The concept of personalized search – that each person’s search results will be optimized for their particular preferences and past behavior – has far-reaching consequences for how we use the Web. Because search is the fundamental navigation of the Web, personalized search can have implications for virtually every interaction in the digital space. While personalized search has been present since 2005 from Google and others, Google Search Plus Your World is the most dramatic alteration of organic search results to date. Google’s January announcement of Search Plus Your World is a prime example of social media’s continued infiltration of the underlying structure of the Web – building networks based on relationships and people instead of destinations.
What Has Changed
Google explains Search Plus Your World as an effort that is “transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content but also people and relationships.” For users of Google products, search results may now highlight items that have been shared through their network of Google contacts, as well as content deemed relevant by Google.
There are three principal changes to the results delivered through the universal search, elevating:
- People and brands
- Relevant status updates
- Shared links
People and Brands
Searching for individuals or brands through universal search will now promote a profile or page within the results page, prioritized above organic content in many cases. For businesses with a presence on Google+, this represents a great opportunity for increased visibility by positioning the brand’s profile as the category expert for a given topic.
When searching for a general topic, such as music or hockey, results will now also include recommended accounts for a user to follow on Google+. For example, a search for “Facebook” will show the link to take a user to Facebook.com, just as it would without personalized search, but it will
now also include any Google+ posts that friends have made about the competing network, as well as a box suggesting that the user put Mark Zuckerberg into their circles.
Relevant Status Updates
The second update to personalized search is the emphasis placed on status updates that have been shared with a user’s network. By highlighting commentary and links within search results, Google is “remembering” opinions from people you know and trust, giving the search results greater context. This will have substantial consequences for using digital as a word-of-mouth tool.
Shared Links
The third change to the search algorithm will place more emphasis on links and content that the user’s network has shared concerning the search terms. Included in this are links shared as a post to your circles, and items that have been +1’d.
Results that have been prioritized by Search Plus Your World will be clearly marked with an icon and will note which contact has shared the relevant content.
What Does This Mean for SEM, SEO?
First and foremost, this update emphasizes the idea that over time, search results will be different for each and every user. Accepting this reality, brands will need to place additional emphasis on paid search campaigns to defend critical brand keywords. Paid search campaigns traditionally have been used to offset volatility in organic search results, ensuring that your brand can remain relevant for strategic search terms. While this method will require budgetary support, it is the most reliable approach to ensuring visibility.
Search engine optimization will also require a change in approach. The fundamentals of this practice will not change, but the amplification of personalized search has altered the approach to these activities to be based on personal relationships. For example, optimization efforts will still rely heavily on third-party linking campaigns. With Search Plus Your World, link-building campaigns will refocus around building links, +1’s, or shares from people within your target’s networks.
The final adjustment that search optimization will need to account for is the ability for content creators to bypass traditional search results by pursuing your target’s online network. By leveraging the priority that is being placed on the network effect, brands generating timely niche content will be able to circumvent legacy search results.
Content Strategies
Rather than only leveraging this change to optimize for search campaigns, Google+ integration into universal search will enable marketers to bypass rankings through a word-of-mouth recommendation. The following represent three ways your brand can use personalized search to generate increased relevance.
Incorporate Google Action Buttons on Website
The inclusion of +1 recommendations in personalized search stresses the importance of including this button in prominent areas on your website and other digital media. Making this form of user feedback as seamless as possible will earn your content improved rankings in personalized search without requiring users to create a full post about your page.
Curate Brand-Relevant Links
Another major opportunity for brands is to become a curator of content around a specific topic, controlling the search real estate among Google+ users. For example, a search for spring fashion styles will surface content from H&M, a brand with a Google+ page, shared by your fashion-conscious classmate above the results for fashion blogs and magazines.
Maintain a Google+ Page
Given the resources necessary to maintain a robust and consistent social presence on Google+ in addition to existing social media efforts, it is possible that pursuing a content marketing approach will be most efficient for capitalizing on personalized search. Determining whether this tactic is appropriate requires a deeper examination of your brand’s social media strategy and the resources available to grow a Google+ user base.
Limitations
This update currently affects only registered Google users, and only when they’re signed in to the service. On January 19, Google CEO Larry Page announced that Google+ had more than 90 million users, but the population of users with active Google accounts was substantially higher, with over 350 million users having a Gmail account. Further, we can expect the number of Google+ accounts to grow, as new Google or Gmail accounts now require the creation of a Google+ profile. While this update is alternately referred to as social search, no data from Twitter or Facebook will be indexed; only +1’s and content shared through Google+ will be included.
