Bangkok--29 Dec--Absolute PR
Mr. Kampol Tanapanyaworakhun, CEO of iTopPlus Co., Ltd., a provider of fully integrated online marketing services, said the online advertising business in Thailand in 2015 was worth 9,869 million baht and was growing by 50% annually. Of the total, around 60% of the clients are small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs). Online media purchases by SMEs increased by about 30% from the previous year. The figure indicates that Thai SMEs are now embracing the online advertising trend that used to be limited to larger corporate clients.
Currently, Thailand has around 3 million SMEs. Given such a total, there should be about 1 million websites run by these SMEs, but the real number is only 300,000 to 400,000. In other words, only 30-40% of all SMEs are online. This spells opportunities for substantial further growth in online marketing in Thailand. The top three businesses with the biggest spending for advertising per client are finance, education and health.
For SMEs, online media are suitable and can be the main platform for:
1) helping to increase sales and expand the customer base;
2) reaching the right customer groups and matching buyer behavior at a time when more people are searching for information and doing their shopping online;
3) helping to prepare businesses to adopt e-commerce transactions and to engage with the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC);
4) serving as a more accurate and accessible platform for every business owing to the low budget required and measurable outcomes. For example, businesses can see how many advertisements have been posted, how many people viewed their websites, and how much the profit per advertisement is. In addition, they can instantly know the amount of merchandise sold, advertising fees per day, and how many clients made contacts. These data provide opportunity for business growth;
5) Reducing costs, from retail space rent to brochure printing, because many buyers no longer shop in stores.
The online media that are the most popular among SMEs include Google, with 30% growth; websites, with 40% growth, and Facebook, with 100% growth.
Offering insights into the 2016 online marketing outlook, Mr. Kampol said that next year, Thailand would be entering the AEC and would also see the widespread introduction of 4G wireless broadband services. These two factors will make online marketing even more vigorous. iTopPlus, as a Google AdWords Premier Partner, points out that Google has many more tools and techniques suitable for different types of SME businesses. For instance, Keyword searching can be refined based on analysis, making each word appropriate to the business to help reach the right target. Meanwhile, Keyword bidding is designed to ensure your budget is well spent. As well, using Negative Keywords helps businesses save the costs required for modifying searches. Advertising Average Position, meanwhile, is aimed at yielding the ultimate outcomes. Users of these tools can see searches displayed in foreign countries, hence expanding their customer bases.
On Facebook, Mr. Kampol believes the most competitive area will be in management of Facebook Content Administration. This involves creating Fanpage points by using specific content and fresh photos matching the style of the individual business in order to build engagement with followers. Another trend worth watching in for obvious growth is advertisements in the form of video clips on YouTube and Instagram. This is in line with the 4G technology that mobile operators will be introducing.
"At the same time, content on SMEs' main websites must be provided in two more languages: Chinese and Japanese, while businesses should prepare for expansion of online marketing to meet the above-mentioned demands," Mr. Kampol said. "iTopPlus is well prepared to serve as an assistant to Thai SMEs to develop online advertising media to strengthen clients and help them use their full creative capability so that they can become a vital foundation of Thailand's economy."