Lead Generation and Internet Marketing in Romania

Internet Opportunities in Romania

Romania is a country located between Central and South Eastern Europe with a population of 21.5 million people and 7.8 million internet users. Almost 3 million internet users have broadband access and there 25.4 million mobile phones in Romania. The internet advertising market share is reported as $46 million and a growth of 32% was observed during 2010. More and more Romanian companies are creating an online presence which has enabled online advertising to flourish as firms try to increase their online brand awareness. Lead generation companies or individuals need to be conversant with the different media channels that are used by Romanian internet users to keep in touch with each other and to facilitate modern life. Internet marketing entrepreneurs should understand social media, search engine market share and search behaviour in Romania prior to the start of any lead generation campaigns.

Social Media

Social networking sites in Romania are receiving more and more users with Facebook now dominating the landscape with 3.6 billion page views a month and 5 million unique visitors. Facebook members in Romania currently stand at 3.3 million with the majority of members aged between 18 and 34 years old representing 66% of Facebook members. Facebook audience interests in Romania are led by Mobile Apps & Add-ons, followed by Mobile & Wireless, Email & Messaging, Urban & Hip-Hop, Olympics and Fashion & Style. These insights can help internet marketers to target specific user groups and make use of the mobile internet habits evident by the heightened interest in mobile apps. These apps will most likely involve social media connectivity and can play large part in sharing content such as lead generation material. Heightened interest in the Olympics suggests opportunities for internet marketers to develop or utilize mobile apps that can provide live feeds on game results during the Olympics whilst also spreading brand awareness. Trilulilu follows with a 26.3% share of the internet audience in Romania and receives 42 million page views a month. Trilulilu appears to be a more family oriented site with audience interests ranging from Family Oriented Games & Activities to Body Art, Party Games and Vacation Offers.

Search Engine Market Share

Search engine market share in Romania is overrepresented by Google which has a 97.07% share. Bing, Yahoo, Sapo and Ask are far behind in terms of market share with 2%, 0.4%, 0.36 and 0.12% respectively. Google allows targeted ads based upon location, gender and keywords where as social media advertising such as ads on Facebook use parameters like age, marital status, occupation and various other demographics. Similarly, user interest statistics are available from both Google and Facebook based on the same criteria that advertisers use to target their ads. Understanding how social media and search engines in Romania can be used to form the basis of a successful lead generation campaign, by maximizing the specificity options available on both media channels, is the key to internet success in Romania.

Search Behaviour in Romania

Search behaviour in any market can offer those planning lead generation services and internet marketing in general, a large amount of relevant information. Search behaviour in Romania, at least those using Google, reveals that the top three search keywords in Romania over the 12 months up until June 2011 are “facebook”, “youtube” and “jocuri”. Jocuri refers to eJocuri which is a free online games community where users can create profiles and play against other Romanian users. A high interest in Facebook and YouTube suggest that Facebook users are embedding and watching YouTube videos within Facebook and offers huge potential to lead generation techniques that are able to harness the power of video marketing with YouTube in Facebook. The high success of free online games points to the prevalence of Romanians using the internet as a pastime and when their minds may be far from the worries of everyday life. Smart internet entrepreneurs can use free online games as a sweetener to reach Romanians when they are relaxing and perhaps thinking about related purchases such as gadgets and holidays. For more about internet advertising in Romania visit the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Romania.