It’s coming. The end is near – 2012 is upon us and we are about to fall into chaos. No, I am not talking about Harold Camping’s Rapture or the Mayans’ apocalyptic grandstanding. I am talking about the end of the “dot-com’s” benevolent reign over top-level domains (TLD), and the coming hurricane of web addresses that brands are about to unleash on the Internet. Hopefully, you caught Amanda Plewes’ excellent piece on the .xxx domain and its impact for brands, but in 2012 the Internet will see a much larger shift in web properties, as organizations will be able to operate independent top-level domains. Soon, navigating the Web will change from the “dot-com” era to the “dot-anything” era.
So, What Is Changing?
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a multistakeholder nonprofit group tasked with policing the Internet’s naming system, will soon be accepting applications from organizations wishing to operate a distinct generic top-level domain (gTLD). This means that starting this January, brands will now have the opportunity to acquire the rights to a .brand address, such as store.homedepot or dealers.ram.
ICANN anticipates four types of gTLDs being approved:
- Community – Service-industry consortiums, trade groups or other organizations that establish credibility for association members within that domain (for example, .bank or .nonprofit).
- Brand – Brands are expected to register .brand or .slogan top-level domains to strengthen their position in online channels.
- Geographic – Hosted for local areas such as .chicago or .nyc and represent a significant opportunity for local or regional businesses to increase their visibility within a specific area.
- Generic Terms – These will be introduced similar to existing TLDs such as .com or .net to open competition for short, memorable URLs.
Analysts predict that despite the high costs associated with applying for and operating a gTLD, as many as several hundred organizations will be successful in launching new gTLDs. Operating a top-level domain is very different than registering a domain name within an existing TLD, as the operator is actively managing a piece of Internet architecture rather than a destination. This influx of new gTLDs will not affect the technical structure of the Web, but may alter the way users navigate, impacting the online experience from email to search and the mobile Web.
Will I Have to Learn the Web All Over Again?
The immediate consumer reaction to the expansion of top-level domains will likely be confusion, reluctance or indifference. Depending on which organizations and locations are successful in launching a new gTLD, this change may not affect the day-to-day usage of the Web for most users. Advanced web users will likely be able to adjust to the new naming convention with minimal disruption. But, for Internet users less comfortable with the Web, this change is likely to have a substantial impact and require an investment by the brand to educate customers on the new web navigation.
The main impact of introducing new gTLDs for users is the addition of new reference points for their online browsing. Within the current naming architecture, brand identifiers have been possible primarily through subdomains. New gTLDs will present users with more information via the URL and result in more reference points for users. New gTLDs open up the prospect of an easily navigable, more trustworthy online experience should enough applicants be successful in launching new domains. Organizations registering a second-level domain on a community gTLD receive an explicit mark of approval, geographic top-level domains ensure relevancy and focus for sites within their domains, and dedicated brand domains build trust that what the user is experiencing is from that company.
As more businesses turn to the Web and e-commerce to grow their business, building trust with their customers becomes an essential step in creating a long-term relationship. If launching a gTLD can foster that trust, expect many e-commerce-focused businesses to invest in a new domain, hoping to spur online shopping holdouts to commit to a new channel.
While users may eventually have to learn a new, and possibly better, way to navigate the Web, businesses face an immediate problem with the pending expansion of TLDs – they need to decide if they will pursue a gTLD of their own or prepare for defensive action. Either way, they need to decide quickly, because 2012 is coming fast.
No Comments | Trackback | Categories: Branding, Search Engine Marketing, Websites | Email This Post
What if we had a crystal ball that could reveal what our target audiences were really thinking, a tool that wasn’t skewed by bias or prejudice and would reveal our target audiences’ true priorities?
While this would undoubtedly make all our lives much easier, surely this type of tool does not really exist. Or does it? With its dominant position in the digital space, Google has been collecting user data over the past 10 years and has gradually begun to make it available to users, usually at no charge. These tools allow advertisers to see what keywords users are searching, what sites they typically visit and can help gauge interests over time.
