Facebook. Google could track the user’s Google Search history to understand their interests and preferences. It could also leverage the growing Android user base, Gmail’s growing popularity and the potential that Google TV possesses.

If Google can successfully tap the users’ information on these different platforms, it could certainly bring about better targeted ads. Targeted ads helps increase the click through rates of the ads, which help the advertiser in realizing higher conversion rates. Google’s RPS could certainly benefit from that. The RPS has declined from a peak of $23.50 per 1,000 searches in 2008 to an estimated $14.70 per 1,000 searches in 2010, and we expect it to continue to decline to around $9.50 by the end of Trefis forecast period.

If Google can stop further RPS declines, and if it is able to maintain it at 2010 levels of $14.70 throughout the Trefis forecast period, there could be an upside of 35% to our estimate for Google stock.

AdWords can be dangerous for the novice advertiser thanks in large part to a dizzying array of options and settings which, when not understood or recognized, can mean the difference between prosperity and disappointment.

According to a Wall Street Journal article, a growing number of advertisers are discovering that they’re losing out because of one of Google’s broad match features that targets ads based on searches a user performs during his or her Google session.

The problem, some advertisers claim, is that these session-based ads aren’t always targeted so well. The Wall Street Journal says that medical professionals who use AdWords to advertise their services are among the hardest hit.

Some, for instance, apparently see their ads displayed on searches that are completely unrelated to their practices. For example, some of the medical professionals the Wall Street Journal interviewed report seeing their ads on searches related to haircuts and limo services. One cosmetic dentist claims that $3,000 of the $40,000 he spent on AdWords since 2009 has been wasted on such ads.

Google, of course, says that these incidents are not reflective of AdWords in general, and that the “overwhelming majority” of advertisers aren’t experiencing these issues. Truth be told, advertisers who are experiencing them may still find AdWords to be far more effective than other forms of advertising. After all, there is always some waste in advertising.

Yet the fact that these sorts of issues are gaining Wall Street Journal-level attention highlights the challenges Google has in reaching out to small businesses, something that it is looking to do a lot more of today.

Not only is Google tasked with making AdWords more approachable for business owners who often have little tech savvy and even less time, it has to make sure that features, such as those related to broad matching, aren’t causing advertisers to feel like they’re losing out.

After all, for small and medium-sized businesses, AdWords is generally a self-serve proposition and Google has little personal contact with its customers. That means that it’s real easy for advertisers to leave if they see underperforming clicks that are coming from search queries that seem tenuous at best.

The question now is just how focused Google is on its bread and butter: search. The company’s organic search and paid search seem to be generating far more negative attention these days. While some of the issues have existed for a while, and it hasn’t always been all positive (click fraud issues have been around for a while for instance), one has to wonder if Google is feeling a little bit too comfortable about the market that keeps the lights on and bills paid.

Below are stats taken from checkfacebook.com, which show that the United States still remain ahead of the pack when it comes to users, followed not so closely by Indonesia and the United Kingdom.

This shows that digital media is becoming ever more popular and a greater amount of users have access and are able to view ad’s posted on these networks.

This has advantages, in even the most unlikely of ways.

Just over Christmas Jo Yeates’ body was found on Christmas Day, in Longwood Lane, Failand.

Police are using an advert posted on Facebook that will allow people to contact the incident room via the social networking site rather than calling in.

Police said Facebook was more effective than posters and leaflet.

Det Ch Insp Phil Jones, of Avon and Somerset Police said, police have successfully used Facebook in a number of high-profile cases because information could be shared more widely than by poster.

Scott Fulton, head of e-services at the force, said: “On this inquiry alone we have had shares of the story from the force’s Facebook page of 24,220.

You can read more on this article: Facebook used in hunt for Jo Yeates’ killer

The report highlighted that online display advertising had grew by 6.4% year on year to £381m in the first half of 2010, which is a remarkable improvement from the 4.4% year-on-year decline in spend previously.

However paid-search advertising, which is currently dominated by Google, remains on top with ad spend increasing by 8.9% to £1.18bn year on year in the first six months.

When it comes to social media on its own the IAB did not provide year-on-year comparison figures for spend but said that the growth trajectory has been impressive.

A report provided earlier this year by Enders Analysis estimated that Facebook could be making as much as £85m per year from display advertising.

