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| The United Kingdom: champion of online marketing campaigns |
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| Many websites use online marketing campaigns to help them reach their main goals and objectives such as increasing customer numbers, targeting a specific type of internet user or increasing sales etc. What do these investments in online marketing represent on the ratio between access types and are there any differences that exist from country to country? The answer to these questions can be found in the study below. Results which were obtained from four different European countries were compared: France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. |
| Cross section: |
- Study carried out from the 1st to the 30th September 2009
- Cross-section of 579 websites
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| Online marketing campaigns in the UK account for more than 50% of visits to websites that have adopted such campaigns |
As part of this study we only took into consideration websites which declared the use of online marketing campaigns (affiliates and partners, marketing emails, RSS feeds, sponsored links or advertising) on their sites. In addition to this, these websites were visited on a daily basis by internet users who accessed these websites via online marketing campaigns.
Our study involved four different European countries: France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. For each individual country, visits to websites carried out within the specific country were only considered. The websites which were used as part of our study were those which could be measured by a specific AT Internet solution, and where the traffic to these websites tends to be mainly generated within the individual countries themselves.
The pie charts below show an estimation of the average distribution of the visits that were recorded by websites in France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, irrespective of whether the visits were the result of online marketing campaigns or from natural sources. The pie charts are only an average indicator, and the figures vary from site to site because of factors such as the brand awareness of a particular website and the website’s marketing strategy, to name but a few examples.
In September 2009, online marketing campaigns had the biggest impact on websites which use marketing campaigns in the United Kingdom (with an online marketing campaign being defined according to AT Internet solutions):
- 53% of visits to these sites on average in the United Kingdom have been generated by online marketing campaigns,
- compared to 45.3% in Spain,
- 40.3% in Germany,
- and 28.9% in France, where online marketing campaigns have had the smallest impact on the websites analysed for our study. Are French websites less willing to use online marketing campaigns or are Internet users in France more reluctant to using this type of marketing tool?
For websites which use marketing campaigns, natural access generates the most number of entering visits (to more than one page) and the most number of page views per entering visit in each of the four countries. Germany is the leading country as far as natural visits are concerned:
- For the month of September 2009, on average 65% of all visits were to two or more pages, and there were 9.9 page views per entering visit.
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| Sponsored links are the main source of visits to websites using online marketing campaigns in Spain and in the United Kingdom |
The graphs below show the top five access types which were used to access websites which received traffic coming from online campaigns on a daily basis for France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom in September 2009.
For websites on which online marketing campaigns were used, sponsored links are the main source of visits to these sites in Spain (36.3%) putting it ahead of search engines, as well as in the United Kingdom (28.2%) putting it ahead of direct access. In France and Germany, however, this is not the case. In Germany, the main source which is used to access these types of websites is direct access, at a rate of 31.8%, whereas in France the main source which is used are search engines, at a rate of 31.7%. Nevertheless, as far as online investment sites are concerned sponsored links then become one of the main sources that are used to visit such sites in both France and Germany. In Germany it is the second most common traffic source that is used with 28.9% (when all different traffic sources are considered), and in France it is the third most common traffic source that is used with 14.7% (when all different traffic sources are considered).
As far as online investment campaigns are concerned affiliations and partnerships are the second source of visits to websites that have invested in these campaigns in Spain and in the United Kingdom:
- 13.3% of visits in the United Kingdom (the fourth most common traffic source when all different traffic sources are considered),
- 4.5% of visits in Spain (the fifth most common traffic source when all different traffic sources are considered).
Whilst in France and Germany marketing emails are the second source of visits to such websites:
- 5.2% of visits in France (the fifth most common traffic source when all different traffic sources are considered),
- 4.5% of visits in Germany (the fifth most common traffic source when all different traffic sources are considered).
The ration between marketing campaings access and natural access varies from country to country. The United Kingdom is, by far, the country which has been influenced the most by marketing campaigns. For websites which have invested in online marketing and receiving traffic from the marketing campaigns on a daily basis, on average one out of every two visits to the website are generated by online marketing campaigns. As far as the number of visits generated by online campaigns is concerned, the United Kingdom generates 53% of all visits in this way, in Spain the figure is 45.3% and in Germany the figure is 40.3%. However, if we compare France to the other three countries then “only” 28.9% of all visits are generated by online marketing campaigns. These differences may be caused by various different reasons. For example, online campaigns might be more used by sites in one country and less in another. Another reason which can be used to explain the differences is the fact that the behaviour of Internet users varies from one country to another. In our study "Internet Primetime", which was carried out in June 2009, we noticed that the cultural differences that exist in each country influence the times when people use the Internet. Cultural differences can also influence the different types of sources that are used to access websites. Cultural differences can also be used to explain why certain countries are more reluctant than others to use online marketing campaigns, for example some internet users see marketing campaigns as being intrusive and as a result they refuse to use them and because of this the marketing campaigns are rejected.
These slight behavioural differences which occur from country to country highlight how important it is for a company to adapt its web strategy to meet the needs of a particular country. Although before this happens the company needs to spend some time working out what cultural differences exist from country to country. AT Internet is able to provide solutions to such international problems thanks to its in-depth segmentation analysis. For further information please log onto our website www.atinternet.com
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Methodology:
As for all our future studies, we are now interested in the average distribution of visits, by source type, registered for a cross section of websites.
During cross section creation, we only consider the website if the established selection criteria are being respected. These criteria are strict; their objective is to eliminate websites with an anecdotal audience, a chaotic audience or whose collected data suspects a dysfunction in the measure.
For each country, we analyze the consultation of a website whose traffic is mainly generated in the country studied, and only visits coming from the associated country.
Out of all of the sites audited by AT Internet, we have chosen to use sites for which a part of their daily traffic is the result of online campaigns.
Glossary:
- Direct access: typing the URL directly into the address bar, bookmarks (favourites) or email (by using email software such as Outlook)
- Access via email: access from webmail
- Access using search engines: using key-words to look for something in a search tool
- Access via referral sites: access via other websites
- Access via affiliations or partnerships: access via the websites of affiliate or partner sites
- Access via email marketing campaigns: access via emails which have been defined as marketing campaigns
- Access via RSS feeds: access through a link from an RSS feed
- Access via sponsored links: access by using key words that have been purchased from different networks, and which make it possible to publish links on ‘buyer’ sites, depending on the topic that is being researched
- Access via advertising: access by purchasing advertising tools on the Internet
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