When used as a complement to the research tools we already leverage for our clients, these free tools can provide both support for existing audience profiles and can provide new ideas and insights surrounding user behavior and interest.
Before We Begin
Before we dive into this world of mind-blowing insight, a few points of caution are worth reiterating to ensure the data are used properly. First, these tools are, more often than not, best used as complements to the existing tools we have at our disposal, such as comScore, Nielsen and Scarborough. Their information, while sometimes able to stand on its own, is best used to add additional insight to these well-known and respected data sources.
The data from these tools are best taken not from one, but from many of the tools. Each will provide its own perspective and view into search, and it is only upon the combination of these different perspectives that a comprehensive conclusion may be drawn.
That being said, please open your mind to the possibility that these tools might not reveal anything at all. Sometimes an audience is too small or an interest is too specific for any tool to reveal meaningful and useful data. So these tools are not meant to serve as silver bullets when other data are lacking. Lastly, the data gained from these tools might be too general or have too many possible interpretations to reliably present as justification when presenting a media plan. Knowing all this, let’s take a look at what Google has to offer.
Google’s Tools
AdWords Keyword Tool
The AdWords keyword tool is usually the first tool used by the Click Here search team in generating keywords for upcoming and existing campaigns. It provides us with recommendations, based on actual search traffic from Google’s network, generated from a smaller list of keywords that we submit. The main value in consulting this tool is its ability to not only provide ideas for additional keywords and research ideas, but it also provides valuable statistics for the suggestions it provides. For example, entering “summer lawn projects” calls up a list of related searches including “scotts lawn care” and “miracle grow fertilizer.” Besides providing some additional competitive information, these results also show that far more users searched for the Scotts term, which could indicate less interest in DIY projects. Give the keyword tool a try here: http://bit.ly/dkrMYM.
Google Ad Planner
Google’s Ad Planner is primarily an online display planning tool that makes available a wealth of user data that are searchable with a variety of different criteria. For the scope of this article, I will be focusing on the keyword feature, which allows you to specify keywords your target audience may be using and identifies websites they may be frequenting. Along with the suggested websites, the Ad Planner provides information for each site, including demographic data, reach and monthly traffic, that are all based on data from Google’s network. For example, entering the keywords “house painting” and “home improvement” will call up sites like acehardware.com and lowes.com along with useful data on each site. In addition to these larger and more well-known sites, the Ad Planner will also suggest smaller, more specific sites that might not show up in tools like comScore. By sifting through these results, you can begin to understand a bit more about the behavior of potential users in your target audience.
Google Wonder Wheel
While perhaps not as exciting as it sounds, the Google Wonder Wheel has stuck around for a reason. Found as a link at the bottom left of any search results page, it allows you to follow a logical line between search queries by showing you related keywords to one that you enter. The tool derives its name from the way this information is arranged, with your term in the center of the wheel and the suggested keywords as the spokes surrounding it. Clicking any one of the “spokes” will move that term to the center and show additional related keyword suggestions, allowing you to move through a logical sequence of potential keywords. In addition to providing these connections, it can also provide you with additional ideas for your research. Give the Wonder Wheel a spin from any Google search results page.
Google's Wonder Wheel
Google Trends/Insights
These are two tools that provide essentially the same information, so for the sake of simplicity, only Google Insights, the more robust of the two tools, will be covered here. Google Insights for Search allows for keyword search volume to be seen across time. In addition to showing trending data, Insights also allows for the customization of the time frame, geography and number of search terms plotted simultaneously. Keeping with the home improvement theme, entering “home improvement” in the search box shows a slightly negative trend in search volume for this particular term since 2004. Along with this information, Google also provides regional data on where the term is being searched the most, as well as suggestions for other terms that are exhibiting above-average search volume for the time period. Two useful applications of the Insights information are spotting seasonal trends and identifying regional-specific interest, which can be useful when crafting plans for clients that might not have a presence nationwide or are trying to reach a certain area of the country or world.
Google Trends
Google AdWords Placement Tool
This is the only Google tool that requires an active pay-per-click (PPC) search campaign and gives some visibility into where our ads are appearing on Google’s Content Network. These are listings that look just like PPC search text ads, but instead of being triggered by a keyword search on Google.com, they are triggered by site content that is contextually relevant to the keywords in our campaign. Information from this tool can be very useful in understanding, like Google Ad Planner, where the users we are targeting might be consuming content online. These sites may provide additional insight into the target or provide you with additional ideas on where these users can be found.
