Online Lead Generation in Europe
Europe and the Internet
Europe is one of the seven continents, is the second smallest and the third-most populous in the world. Only Africa and Asia are more populated than Europe. It covers an area of 10.1 million square miles with a population of 733 million people. In terms of wealth Europe is reported as the largest economy in the world and the richest in terms of the value of assets under management which currently stands at more than $US37.1 trillion. There is estimated to be 476,278,755 internet users in Europe which accounts for 22.6% of the world’s total online population and represents an overall penetration rate of 58.3% which is above the world average of 30.2%. The total online ad spend according to IAB Europe was 17.7 billion euros during 2010 and growing at a rate of 15.3%. According to the latest figures, the top 10 countries in Europe in terms of internet penetration are:
Top 10 European Countries by Internet Penetration
1. Iceland - 93.2%
2. Norway – 90.9%
3. Sweden – 89.2%
4. Netherlands – 85.6%
5. Denmark – 84.2%
6. Finland – 83.5%
7. Luxembourg – 78.7%
8. United Kingdom – 74.4%
9. Switzerland – 75.5%
10. Germany – 75.3%
The top 10 European countries in terms of average internet download speeds tested with 100,000 unique IP addresses by Net Index are:
Top 10 European Countries by Internet Download Speeds
1. Estonia – 46.35Mbps
2. Lithuania – 31.97Mbps
3. Latvia – 25.59Mbps
4. Sweden 24.77Mbps
5. Romania – 24.49Mbps
6. Netherlands – 24.11Mbps
7. Bulgaria – 21.42Mbps
8. Iceland – 20.54Mbps
9. Luxembourg – 20.36Mbps
10. Switzerland – 19.43Mbps
Internet Users in Europe by Country
The top 10 countries in Europe in terms of the number of internet users are:
Top 10 European Countries by Number of Internet Users
1. Germany – 65.1million
2. Russia – 59.7m
3. UK – 51.4m
4. France 45.2m
5. Turkey – 35m
6. Italy – 30m
7. Spain – 29.1m
8. Poland - 22.5m
9. Ukraine – 15.3m
10. Netherlands – 14.9m
Search Engine Market Share and Search Trends
Throughout Europe search engine market share is dominated by Google with between 90% and 96% market share. The only slight exception is Russia which has a Google majority share of 84%. Baidu, Yandex and Bing account for 3%, 4% and 1.28% share respectively with the remaining share split between no less than 70 country specific Google search engines. The top two search terms in Russia are “download” and “classmates” spelt in Russian. Classmates is a Russian social network site which can be downloaded as mobile app. Coincidentally, Russia has a very small Facebook penetration rate of just 8.87% of the online population suggesting local social networks are more popular in Russia. The Netherlands is another European country where “facebook” is not one of the top search terms, preferring “hyves” as a top search term. “Hyves” is a social network in Netherlands used by mainly Dutch visitors and in direct competition to Facebook.
Social Media Activity in Europe
There are more Facebook users in Europe than on any other continent in the world with Facebook members numbering 222.2 million people. This figure amounts to more than a 46% penetration rate in terms of the online population. The top two European countries in terms of Facebook users are Turkey and UK with 30.9m and 30.4m members respectively which puts them in 6th and 7th position out of a list of 213 worldwide countries for Facebook membership.
Top 10 Facebook Users in Europe by Country
1. Turkey – 30,966,680
2. United Kingdom – 30,470,400
3. France – 23,545,120
4. Germany – 22,123,660
5. Italy – 19,503,940
6. Spain – 15,629,920
7. Poland – 7,525,660
8. Netherlands – 5,761,780
9. Russia – 5,236,720
10. Sweden – 4,519,680
Online Ad Spend by Country
Online ad spend expressed as a percentage of overall advertising market in Europe is currently 18% with the UK leading in terms of internet marketing advertising size as a percentage of advertising ad spend. The UKs online advertising market size represents 28.7% of overall advertising expenditure and Denmark is close behind with online ad spend being 28% of total advertising spend. The UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy and Spain represent 74% of the total European online advertising market.
Online Display Advertising as a Percentage of Advertising Market by Country – Top 10
1. United Kingdom – 28.7%
2. Denmark – 28%
3. Norway – 25.3%
4. Czech Republic – 22.3%
5. Netherlands – 22.3%
6. Sweden – 20.7%
7. Germany – 19.8%
8. Poland – 17.5%
9. Finland – 17.2%
10. France 15.6%
Figures show that although the smaller Eastern European economies appear to have the fastest download speeds only two (Czech Republic and Poland) have online advertising spends comparable to Western European countries in terms of the percentage of overall advertising spend. Having said this market growth tends to be higher in the Eastern European countries as the online advertising and lead generation markets have more room for growth. Paid search showed the highest growth rate of 15.1% and is still the biggest category in internet advertising representing 45% of total online ad expenditure compared to Display (33%) and Classifieds/Directories with a 22% share. Hungary and Poland has seen the highest growth in paid search with +44% and +31 respectively. These figures compare favourably to the UK and France with +8% and +10% respectively.
Lead Generation Ideas
Internet marketing opportunities are available across Europe although Western European countries show less growth than Eastern European markets. Paid search appears to be increasing in demand and suggests that lead generation campaigns could receive a ready market in Eastern European markets as they become more ready to pay for actual results. The nature of lead generation being a more qualified lead than just a click may appeal to those markets familiar with paying for visitors rather than paying for results. Of course, a lead still has to be converted into a sale but a properly qualified lead is normally much closer to the point of conversion than a click. Western European online markets are more advanced and internet marketers will need the full complement of armoury such as social media including video, article marketing and paid search to make a significant impact, whilst it may be easier to exploit the smaller online advertising markets of Eastern Europe. The advantage of lead generation in countries such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is that they enjoy some of the fastest internet speeds in the world so can view a wide variety of rich media. There is also growing competition in the telecoms sector within most Eastern European markets which is likely to bring internet access prices much lower over the coming years. Internet access price drops are likely to encourage more time spent online exposed to internet marketing and social media.