BIA/Kelsey today released a new report, "PPC: The Evolution of a Keystone Customer Acquisition Tool," which explores how pay-per-click advertising inventory has been transformed by the introduction of machine-learning assisted inventory management tools that minimize cost while improving conversion rates…
A new BIA/Kelsey White Paper sponsored by Manta examines how audience extension can be a powerful tool for B2B marketers that are trying to keep their customer acquisition costs manageable, a big challenge for those targeting small businesses in particular. Audience extension is a…
Smaller SMBs, otherwise known as Core SMBs in BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) survey of small and medium businesses, spend an average $2,471 annually for advertising and promotion. As you can see in the table below, Core SMBs that use social media(1)…
Wrapping up National Small Business Week, the Local Search Association (LSA) published a great infographic that compiles research on the state of small business marketing. LSA's infographic reports 71 percent of SMBs manage their digital marketing internally and they use 7.8 marketing channels.…
New businesses* are heavy users of free or (relatively) low cost advertising, according to BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) survey of SMBs. While most of the small- and medium-sized businesses in the survey report using a Facebook page and website for advertising and…
Nielsen's latest Watch Report on the media touch points of digital shoppers found live TV, specifically local news and broadcast, continues to be an effective medium to reach digital auto shoppers. According to Nielsen, consumers' decisions like shopping for a…
In our Local Commerce Monitor (LCM) Wave 19 survey of small businesses, when we look at small businesses who use direct mail, almost 60% pay a third party to manage their digital advertising. 30% of these small businesses say they…
Size matters, when it comes to small- and medium-sized businesses, according to BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) survey of SMBs. While the vast majority of SMBs surveyed prefer a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) model for digital advertising, there's a remarkable difference in preferences between…
In BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor survey of small and medium businesses, we divided SMBS into three groups: 1 employee (very small businesses), 2 to 9 employees (small businesses) and 10 to 99 employees (medium businesses). When comparing the SMBs in these three groups, it becomes…
Very small businesses (VSBs) compete on digital channels because they take advantage of the large amount of free digital advertising and marketing available. In our Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) survey of small businesses, VSBs are defined as small businesses with one…
Of the SMBs in BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor survey of small and medium businesses that use video* for advertising and promotion, nearly half (45.6%) say they made it themselves, a quarter (24.4%) say they have a custom produced video, and less than 20%…
According to our Local Commerce Monitor™ data the main driver of adoption of new technology for SMBs is cost and ease of use. Ascend2 and Research Partners in their recent State of Digital Marketing/SMB Benchmarks 2016 look deeper into the what and…
Facebook reigns supreme as the most popular channel used for advertising and promotion by the vast majority of SMBs in BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor survey of small and medium businesses. But for SMBs in the Professional Services* vertical, LinkedIn is the more popular social media…
When it comes to choosing media for advertising or promotion, small businesses that use co-op advertising programs are like other SMBs in our Local Commerce Monitor survey -- a Facebook page is the most used. As shown in the chart below,…
This is the latest in BIA/Kelsey's Vantage Points series. On a semi-weekly basis, it will tap the perspectives of various lookout points from around the local media and tech sectors. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect that of BIA/Kelsey. Please contact mbolandATbiakelsey if…
There are some basic differences between SMBs that prefer "Do It With Me" and "Do It For Me" (DIWM/DIFM) models for digital advertising and those that opt for a "Do It Myself" (DIY) model. For example, DIWM/DIFM SMBs are typically larger…
38.6% of the advertising budgets of SMBs that prefer "Do It With Me" or "Do It For Me" (DIWM/DIFM) models for digital advertising went toward digital media in the past 12 months. This is up from our previous year (32.2%) and…
"The challenge now facing media resellers is how to adapt and educate their sales teams, as well as update their value propositions to sell social media-based SMB lead generation products and solutions. This is a change in the reseller script…
30.0% of SMBs that advertise on radio receive co-op advertising funds, according to data from Wave 19 of Local Commerce Monitor (LCM), our survey of small and medium businesses, compared to only 13.6% of overall SMBs in the survey. 31.3% of…
Booker, a New York-based scheduling, customer-management, marketing and payments provider for service-industry small businesses, announced today it has completed its acquisition of Fredrick, an intelligent marketing automation tool for appointment-based businesses. The acquisition strengthens Booker’s product portfolio by adding automated marketing features to…