To Summarize
As mentioned before, these tools are best when used as complements since some of the data they provide can be difficult to interpret in a vacuum. By using the (mostly) free tools provided by Google and marrying them with other established data sources, you can gain additional understanding about your target audience that can help create and support better media plans. For additional information, please feel free to reach out to any friendly member of the Click Here search team.
No Comments | Trackback | Categories: Digital Media, Planning, Research, Search Engine Marketing, Tips and Tricks, Twitter | Email This Post
Over the past few weeks, search has undergone a major facelift, sending search engine marketers into a tizzy. From the shift in search engine market share, the launch of Google Instant, the Bing/Yahoo! transition and the continuing significance of mobile search, marketers have a lot to soak up for their next search campaign.
Current Search Engine Market Share
According to The Nielsen Company, Google continues its dominance within the U.S. search space with a commanding 65.1% of search engine market share. However, the attention-grabbing fact about August’s results is that Nielsen is reporting that Bing (formally MSN Live) has surpassed Yahoo! in terms of market share, 13.9% to 13.1%, respectively. The rise of Bing can be attributed to the rebranding it went through this past year, updating its image from MSN Live to Bing in addition to the $100 million marketing campaign to promote the update.
Google Instant
Google launched Google Instant on September 8, 2010. Google Instant is a new search improvement that displays search results instantly as a user types. Google has created a brief video introducing Google Instant as well as giving some examples of how they feel it will impact the search community.
In addition to faster searches, smarter predictions and instant results, Google Instant is the next progression in search. Concerning search impressions, an impression is still counted when a user hits “enter” once completing a search. New to the foray is that when a user remains on the updated search results for over three seconds, they are then counted as an impression. Google Instant has no impact on the current search engine rankings, so sites that ranked highly for certain keywords before September 8 will continue to rank highly for the same terms. Also, the use of longtail keywords within paid search campaigns and search engine optimization updates will continue to be utilized if not expanded based upon Google Instant and the new predictive search methodology that pushes users to make a more specific search query to identify the most relevant search results. Currently, Google Instant is not supported in mobile search; however, it’s a feature that should be forthcoming in 2011. With the combination of instant results and predictive searches, campaign clicks may become more relevant as users are finding the most appropriate information based upon their search.
Bing + Yahoo! Transition
In July 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo! entered into an agreement in which Bing would power Yahoo!’s search results for the next 10 years. Well, it appears the transition is finally under way. As of October 18, 2010, Bing is powering 100% of Yahoo!’s natural search results and between 30%-40% of Yahoo!’s paid search results. The deal grants Bing an estimated 27% of search engine market share, albeit on two search engines. Search engine marketers now will have to monitor and likely utilize Bing to achieve the extended reach necessary for most large-scale search campaigns. By November 1, 2010, Bing is expected to power 100% of Yahoo!’s organic and paid search engine results.
Mobile Search Market Share
Mobile search is currently dominated by Google. Google commands a reported 98% of search engine market share within the mobile search space. Bing will power Yahoo!’s mobile search results, but together Bing and Yahoo! make up around 2% of the mobile search engine market share. While it’s projected that Bing will eat away at a portion of Google’s mobile market share, it’s currently all Google all the time right now. Campaigns utilizing mobile search would be wise to utilize Google and its dominating market share.
Evolving Search
Overall, the search space is ever evolving to ease users into a more specific, clear-cut habit of searching to allow the engines to serve up the most relevant results. Search remains one of the most relevant and efficient conduits to reach users, via both paid and natural search engine results. While initial results from the Google Instant implementation and the Bing/Yahoo! transition are still forthcoming, the updates signal a shift in the way users will view search going forward. Watch out for more updates from the search engines to continue pushing searchers toward more relevant search queries.
No Comments | Trackback | Categories: Industry, Search Engine Marketing | Email This Post
2009 brought search engine marketing (SEM) the heavily promoted Bing from Microsoft, along with Google scrambling to enhance search results with real-time social media, expanding universal search and personalizing search results. On Google’s paid search side, new developments include product listing ads, product extensions, site link ads, comparison ads and the extension of universal search to paid search. Welcome to Google’s “Caffeine,” slated to be fully rolled out in early 2010.
