Lead Generation and Internet Marketing in Portugal

Portugal is Online

Portugal is a country located in south Western Europe with an estimated population of 10.6 million people. It is the most western country in Europe with borders to the west and south meeting the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east, Spain. There are 5.2 million internet users in Portugal and the most popular three search terms in Portugal are “hi5”, “YouTube” and “face book” according to Google search. Search engine market share in Portugal is divided as follows; Google 97.07%, Bing 2%, Yahoo 0.4%, Sapo 0.36 and Ask Jeeves with 0.12%. Broadband penetration in Portugal is above the European average and instant messaging combined with social networking sites account for one third of the total time spent online in Portugal.

Social Media Sites

Social networking sites in Portugal are very popular with usage increasing rapidly every month. Facebook has 3.7 million users which represents 72.8% of the online population in Portugal. Facebook sees 4.1 million Portuguese visitors every month that generate a total of 8.6 billion page views. The largest age group of Portuguese Facebook users are the 25 to 34 year olds which represent 28% of users followed by the 18 to 24 year olds representing 23% of users. Male and female distribution is almost 50/50 with just one percent in favour of the males. Amongst the top audience interest segments are Indie & Alternative Music, Dance & Electronic Music, Video Sharing, Mobile Apps & Add-ons and Social Network App & Add-ons. These trends suggest a keen interest to stay connected with music videos and social media action via mobile phone apps. This creates ideal opportunities for video marketing campaigns that utilize popular music genres to virally spread content. Hi5 is another popular social networking site in Portugal with audience interests being mainly Friendship, Hip-Hop, Raggaeton, TV Shows and Online Games. Hi5 user interests are quite different from Facebook users and generate 310 million page views a month from 2.4 million unique visitors.

Tourism and the Internet

May 2011 saw Portugal celebrating 100 years of tourism by commemorating the opening of the Portugal Tourism Department on May 16th 1911. Portugal is famed for its beautiful beaches and the Algarve. Competition from eastern European destinations such as Croatia has led to Portugal having to promote their unique rural or natural tourism packages to stay competitive. A report indicated that tourism in terms of self catering apartments, guest houses and hotel bookings had increased by 2.1% from March 2010 to March 2011. By comparison fewer people stayed in resorts during the same period, which may point to an opportunity for internet marketers to promote coupon sites specializing in accommodation and travel discounts. France, Brazil and the UK accounted for 70% of tourists visiting Portugal which is helpful information to lead generation companies in terms of which countries they should optimize their campaigns for.

E-Commerce and Insights

E-commerce in Portugal shows a very good potential for internet marketers and websites like Amazon and Ebay receive 2 and 8.9 million page views each every month. Ebay generates more page views than Amazon even though Ebay has 20,000 less visits per month and indicates a more engaging Ebay user base. Ebay users displayed interest in the categories of Wholesalers & Liquidators, Antiques & Collectables and Intellectual Property. Amazon user interests were completely different preferring Development Tools as a number one interest above any other category. This is followed by Mass Merchants & Department Stores, Cameras & Camcorders, Product Reviews & Price Comparisons and Consumer Resources. Generating leads for price comparison websites could be an in-road for internet marketers wanting to enter the Portuguese internet industry as well as product reviews being used as lead generation content.