Vietnamese newspaper and website owners and app developers must know how to approach the advertising budgets of global brands and be aware of the mistakes that website owners often make.– Photo daubao.com

HÀ NỘI – Vietnamese newspaper and website owners and app developers must know how to approach the advertising budgets of global brands and be aware of the mistakes that website owners often make.

Cost per click (CPC) in Việt Nam still ranks among the lowest in the world, advertising experts said.

The experts made these comments at the 2016 Vietnam Top Publishers Summit held in the capital city this week, co-organised by Google and Viet Nam’ Netlink JSC. The event attracted the participation of more than 100 leading editors-in-chief of major online newspaper and websites, publishers (website owners) and mobile app developers in Viet Nam.

The event, the third of its kind in 2016, aims to enhance the advertisement values of websites in Viet Nam through the setting up of a website owners’ alliance to create high-quality products.

At the event, delegates were given an overview of the latest developments in the digital advertising industry in Viet Nam and the world in 2016.

Additionally, the summit also touched upon digital advertising trends around the world and discussed ways to approach the advertising budgets of global brands.

Vietnamese delegates attending the event had the opportunity to discuss with senior Google personnel several issues related to the company’s advertising products and policies, as well as difficulties and obstacles in cooperation between Google and Vietnamese website owners.

During the summit it was revealed that until 2020, the budget for digital advertisement will reach US$285 billion, accounting for one third of the global investment for advertising. In Asia, the budget is estimated to reach $70 billion, 50 per cent of which is forecast to be poured into the Chinese market.

The delegates said it was difficult for website owners in Viet Nam to approach advertising budgets due to limitations on the application of advanced technology, weak human resources and shortcomings in controlling advertising content.

They also agreed that it was essential to form a coalition of Vietnamese website owners and successfully understand brands’ needs to decide on the most appropriate ways to advertise.

Participants held that website owners in Vietnam are being hindered by poor application of advanced technology and weak human resources. They pointed to the need to form an alliance of website owners while exploring requirements of brands to offer suitable advertisement measures.

Speaking at the event, An Ly, representative of Netlink, said the estimated budget for digital marketing in the Asia-Pacific region will reach $70 billion by 2016. However, more than 50 per cent of the advertising budget for the Asia-Pacific region is being poured into China.

Ly said Việt Nam had yet to appear on the world map of digital marketing. Some top brands were spending very limited resources in Việt Nam, not paying much attention to this market.

According to Google Adsense’s CPC numbers, with regard to the average CPC around the world in 2015, 97 countries were present on the map in order of the highest average CPC to the lowest average CPC, in comparison with the US’s average CPC, which is between $1 and $2 on the search network. Việt Nam has an average CPC of $0.03, while Indonesia is at $0.04 and China, India, the Philippines and Russia, as well as South Korea and Thailand stand at $ 0.05.

Gaby Hiền, an expert of mobile apps and games in Việt Nam, said advertising prices in the Vietnamese market were quite low. In the United States, cost per 1,000 ad impressions was some $4, but in Việt Nam it was half of this figure.

Nguyễn Dũng, CEO of Netlink, said the value of advertising in the market was incorrect. The reason was that Vietnamese websites and its content were developed quickly but they had the same development process. Viet Nam’s online advertising market was creating an excess supply of traffic but it still lacked the quality to attract large brands to pour money into the country.

Hiro Hiroki, Furuya regional head of channel business development, Asia-Pacific, Google Inc, agreed with the recommendation that Vietnamese publishers should concentrate on producing more attractive content.

Dũng said four year ago, the top four Vietnamese companies, including FPT and 24h, accounted for 80 per cent of the online ad revenue in the country. In 2015, over 70 per cent of online ad revenue in Viet Nam shifted to Google and Facebook.

It is expected that in 2016, Google and Facebook will account for over 80 per cent of the advertising budget of Việt Nam.

The 2016 Vietnam Top Publishers Summit will be held in HCM City right after the event in Ha Noi. -- VNS