Even with the long shadow of the economic crisis, SEM will be a bright spot of opportunity for savvy online marketers willing to be quick studies, early adopters and experimenters. Nevertheless, some are saying this will be the death of natural search engine optimization (SEO) and become a boon for Google’s pay per click (PPC) marketing. Needless to say, where Google goes, other search engines will follow.
Google continues to rule with 65.7 percent of U.S. searches in December 2009, 1 percent more of the market share than in November. Even with all of its hype, Bing grew slightly at 0.4 percent and Yahoo! has declined 0.2 percent from November. Ask has hovered at the 3-4 percent range for quite some time, and AOL has slipped below 3 percent market share.
With the above in mind, the Click Here SEM team anticipates the following trends will drive opportunity in 2010.
Search Engine Optimization
The rumored death of SEO is greatly exaggerated! Recent Google changes to personalize search and show real-time social media results will revitalize search engine optimization. Traditional SEO tactics are still necessary, but the changes made by Google will cause a reconsideration of what is affordably in a client’s best interest. There is no doubt that relevant content will remain the king of high-ranking search results, but how some results are indexed and served is changing.
Probably no other change will cause more confusion for non-paid search engine marketing than will the “personalization” of Google search results. Personalizing search means that Google will be looking at personal search habits to serve more relevant results. For example, search for “fox” and if Google has seen the habit of going to news websites, the likely search results will not be for the carnivorous mammal. Google’s other major change is to show real-time social media results in a live-scrolling “Latest results for …” panel. If there are concerns about brand reputation, about which there might be social “buzz,” marketers should consider monitoring or interacting in real time with public opinion.
One could argue that 2009 was the year of the social network where millions of people signed up for Facebook and Twitter accounts. According to eMarketer, Twitter’s audience tripled in 2009 (from 6 million to 18 million users) and is expected to grow at a 15 percent clip in 2010 to over 26 million users. Never before has there been such a way for users to express themselves. Google and MSN have already embraced user tweets in their search results, and this trend will continue to improve the user experience and search result relevancy. Search results could begin incorporating tweets and status updates from existing Twitter lists and Facebook friends. However, with the new multitude of opinions comes the formidable challenge of deciding what truly matters. Expect the social aspect of search to take on an even more prominent role in the coming year.
To evolve in light of recent and forthcoming changes and to successfully optimize websites for search engines, websites must become “authorities” in their spaces by practicing traditional SEO tactics, frequently refreshing content, adding keyword-tagged images, posting videos across the Internet, distributing press releases online, participating in social media and having unique content that encourages revisits. All of this will need to be fed to the search engine indexing mechanisms.
Sponsored Search
Click Here expects 2010 to hold a number of exciting changes for PPC search marketing. From increased customization and new ad formats, to an increased role for social media, PPC search will be more relevant, customized and current.
The best thing about PPC search is how it enables users to find exactly the things for which they’re looking. Recently, we’ve seen a convergence of users learning how to use search engines more effectively and search engines learning how to best serve their audience. Through the years, these moves brought us iGoogle, Twitter’s search functionality and a host of other features allowing users to further personalize their search experience. These adaptations will be a major driver for a number of exciting changes in 2010.
One change will be the rollout of new ad formats by Google. These new ad formats feature product comparisons and images, video, additional site links, and maps and addresses – all inside the sponsored search unit. Multiple product images shown on the AdWords Blog:
Marketers can now more effectively showcase their products and services to an audience that is increasingly savvy about the links they choose to visit. When used correctly, these new tools will enable marketers to increase the quality of the traffic they attract.
Lastly, there are a number of different search themes that, while not new, will continue to develop in 2010. Vertical search engines, mobile search, local search and video search will continue to be refined and improved. An excellent example of this development comes with Hulu’s release of video search through the use of existing closed captioning, allowing users to search for specific words or mentions within a video. Google is also venturing into this space by soliciting users to donate existing voicemails from Google Voice. While most feel this technology will be used for voicemail transcription, we feel voice transcription will make its way into the video space to enhance Google’s search capabilities. Another area of growth lies in local search. It’s been shown that 80+ percent of users who search for a business locally will contact that business offline. Expect businesses and engines to continue to build out this space as they leverage its value in helping users find the local businesses they seek.
