Small Business Survey: Data Analysis from ILM West #smb #smallbiz #ILMWest

The first day of ILM West in San Francisco is under way with some great discussions about interactive local commerce. 

I’m a data guy, so my favorite session of the morning was the analysis of a digital advertising survey given to small businesses.  BIA/Kelsey commissioned the survey and Steve Marshall (Direct of Research) and Matt Booth (Program Director, Interactive Local Media) presented the results.

Some key findings:

• Based on responses to the survey, local media spend in the US is forecasted to hit $149.4B in 2015 with $37.9B of that being online/digital.
• Local search is forecasted to hit $9.1B by 2015 – up from $5.1B in 2010.
• The percentage of ad budget spent online continues to sit around 25%.
• Businesses that are between 4-6 years old spend 33% of their budget on online advertising.  Businesses that are less than 3 years old spend 38%.
• 40% have a Facebook page, 14% have a blog, 14% use twitter, and 10% have YouTube videos.  22% intend to create a YouTube video in the next 12 months!
• Those siting the importance of online ratings and reviews rose from 42% to 54% since last year.
• Over 50% are buying online advertising on their own – though sometimes with assistance.

Lots of numbers!

To me, some of the most interested information from the session was about small business websites.  While almost all small businesses have sites – the quality of those sites leaves a lot to be desired.

Lesson: if you are using online advertising to drive customers to your site, be sure to give them a way to contact you!  And be sure to optimize those landing pages!

Hope you enjoyed the data as much as I did.  Stay tuned for more coverage from #ILMWest. 

Cheers!

David Kline | Microsoft Advertising