Global Marketing News – 26th May 2016
Google AdWords announces mobile-focused overhaul
Google has outlined new plans for its AdWords product, to further prioritise mobile.
Described as a ‘ground-up overhaul’, the announcements were made at Google’s Performance Summit where Sridhar Ramaswamy, its senior vice president, said that it would help marketers “bridge the digital and physical worlds”.
Amongst other changes, the plans include giving marketers the ability to customise a bid for each device type, in order to set their base bid to apply to the device they consider most effective or valuable.
Due to become available in the coming months, this gets rid of the challenge of having bids tied to both desktop and mobile, even as mobile use increases worldwide.
Online retail sales in Turkey set to soar
Online retail sales in Turkey are forecast to soar in the coming years.
The fashion retailer Trendyol.com is forecasted to double its sales by 2018, as shoppers in the country are drawn to its luxury brands, such as Prada.
Elsewhere around the country, it was revealed by the ‘Internet Retailer 2016’ report that the top 22 merchants in Turkey collectively had a growth in sales of 28.6% last year, faster than any other country in Europe.
Whilst shopping online still only accounts for a relatively small portion of Turkey’s entire retail revenue, it is set for an increase of 24%, helped by increasing internet access and a growing economy.
Twitter overhauls 140 character rules
Twitter has announced an overhaul of its famous 140-character limit, to make users’ tweets more consistent.
When the changes are implemented, users will be able to use 140 characters, regardless of any space taken up by multimedia such as pictures or videos.
Users will also be able to reply to tweets without the username taking up any of the character allowance.
CEO, Jack Dorsey, told the BBC that the changes were made so that the social media site “made sense”, and that Twitter’s priority for this year was to “refine” itself.
The changes come after the site’s active user numbers levelled off for the first time since its launch in 2006, a problem that Dorsey blamed on the service becoming confusing, but said that these changes would make Twitter simpler.
Mobiles are the most emotionally engaging device
New research completed by Yahoo has found that mobiles provide the most emotionally engaging screen for consumers.
The study looked at findings from multiple countries in Europe as well as biometric testing, and found that people become more open to engagement from brands when relaxing.
The act of watching television with a smartphone in hand has been found to be the most common form of relaxation and Yahoo’s research found that smartphones are the number one device for all commercial opportunities.
Nigel Clarkson from Yahoo said that the study was about getting “the right message to the right person”, which meant “considering the specific screen a consumer is using to consume content and the activity they’re engaged in when it’s delivered to them”.
Botswanan First National Bank partners with PayPal
And finally, Botswanan businesses have received a boost as the First National Bank announced a partnership with PayPal.
This will make Botswana only the second country in Africa to have access to PayPal’s Withdraw service, allowing residents of the country to withdraw money directly from their accounts.
This will give local businesses the flexibility of being able settle payment locally whilst having access to the global market.
First National Bank customers can now open a PayPal account before receiving payments in up to 26 different currencies, whilst withdrawals will be made by converting US Dollars to Botswanan Pula.
With online shopping on the rise in the country, the need for secure online payment has now been met, whilst also allowing international access to merchants in the country.
Webcertain’s global marketing news bulletins are daily 5-minute videos, providing marketers with the latest international digital marketing news in an easy-to-digest format.
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