Summary
2010 will be an exciting year both for the search engines and the end users who can expect to benefit from improved functionality, usability and relevance. Marketers will have more tools available to reach their target audience that include richer ad units, enhanced content search options and ways to tap into the vast and growing social networks. Also, as Internet-enabled cell phone users become more ubiquitous, a lot of searches will be starting there and websites need to be ready. If a business is sensitive to social commentary, it needs to get involved with social media. If a business sells tangible products, it needs to take advantage of Google’s product extensions.
Search engines remain the most used Internet medium, second only to email, including spam. As the Internet becomes less of a static information medium and more interactive and social, search engines will expand to index this broad spectrum of engagement, thus crowding the results pages. Search-savvy marketers will be recasting their messages in a variety of media to be found in both natural and paid search.
View all 10 trends here: Ten Digital Trends for 2010… and Beyond.
No Comments | Trackback | Categories: Digital Trend Reports, Search Engine Marketing | Email This Post
Hungry, but don’t know where to go? Do you feel like eating a hamburger, pizza, steak, or sushi? Have you ever tried to remember the location of a really great restaurant you enjoyed, but just couldn’t summon that part of the memory?
On April 20th Google announced that it was changing their Local Business Center to be Google Places. As a Google Maps enhancement for local business, Google Places was launched last September and now has over 50 million places indexed from all over the world. Four million businesses claimed their Place Page on Google through the Local Business Center. This effectively meant there were two places for listing local businesses and this move by Google streamlined and greatly enhanced an essential element to local business success, which is to say being found at the moment of someone’s desire.
Now, you’ll never want for finding the destination of your desires.
Google says that 20% of all its searches or 1.28 billion searches (U.S., March 2010) are location related. Google’s folding of the Local Business Center into Google Places means that users will be able to find what they seek with enhanced map listings, street-level pictures, including storefront pictures, reviews from a variety of sources, nearby businesses, essential business information like hours of operation and pricing, and mini-pop-up information bubbles on the map. Also, the business user can update information, almost in real time. You can simply get to the Google Places page of a business by clicking on the “more info” button on the listing in a Google Map search.
A basic listing is free and includes a dashboard to post and update address, phone number, hours of operation, a place to upload videos, include a coupon or promotion and even show a QR code so users can go to a Place Page though a smart phone application if the code is published somewhere, like a newspaper ad.
A further enhancement is the store window decal with QR code, available to feature the business as a one of Google’s “Favorite Places.” Reading the QR code on a local business store front will take the user to the Google places page where promotions and coupons (remember potentially being updated in near real time) could be featured.
In beta right now and in a limited number of U.S. cities is a feature that adds Google Tags as an icon directly on the map and next to a maps results listing. There is a $25 flat monthly fee for this enhancement. This will allow a business to post custom messages immediately available to people looking at the map.
What’s even better for the local business is that Google has a reporting tool that lets a local business see from where business visitors are coming on the Internet via search keywords and within the physical area of the business’ location, if a user asks for directions within Google Maps.
This is huge because, dare I say, local businesses, and I’m thinking here about mostly “mom and pop” shops, essentially don’t need to have a website to have an Internet presence and they can get statistics about people searching online via keywords and actually tracking from where in an area people are coming to their place of business. Again, this is huge because the success of retail has lot to do with “location, location, location.” Before this, a business needed to have a website and deploy Google Analytics or another tracking system to get some of this really valuable marketing information. Google Analytics and no other analytics tool have ever reported from where walk-in business visitors come via a search using Google Map directions.
Ultimately, this may be the final death knell of paper-based business phone directories, no matter what color they are, as more and more people turn to the Internet and the Internet on their cell phones to find what they want, especially in terms of seeking a local business. On the bright side will be the really small, family-owned local businesses that will finally find, on a more or less level playing field, their place on the Internet.
No Comments | Trackback | Categories: Search Engine Marketing | Email This Post
Times Are Changing (Again)
Looking back over the past few years, a lot has changed about the typical search user. How, where, and why users search has changed as the result of new technology along with increased comfort and confidence levels. Growing interest in social search, mobile search, and video search are all quickly making this service an increasingly salient part of everyday life. Gone, even arcane, are the days where you had to consult Mapsco to find an address. Now this information is at your fingertips on your iPhone or Blackberry. You no longer have to read a restaurant review in a newspaper or magazine to find out if it is worth going there. You can simply put the question out on Facebook and chances are good you have got some friends that have been there who can offer a personal recommendation. If that fails, services like Yelp and Foursquare can help orient you. It is this increase in comfort level that has raised expectations among search users as to the results they should be receiving.
