IM marketing is ‘effective’

Instant messaging (IM) marketing is more “effective” than targeted behaviour marketing, one expert has suggested.

The comments come after the recent advertising deal struck between Yahoo and Google, part of which will involve the two search engine giants merging their IM services.

Yahoo is the current IM service leader with a 23 per cent share, while Google Talk has only a five per cent share of the market, reports CNN.

Commenting on CNN, IDC analyst Karsten Weide noted that IM is becoming an increasingly important online medium.

She said: “IM usage has become very popular, especially in the younger demographic.

“From what we know anecdotally, ads based on social networking are more effective than behaviour targeting.”

Meanwhile, recent research by eMarketer revealed that the UK spends more money on social networking advertising than any other country in western Europe.

The UK has a 68 per cent share of the social networking advertising market, with spending expected to grow to £285 million by 2012.