Search Marketing

Your guide to Search Marketing IAB Search Council

Introducing the online consumer Back to index

We are confident users of the internet

£25.5 billion is spent annually online

(IMRG, Jan 2005)

25.7 million people are online – over 50% with Broadband (Nielson NetRatings, Jan 2005) 86% of users have been online for over 4 years (NetObserver, Nov 2004) It is estimated that people in the UK are signing up to broadband at a rate of 1 every 10 seconds (BT, Dec 2004)

The internet is a part of our daily lives

They’re using the internet to find information, to share ideas, to get advice, make new friends and contacts and research their purchases before they buy.

(Search is Brand, Market Senital/Weboptimiser, July 2005) The majority of the UK population (62%) uses the internet- but not just to buy things.

“ 87% of internet users use search engines as their primary means of finding sites .”

(Search is Brand, Market Senital/Weboptimiser, July 2005)

We use Search as a gateway to the web

We VALUE search as a tool 44 53 60 60 61 67 68 73 73 90 90 73 73 68 67 61 60 60 53 44 (Henley Centre/AOL 2004)

The web is a democracy- what is being said about your brand? In a recent survey of ACNielsen’s top 50 UK grocery brands, it was found that 40% of them had critical or negative commentary in the top 10 Google results. (Search is Brand, Market Senital/Weboptimiser, July 2005) If you can’t be found under the search terms that people are using to find you … then someone else, perhaps a competitor or disgruntled customer will take the visibility – and the resulting mindshare. Coca-Cola 3,4,7,8 Walker’s Crisps 2 Warburton’s Bakery 9 Cadbury’s Dairy Milk 10 Kingsmill 1,2 Bernard Matthews 5,9 KitKat 10 McCain 3 Flora 6 Fanta 3,6 Heinz Baked Beans 9 Google ranking of Negative site Source: ACNielsen, 6 th June 2005

The consumer is in control… The Economist, 8th April 2005

The story of Search so far…. Back to index

The growth of search £m Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers / Internet Advertising Bureau

Search and the media mix % share of revenues for Jan to June 2005 Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers / WARC Recruitment Classifieds / Internet Advertising Bureau / WARC IAB estimates for actual ad spend by format are based on samples of categorised revenue from key IAB members provided by PwC. Data excludes unclassified figures. Half year total - £490.8 Million

Huge Growth in Search Engine Marketing UK search marketing to experience strong growth in coming years Search marketing will experience strong near-term growth (Forrester Research, March 2005) Note: Forecast of UK commercial search market, including paid listings, contextual search, site optimisation and paid inclusion.

Search is expected to overtake radio before the end of 2007

Google is now the biggest media company on the planet

How Search Marketing works… Back to index

Paid for Search and Natural Search Sites appear in Natural listings because the site has been indexed by the search engine as being of relevance to the search term. Search Engine Optimisation is the process whereby a site can be optimised to be ‘search engine friendly’ in order to improve its natural position Sites appear in the sponsored links because they have paid search engines to appear here ‘ Pay per Click’ (PPC) is the buying model for this whereby the advertiser bids on certain keywords and pays for each click on their link

Keywords and Search Behaviour Back to index

Keyword research

Use online tools to research what people are searching for and how

Use keyword insight as foundation for your marketing strategy Continually review and monitor search behaviour Brainstorm words relevant to your business: think like the consumer Overture and Google keyword suggestion tools

Keyword insight: understanding your online audience 1) Measure level of awareness and demand for a particular product, service or concept

2) not only find out what people are looking for but how they are asking for it

3) consider what news and information as well as products and services people may be looking for

All results taken from Overture keyword assistant and all searches made in December 2005 You can use an online keyword assistant to: Home job loan 9031 Mortgage home loan 11540 Home improvement loan 13481 Home owner loan 29657 Home equity loan 38368 Home loan 893129 credit rating uk 734 check my credit rating 782 loan for bad credit rating 927 credit rating report 1089 bad credit rating 1137 Credit Rating 12703 Home job loan 9031 Mortgage home loan 11540 Home improvement loan 13481 Home owner loan 29657 Home equity loan 38368 Home loan 893129

How people search: your customer and their purchasing cycle Overture search results for March 2005 Bidding to position 1 (18 th April 2005) laptop 451,519 sony vaio 13,924 sony vaio z1 97 cheap sony vaio laptop 103 computer 444,202 £0.60 £0.57 £0.51 £0.19 £0.13

Think about your brand integrity

A fifth of web searches are for specific brand names and the user expects the relevant site to appear high in the search results . (Doubleclick)

Remember that search can make it a level playing field- think about protecting your brand integrity

Paid for Search Back to index

There are 6 key provides of Paid for Search Your position in the list mostly depends on how much you are prepared to pay or ‘bid’ for a keyword (Google have a slightly different system) You only pay your keyword bid price when someone clicks upon your link 12p a click for no.1 position All providers offer the facility to bid on keywords relevant to your business so a link to your site and short description written by you appears in the sponsored search list when that word or phrase is part of a web search