For the longest time, search advertisers were restricted to communicating all of their product or service’s benefits in 70 characters (with spaces) or less. This text was supposed to convince a user that clicking through would lead them to the solution for which they had been so diligently looking. Clicking on the text link promised a richer experience with images and video where the user could delve into the level of detail they desired. In the past 6 to 12 months, this has begun to change. Search engines are beginning to realize that in order to continue monetizing clicks in a world of increasing search savvy, they’re going to have to offer more before the click. This realization has ushered in new forms of sponsored search listings in the form of maps, images, video, and social media feeds. These new ad formats allow search users to consume this content directly from the search results page, without clicking through.
New Ad Formats
For the past few quarters, Google has offered limited beta tests of new ad formats to some of its advertisers. My feeling is that these new formats will begin to appear in other forms on Bing and Yahoo! as well to the extent they haven’t already. These ad formats include (shown below) video, maps, comparison shopping, and lead generation forms that will help provide a richer search engine experience.
Video
This ad format allows the user to click on the ‘+’ to reveal a video player where the advertiser can include a video clip such as a commercial or movie trailer.
Product Comparisons
These new ads will allow users to browse information for different product offerings from directly in the ad unit without navigating away from their current search. The example below demonstrates how this could be used for a mortgage company.
Maps
By syncing up with an existing listing on Google maps, advertisers can now ensure that searchers find their physical locations from the in-unit map provided below.
Product Feeds
Retailers that manage large inventories can utilize the product feeds feature through Google Base to push out up-to-date price and product information for items in their online store.
Additional Detail
The screenshot below shows what these units will look like in the context of the search results page once expanded.
What’s Next?
The future of these new ad formats will be determined by two complimentary forces. The first is the extent to which advertisers are effectively able to increase the success of their campaigns with these new ad formats. This will in turn drive demand up or down for the new ads. Since these ads, at this point, come at no additional cost to the advertiser, it is hard to believe that advertisers will not see some lift in performance. The only real restriction with Google at this point, is that the ads are only displayed in the 1st position which reserves them for only the highest performing ads and keywords. In my opinion, this is the only thing that stands to limit their exposure since these positions are typically occupied by ads with the highest CTR to begin with. The second force driving the success of these ads is Google’s ability to convert them into generating additional ad revenue. Google probably recognizes that new online advertising opportunities appear every day and as online experiences become richer, they will have to increase their offerings in order to keep pace.
How to Take Advantage
As previously mentioned, these new ad formats are tested as beta releases at Google’s discretion with the most successful ones being released publicly at a later date. Any opportunity to test these ads should be taken seriously as they can help you learn a great deal about your program with little or no risk. So what can you do to make sure you’re well positioned to take part in a beta test and are ready when new formats hit the market?
1) Make sure you have assets available and organized. This includes online video assets that you can use for video search results or well cataloged product images that can be used for product feeds. Preparing ahead of time can help you to move more quickly when a test opportunity presents itself.
2) Update your local business center listing. This is something every business should do, regardless of whether you are advertising online or not. The best part about it is that it is free. Ensuring that your information is up to date will not only make your business available in Google maps and on mobile device map searches, but it could put you closer to the front of the line as Google is making choices for who to invite into tests.
3) Put additional thought in what information you want to know from your customers. This exercise will not only help you to understand how the online experience you offer should be crafted, but some of the Google ad formats include online lead generation forms where users can submit information directly from the ad unit. Use this opportunity to learn about your customers so you can leverage this knowledge in other efforts online and off.
The Future
As comfort levels increase, users will continue to demand more from their online experience. The new ad formats being offered by search engines represent an excellent, low-risk forum in which marketers can participate in helping create these types of rich experiences while at the same time making your online dollars work harder.
No Comments | Trackback | Categories: Search Engine Marketing | Email This Post
It’s not every day you hear something described as the “challenge of the age”, but that’s what the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, was recently quoted as saying about Social Search. With the recent explosion of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, a whole new world of opinions, reviews, and sentiments is being unleashed on the web. Each of these tweets, status updates, blogs represents a huge opportunity and challenge for marketers seeking to harness the collective power of internet users to further their company or brand.
