Digital Media News

If somebody were to tell you that up to 20% of what you spend on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising may be wasted due to fraudulent activity such as click fraud, would you be worried?

You may be wise to be weary, as click fraud is endemic in the online advertising business, with some marketers claiming that up to 50% of their billed-for ads are generated by non-human traffic.

What is Click Fraud?

Frequently seen in the pay-per-click world, click fraud is the act of clicking on an advert with malicious intent, rather than from any real interest in the advertiser’s offerings. The practice istypically carried out by a competitor or faux middleman, in order to drive campaign costs up to the point that the advertiser has to curtail advertising spends. This paves the way for the competitor to increase their market presence, clicks and sales.

Have you ever wanted to explore the sandy beaches of Hawaii, or see London from the top of a skyscraper, without spending a penny? The reality is closer than you think.In one of the first premium virtual reality applications outside of the gaming and entertainment industry, Marriott Hotels recently launched its innovative #GetTeleportedvirtual travel experience, which enables users to feel the sand between their toes onWai'anapanapaBeach in Maui, or enjoy a panoramic view of London fromthe vertigo inducingTower 42.

This is PR at its best.

The hotel chain partnered with experiential marketing agency Relevant and Oscar-winning VFX studio Framestore to create the‘Teleporter’, which features Oculus Rift DK2 virtual reality headsets, wireless headphones and a suite of 4-D sensory elements, to augment the brand experience and amplify the feeling of immersion.

Ignore the gurus - advertising is deceptively simple. It’s about creating the right messages and putting it in front of the right people. But there’s a knack to enjoying effective Facebook advertising. First, why target Facebook advertising? Well, it’s the third most popular website in the world (after Google and YouTube), which makes Facebook advertising extremely powerful for businesses.

With this social media platform, we’re talking about well over 1 billion users – that’s a lot of potential leads. But while the concept of advertising is straightforward, here are 10 top tips to make sure your digital messages cut through the clutter.

Wearable technology is no longer the stuff of science-fiction. It’s real, and like the smart phone and tablet before it, has the potential to disrupt the advertising industry in a big way.

With a predicted market value of $30 billion by 2024, wearable technology has become a hot topic in the tech world, and a number of brands are leading the charge, with products such as Google Glass, the Qualcomm Toq, Garmin’s Vivofit and the newly released Apple iWatch, which arecausing quite a stir amongst tech-savvy consumers. 

What is wearable technology?

Wearable technologies are clothing and accessories that incorporate computer and advanced electronics. They can come in a variety of guises —smart watches, arm bands, glasses/heads-up displays, smart fabrics and jewellery. Some people are even developing programmable make-up, while others are designing temporary tattoos that can monitor pregnancy.

As our lives become busier and hitting the high street seems more of a hassle than a pleasure, the lure of the Internet is hard to resist. Researching online before we buy is pretty imperative these days, and we head straight for our laptops, tablets and smartphones to get the lowdown on new products.

It’s nosurprise that savvy shoppers trust recommendations and reviews from their peer group far more than the “you’re worth it” spiel thrown at them by advertisers. And online shopping suits customers and retailers alike. The latter can showcase their goods with lower overheads and the worldwide web allows them to widen their reach. On top of this, online shoppersprovide brands with valuable data about their customers, and thisonline interaction allows for an ongoing relationship once the initial transaction has taken place.

For a long time, Twitter's revenue stream has been made up almost entirely of advertising dollars, but last week, the social media company announced that it is diversifying, by taking a step into the world of e-commerce.

The social networking company is currently trialing a system that enables businesses to embed “buy now” buttons in their tweets, so customers can purchase products directlythrough the site. The button is being marketed as a fun way for users to shop and find deals on exclusive merchandise, but the new offering ultimately represents the company's latest bid to claw back revenue, following a decline in user growth.

The feature is initially being tested on a small group of brandsincluding, The Home Depot, Burberry and non-profit group (RED), but Twitter expects to roll the service out and increase the visibility of its e-commerce tweets, in the lead up to the holiday shopping season.

If you thought Instagram was just a photo sharing app, think again. The Facebook-owned social media network, which now boasts more than 75,000,000 daily users,has evolved into a powerful marketing tool and advertising platform. 

Instagram has rolled out the tools to its current advertising partners, including BananaRepublic, Adidas and Michael Kors, whose striking visual adsperfectly fit the aesthetic that Instagramare striving for. The response from advertisers has been positive; Michael Kors gained 33,000 new followers in the wake of theirInstagram ad campaign (16 times more than usual),but feedback has shown that companieswant more insight into how their ads are performing and how people are engaging with theircontent.

In response to feedback, Instagram haslaunched three new marketing analytics tools, which will enable marketers to monitor how their posts are performing in real time, using detailed measurements. The "Account Insights" tooltracks impressions, reach and engagement for a brand's unpaid posts.It also aggregates stats about an account's follower base, with demographic information such as the age and gender of users. It will also advise on the best times of day or week to post, based on user’s activity.