Online marketing 'set to go social'

17th July 2008

Tim Armstrong of Google has claimed that the future of the internet marketing industry lies in social media and mobile advertising.

In an interview with Canadian Business magazine, Mr Armstrong cited the two channels when asked about the emerging trends he is seeing in online advertising.

"Social networking will be a big part of online advertising in the future," he remarked, going on to add that analytics will also play a significant role in the creation and management of campaigns.

"It's still hard to measure how different types of online ads and targeting techniques affect a consumer's perception of a brand," Mr Armstrong said.

He also predicted that more advertisers will base their campaigns on the actions of consumers rather than sticking to a static schedule in the future.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Centre for Marketing Research recently conducted a study showing that a greater proportion of the top 500 fastest growing private firms in the US are now turning to blogging for marketing purposes compared with last year.

It said that 39 per cent of these firms now have a blog, compared with 19 per cent in 2007.