IAB said that major brands such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Moneysupermarket, O2, Virgin, Orange and Microsoft were committing serious budgets to chasing consumers on social media.

Overall media and entertainment proves to be the biggest sector for spending on display advertising. Just over 70% of all ad spend on online display advertising, goes on traditional ad formats such as banners, buttons and skyscraper slots.

You can read more on this article: Facebook leads recovery in digital display advertising

In this article we will cover relatively new opportunities for companies to exploit advances in digital marketing which until now have only been covered well by a selected few. We will also cover some challenges and headaches for advertisers which must be managed to be successful.

- Content/Engagement Strategy

In today’s world we realise that good content is the gateway to acquiring new clients through search engine optimisation and social media as part of inbound advertising. Keeping the customer engaged with a brand using touch points like the website, social media, email marketing and apps, is also an essential role within digital advertising.

- Digital Advertising Optimisation

The analytical tools now available to digital advertisers enable analysis and optimisation of performance as provided by many companies in these fields. The integration of toolsets via APIs and XML feeds has supported the growth of a vast set of free and paid tools. A good example of this is the Google Analytics Application Gallery.

- Social Media

A term frequently used when discussing the web these days is Facebook. Every company should have a Facebook strategy and the right resources to manage it. For other companies Twitter may be the way forward. The success of using these strategies comes from understanding what you want to achieve, a clear idea of the value of information provided and resourcing it to deliver is needed. But this is underpinned by having the right content and touch strategies to integrate with other channels.

- Mobile Strategy

The growth in use of Apple App store has been unheard of until recent years, increasing by several billions of downloads in 2010. Meanwhile other handset manufacturers are achieving success with apps such as Android and now Windows Mobile; although Apple still has over two thirds of the market by download. This is defiantly a resource we will find businesses tapping more and more into in the coming year.

- Googlization

Google still drives the majority of the traffic while surfing the World Wide Web or at least it should if you get your SEO and PPC right. It’s increasingly important for generating awareness and display through the new Googled Display network which in 2010 saw remarketing added. Google is so important that you could say you need a specific “Google Strategy”. A Google strategy requires an intimate understanding of your online marketplace or ecosystem.

Inconclusion, these are just some of the main trends which we should all focus on in the coming year and should strive to achieve in order to better our relationship with our clients, and ofcourse to improve on our companies.

Online Advertising has become more accountable and businesses are recognising that it is an effective form of advertising and its potential return on investment. As a result, the Belfast Telegraph is taking more business from both local and national advertising agencies.

An example of this is “Abbey Insurance, which has taken a banner that clicks through to its homepage on the crime map — which shows a breakdown of different types of offences committed across different Northern Ireland wards. Bank of Scotland Ireland and Invest NI are also supporting business coverage.”

These types of advertisements are helping to generate increased revenue from the news site.

Sam McIlveen, Independent News & Media (Northern Ireland) digital publisher, said:

“We are seeing a marked increase in ad revenues over the past year and this looks set to continue in 2009 despite difficult economic conditions. Businesses can see the value in what we’re doing on the website and the fact that our web traffic has trebled in the last year shows that readers agree.”

You can read more on this article: Belfast Telegraph, Northern Ireland, revenue soars by 62% due to online advertising.

A report generated by the BBC states “Online spending grew 4.6% to £1.752bn in the first half of 2009, while TV spending shrank 16.1% to £1.639bn. ”

This innovation in advertising has increasingly become a more popular form of advertising choice for businesses. It has been predicted that this channel will develop into the areas of mobile and video advertising.

It has been said that the migration of advertising to digital has been due to the economic recession.

The banner has be identified as the most popular form of digital advertising over the last year. Guy Phillipson Chief Executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau states that it had “perfomered notably well against its peers in TV, Print and Radio”.

Click here to read more on this subject.

Google has stated that they will not refrain entirely when a complaint is made to a third party, and if it is felt that it “confuses users” as to the origin and services of the ad.  They will conduct a limited investigation.  If the investigation identifies that the ad test does confuse users, Google will remove the ad.  They insist that this only influences the keywords and not the actual ad text.

Google implemented this change in the UK in 2008, which caused tremendous outrage from many UK companies.  It was also applied to the US.  The major issue with implementing the changes in Europe is that it is made up of different countries each with their own laws.  This will no doubt be very challenging to realise.