Managing a Pay per Click (PPC) campaign Bid prices and conversions (click-throughs) need to be regularly tracked. Most providers offer a free ‘bid management’ tool which can be used to monitor this. The tool can be used to optimise a campaign by showing which keywords are performing the best. Each Paid for Search provider has a slightly different system and you need to be able to understand the listing strategies of each or hire an agency that can handle the whole process for you. How much you bid for a keyword should depend on what you can afford to pay for a ‘targeted lead’ (your ‘cost per acquisition’ or CPA) Working out your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): ‘ Holiday cottage in Cornwall’: estimated searches at position 1 are 3,032 Current bid price: £1.54 per click Click-through rate: 3.73% Result: around 113 targeted leads for around £174 approx. £1.53 cost per lead (Overture, April 2005)

The ongoing process of a PPC campaign (adapted from an Overture chart) Writing compelling copy for the link headline and description Drives Quality of Leads Keyword research, monitoring of search behaviour and bid management Drives Quantities of Leads Making sure the website landing page is targeted Drives Conversion

Paid for Search is a formidable Direct Response tool

It is cost effective

The advertiser only pays when a customer clicks on their link

It is targeted The advertiser is reaching the consumer at the point of active interest It is measurable, flexible and fast A campaign can achieve results quickly and it can be managed and optimised in real time The beauty of Paid for Search is your customers find you and you only pay when they turn up!

Search Engine Optimisation Back to index

How it works

Search Engine Optimisation is the process of making a website ‘readable’ to search engines or ‘spiderable’ (so called because of the automated ‘spider’ technology used by most search engines to index a site) in order to improve its natural search ranking

Search engine spiders look for Search term keywords in the text and in the meta-tags A depth of relevant content Internal and external links and their popularity Alternative text on images NB : Certain website elements cannot be ‘read’ by search engines such as: Flash, content management systems, frames, redirects. An agency can help you get round these barriers. Html code

functionality: the site becomes fast-loading, intuitive, interactive and easy to use

user loyalty: the content is welcoming and has been tailored to be relevant to the search term which encourages return visits

site profitability: the products on offer are relevant to what the customer was searching for and transactions are fast and easy to complete.

Success! Number 1 result in the natural search listings SEO not only improves visibility but working with an agency can also help improve the general performance of the site in terms of:

Managing a SEO campaign SEO is an ongoing concern as search engines change their criteria on a regular basis. An agency can handle this process on your behalf and offer advanced knowledge and skill beyond simple optimisation. There are web analytic tools that allow you to measure the success of your site improvements and compare your traffic from natural search and your paid listings.

Some of the other things you can measure:

Traffic from different sources

Pages visited

Most requested pages

Average time spent on page

Customer paths through the site

Sales funnels

(HBX Web analytics tool from Web Side Story)

SEO secures your site visibility

It produces real results

SEO can raise site traffic dramatically

It is cost-effective Unlike Paid For Search, your traffic is ‘free’- the only cost is ongoing agency fees It can help build your brand Your customer will expect to find you when they search for your product/service and high visibility and a well optimised site improves user experience Search is not just about selling- it is about securing online mindshare and SEO is a vital element of making sure your voice is heard

Planning a Search campaign

Back to index

SEO and Paid for Search

SEO and Paid for Search work best if they are done together.

Listings in both the natural and paid listings increases propensity to click

If Paid for Search is your advertising, then SEO is your online PR: they go hand in hand

Paid for Search is an excellent short term strategy whilst SEO is a more long term, ongoing concern.

For example, Paid for Search can be used to promote a special offer or certain products whereas dedicated SEO programme ensures continuation of site visibility and making sure your customers can always find you

How your agency will work with you

Talk to you about your objectives

Do you want to drive more traffic to your site?

Are you launching a new product and want to drive sales?

Do you want to reduce your cost per acquisition?

Do an audit of your competition

Do an audit of your current situation- how optimised is your site?

Advise about timescale and find out whether you would rather pay (Paid for Search) or wait (Search Engine Optimisation) or preferably do a combination of the two?

Test and learn

Offer consultation and training or go on to manage the whole service for you

The future of Search… Back to index

New search products

Mobiles: Search engines are now available on mobile phones with search results designed specifically to fit smaller mobile screens.

Local search: users can now search in their locality for specific services (eg: plumber) or entertainment (eg: nearest Pizza Express). These search results can be made available on mobiles and can be integrated with online maps.

Vertical search: there are a number of new specialist search engines emerging dedicated to one sector eg: Megasoccer search

Personalisation: personalised search history as a loyalty tool, integration with desktop search and other volunteered data capture from msn and email..etc, opportunity to share search results with friends and family

Advanced bid management software: search providers are developing their products to allow increased flexibility for marketers eg: now they can day-part campaigns, monitor more closely the CPA…etc