Ad spending is dropping for Core* SMBs according to BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) survey. BIA/Kelsey research director, Steve Marshall attributes the drop to two main causes: Increased use of digital media Increased use of social media Though we've tracked steady growth in SMB digital…
The Local Search Association recently reported that that small businesses on average use more than seven marketing channels. Our current 2015 Local Commerce Monitor ™ (LCM) Wave 19 also shows that for small businesses in our survey the average number…
According to BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor (LCM) Wave 18, the average annual spend on advertising and promotion for SMBs in the financial services vertical* was $31,012. This is the second highest of the verticals covered in the survey. Financial Services SMBs…
The trend of print directory ad dollars shifting to digital continues, according to findings from BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor (LCM 18) upcoming look at SMBs who use directories for advertising and promotion. In LCM Wave 18, "net decreasers" -- those planning…
In the six years that BIA/Kelsey has tracked social media as an advertising/marketing medium for SMBs, it's developed from an experiment (blogs, email, and reviews) to a tsunami. Last year, social media achieved a "double first" -- It was the top media used…
Any company that sells to small businesses knows that demographics can be a stronger indicator of preference than vertical category. We recently met with the leadership team at Home Advisor to ask about the trends they are adapting to in the SMB…
SMBs that use video* for advertising and promotion (Video SMBs) have more aggressive plans for media spending over the next 12 months than those that do not use video, according to Local Commerce Monitor, Wave 18, BIA/Kelsey's survey of small…
Financial Services SMBs* use a mix of social, digital and traditional channels for advertising and promotion, according to Wave 18 of BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor survey of small and medium-sized businesses. The most popular media used by Financial Services SMBs were a Facebook…
Chicago-based Centro, which helps provide targeted ad solutions to 13,000 publishers -- 4,000 at any given time -- says it is refocusing on providing publishers with complete Demand Side solutions that integrate first party data targeting, hyperlocal mobile tools, digital extensions…
The last player standing in the hyperlocal neighbor wars might be considered NextDoor, which has raised over $210 million from several major VCs on the basis of converting a mountain of neighborhoods and neighbors to targeted advertising dollars. We’d like…
Rocks Digital 2015 was held June 29-30 in Dallas, Texas. This year's digital marketing conference brought two days education, information and resources to business owners, digital marketing agencies and enterprise level service providers. The Rocks Digital conference is the brain child…
One of the emerging mobile use cases is sharing multimedia through social graphs. We're talking pictures over Instagram, location check-ins over Facebook, and video snaps over Snapchat. It's especially prevalent among increasingly buying-empowered millennials. The technology macro-environment is also driving…
Facebook yesterday updated its Place Tips feature and is passing out free beacons to SMBs. There are many implications that have already been unpacked across the blogosphere. But one under-recognized angle is how this fills a longstanding gap in offline attribution:…
BIA/Kelsey is partnering again with the Local Media Association to produce this year's LMA Native Advertising Interactive Summit next July 15-16 in Washington, DC where we'll share our latest native ad forecast, insights about marketplace dynamics and trend lines of…
Retail SMBs are more poised than their counterparts in other verticals to adopt sophisticated digital advertising and marketing. This is clearly shown by BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor (Wave 18) survey of small businesses. Retail SMBs are already highly oriented to…
If you follow BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor, you know that email consistently ranks high for SMB marketing. This spans across business verticals, size, and other firmographics. But there's still a gap: most SMBs' email marketing tactics are fairly basic. They…
How is Facebook reinforcing its position in local? What are the business opportunities still left to come in the Local on-Demand Economy (LODE)? And what were the best things we saw at ad:tech? These are a few topics we tackled…
Gone are the days of Page "likes" as a focal point for Facebook. It's all about building a marketing and commerce platform. This according to Facebook SMB director Jon Czaja, whom we invited to BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL to characterize Facebook's stance on…
Content and intelligence drive results in social media marketing according to SOCi founder and CEO Afif Khoury. He presented findings during a segment on social media at BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL (video below). This takes form in an actionable six-step process. Social…
SMBs in the entertainment vertical love video advertising. We're talking movie theaters, event venues, catering, on-demand performers*, etc.. As is conducive to their craft, they're big fans of online video, particularly website and YouTube videos. They're also big on cable…