However, an awareness that this social material exists online is only half the battle. The proliferation of different social media outlets has also led to increased fragmentation. Rarely is this material contained in a single location where users can browse all of it at once. Even if there was, new sites are constantly emerging which makes keeping an updated repository a formidable challenge. Enter Social Search. Social Search is simply the way to empower people to find the information they seek that’s embedded in all of these various social media outlets from one central location.
Being no small task, it becomes more reasonable to start calling the collection, organization, ranking of all this social activity a “challenge for the ages”. This is where Google, Microsoft, and a number of other players who are working to create a real-time resource for finding all things social about anything that interest you.
Currently, social search features exist in several beta programs such as Google’s Social Search (below). In Google’s ‘experiment’ searchers will have the opportunity to filter search results by blogs, forums, and the ‘social’ option. Results from a user’s search will include content from users’ friends and contacts (from Gmail, for example).
Another example is what Bing is starting to do by incorporating Tweets in their search results along with dedicated Twitter search capabilities (below).
As more of this material becomes indexed and ultimately more findable, marketers and advertisers will be presented with the aforementioned challenges and opportunities. There are three things that marketers can and should be doing to capitalize on the social media opportunity:
- Companies should focus on getting their customers to tell the right kind of stories about their experiences. By making it easy for users to share their good experiences, marketers help give their consumers a voice. By increasing the number of brand mentions by users, the potential for a brand to show up in other social searches increases.
- Brands should actively engage with users of social media. Companies are starting to leverage Twitter as a customer service tool to help distraught customers find a solution to their woes. This two way dialog helps to humanize brands as entities that want their customers have the best experience possible.
- Companies should be actively listening to what their customers are saying. While this might seem like a basic suggestion, many companies are unaware of the 100’s of Facebook fan pages, unofficial blogs, and countless Tweets that might be out there about their brand. Each may hold priceless information about how brands can become better and satisfying their customers. By paying attention, companies can centralize their efforts to more effectively control what’s being said about the brands.
Social media could be called one of greatest collaboration tools in the history of mankind. Ensuring that brands actively engage in using this method of communication will help them to stay connected with the customers for the long run and ultimately help drive their success.
No Comments | Trackback | Categories: Facebook, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media | Email This Post
This week, the folks at Advertising Age published a short article noting that 65% of Super Bowl advertisers bought search terms related to their commercials. That’s a great percentage, if you believe that the $3 million you just spent will actually make more people search for your brand.
Thanks to the magic of Google Insights for search, we can tell which Super Bowl advertisers saw a lift in search activity due to their Super Bowl spending. Here are a few of the winners and losers.
Winner: Denny’s
Wow… not sure what else to say. Denny’s clearly took advantage of their $3 million to launch a huge promotion, and from the looks of it, the effort has generated more search interest for “Denny’s” then they have had since 2004, when Google Insights first began recording this data. The spike is so severe, it’s hard to even read the graph. Click here to explore the Google Insights data for yourself.
Winner: Hyundai
In particular, searches for “Hyundai Genesis” were up significantly. The Hyundai Assurance program is also listed as a breakout term, although no data appears in Google Insights for Search.
Winner: Cash4Gold
Cash4Gold seems to have spent their $3 million wisely. With no real historical data prior to their Super Bowl ad, it looks like they managed to actively get consumers interested and searching for “Cash4Gold.”
Loser: Audi
The A6 is a beautiful car, but it looks like all that money they paid Jason Statham is all for not. No apparent lift in buzz for “Audi” on Google, although there appears to be a slight lift for interest in the A6.
Loser: Toyota
Two spots down the drain for Toyota. Neither “Toyota Tundra” nor “Toyota Venza” see any lift in terms of search activity. In fact, for the Venza, it appears that the New York Auto show and other events proved more effective in generating search interest.
Loser: Taco Bell
Despite spending $3 million, no one can remember or is searching for whatever it is Taco Bell is selling.
One of the larger lessons to be had from this search data is that a Super Bowl ad is particularly well suited for new brand or product introductions. At the same time, it’s also important for established brands or products, like Denny’s, to do something new with their Super Bowl ad that generates interest. Otherwise, like many of the advertisers listed above, you may be left with buyers remorse.
No Comments | Trackback | Categories: Search Engine Marketing | Email This Post
No Comments | Trackback | Categories: 1000 Ft. POV, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media | Email This Post