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Socialbakers has released its latest "Socially Devoted" figures for Q1, and the results are a mixed bag. On the one hand, the average response rate grew 6% points quarter-over-quarter to 38%, after only improving by 4% points in the preceding 6 months. But on the other hand, that means that significantly fewer than half of questions posted to brands' Twitter profiles were answered. What's more, the average response time increased by 10%, from 6 hours in Q4 2012 to more than 6-and-a-half hours in Q1. Read more »

Email is still very much an ingrained activity among SMB employees, to the extent that 74% check work email outside of standard work hours, with most of those doing so at least several times a day, according to survey results from GFI. Indeed, almost two-thirds of the respondents overall said they check email outside of standard work hours at least once a day. Separately, a significant chunk of respondents said they've at some point checked their work email on weekends (80.9%) and during a vacation (59.1%), and 5.6% even admitted to having done so while they or their spouse was in labor. Read more »

PointRoll has released data [pdf] from its upcoming 2012 Benchmark Report, revealing that in-stream video ads achieved an average click-through rate (CTR) of 0.62% last year, far outpacing mobile (0.15%), rich media (0.14%) and standard banner (0.1%) ads. The findings support a similar conclusion reached earlier this year by DG MediaMind, which also found in-stream video ads to outperform those other formats, though with vastly different benchmark figures. (The DG MediaMind report put the US benchmark CTR for in-stream video at 1.11%, and mobile at 0.88%). Read more »

58% of national brand advertising campaigns employed geo-precise targeting (including geo-fencing and geo-behavioral targeting) in Q1, according to a new report from xAd. That's more than double the 27% from a year earlier, as the proportion using standard geo-targeting dropped from 64% to 40%. Still, fewer advertisers used geo-precise targeting in Q1 than in Q4 2012. That's because some campaigns benefit more than others from such targeting, and Q4 saw more campaigns seeking to leverage the benefits of geo-targeting to promote their holiday and Black Friday promotions. Read more »

North Americans are becoming more confident in spending, according to [download page] results from a Nielsen survey of consumer confidence and spending intentions. In Q1, 42% of respondents (all surveyed online) said they plan to spend on discretionary items this year, up from 36% the previous quarter. Within the US, 23% said they will spend on home improvement and decorating projects, a significant jump from 17% who responded that way in Q4 2012. Additionally, 22% are planning to take a vacation, up 2% quarter-over-quarter, with the same figures applying to out-of-home entertainment spending. Read more »

Consumers are increasingly turning to social media for their servicing needs, and brands are steadily becoming more responsive to their inquiries. According to Socialbakers' latest quarterly "Socially Devoted" report, brands responded to 60% of questions posed to them on Facebook during Q1, up from 55% the previous quarter, and almost double the 30% from Q2 2012. That increased responsiveness came amidst an increase in questions asked by fans. Read more »

Google has released a customer journey to online purchase benchmark tool, providing insights as to where different marketing channels impact the customer journey. Based on transactional data collected from Google Analytics accounts with e-commerce tracking enabled, the tool reveals that in the US, display, social and email each act more as an assist interaction, while paid search acts almost equally as an assist and last interaction. Read more »

Smartphone and tablet owners just can't seem to let go of their devices. Young smartphone owners seem particularly addicted: 3 in 4 check them when they wake up in the morning, while up to 40% check them every 10 minutes. As it turns out, even a vacation won't pry smart devices out of their owners' hands. When they go on vacation, 8 in 10 owners say they take their devices along and use them all the time, compared to slightly more than 1 in 10 who take them but rarely use them. Read more »

The median email click-through rate (CTR) in the US stood at 2.2% last year, and the mean rate at 3.3%, but the top quartile of performers achieved an average rate of 8.3%, according to [pdf] a new email marketing benchmarks study from Silverpop. The study also reveals that when it came to unique open rates, the top quartile of performers in the US saw an average rate of 34.7%, more than double the median rate of 16.5%. The strongest performers bested the median click-to-open rate by 83% (24% vs. 13.1%). Read more »

The "world's most valuable audience" has been identified, at least according to [download page] a new report from Turn. These 2% of global consumers - the "global digital elite" - see 24 times as many ads as the average consumer, and are so prized by marketers that they command 85% higher eCPMs than average. So who are they? They're young, urban, have above-average income (typically $76k and up), and have an affinity for gadgets. They also love to shop, are interested in fashion, and have diverse media tastes. Read more »