Ignore the top of the funnel at your own risk
It's easy to see why search advertising is so popular online. Many brands focus on search because it has proven ROI — according to the IAB, 62% of all online revenue came from paid search in the first six months of this year. Meanwhile 8% of all internet users account for 85% of clicks on display advertising. Numbers like that often keep advertisers pouring money into search and holding onto dollars that might have gone toward brand advertising online.
But while search advertising may have the most proven business model in online advertising, businesses that ignore other areas and methods of increasing sales online do so at their own peril.
That was a recurring theme at Econsultancy's Masterclass in London yesterday, where Ian Dowds, vice president of Specific Media, put it like this:
"At the top of the funnel, there are a host of big brand advertisers standing like nervous tourists, dipping their toe in the online sea, debating the temperature and then turnng and running away every time the water laps above their ankles."
Brand tweets sends twitterers searching
Twitter's traffic may be flatlining at the moment, but Performics and ROI Research have come out with good news for marketers: Twitter users pay attention to brands on the service.
That may seem obvious to anyone who's ever promoted a product on Twitter. But the new study, announced today at Ad:Tech new York by Performics Marketing senior vice president Michael Kahn, also found that almost half of twitterers who have been introduced to a brand on Twitter have subsequently gone on to search for more information about it. If true, that's a big deal.
Nielsen: Search matters for retail, but you can't ignore display
What matters more for online retailers: display advertising or search? It's likely not an either or answer, but it's a question that has been the subject of an ongoing debate in our comments section this week.
I wrote this post after reading an AdAge article that implied search only accounted for 10% of traffic sent to online retail sites. Abby Klaasen wrote:
"Nielsen found the majority of retailers' web traffic (61%, on average) comes from people going directly to a retail site -- consumers typing, say, Amazon.com into a browser address bar."
The idea that only 10% of traffic would be driven by search was new to me, and we asked our readers to weigh in with their own experiences. Many were surprised and confused by Nielsen's numbers (and there is a ton of information in those comments for anyone interested in the subject).
I spoke with Kenneth Cassar, Nielsen's VP of industry insights, to get some clarification. And as always, it turns out that context is key with these numbers.
Nielsen: Display ads send more traffic to retail sites than search
Display advertising is starting to look like the little ad format that could lately. Online advertisers are moving away from click-through rates as a metric for display success, large companies from Google to Yahoo are stepping up their display efforts and now Nielsen has come out with numbers that imply display may be more effective for retailers than search advertising.
According to Nielsen, less than 10% of online retailers' web traffic, on average, comes from search engines. That's good news for display ads. But is it true?
The ‘Vince’ update unravelled – does Google recognise brand equity? (pt 2)
Yesterday we took a retrospective look at the 'Vince' update, exampling the 'Poker' and 'Life Insurance' SERPs, and how Google has cleverly managed to identify and apply corrective adjustments to a small number of rankings for big brands.
Today we're looking at the 'Holidays' and 'Betting' SERPs and the possible methods behind these adjustments, as well as introducing data from the Stickyeyes data set, enabling us to dig deeper into the back-link profiles of these movers and shakers.
The ‘Vince’ update unravelled: does Google recognise brand equity? (pt 1)
Four months after Google’s so called Vince update, and there’s still talk amongst SEOs of brand building being the new link building. The following three-part blog series aims only to present evidence for you to draw your own conclusions on what really happened, what Google is now looking for and how to effectively deploy your natural search campaign post Vince.
Travelocity brings search into its display ads — and increases ROI
Display ad campaigns have proven to boost brand searches online and even increase sales. But finding the right mix of search and display advertising can be tricky for advertisers. In the case of Travelocity, the popular travel website has moved towards using real-time search data in its display ads.
It seems like a simple enough strategy. The result? A 203% increase in bookings online. How'd they do it?
Twitter laughs all the way to the bank as Google and Microsoft fight over real time search
Yesterday Microsoft's Bing announced a partnership with Twitter and Facebook to make its "decision engine" more social. And not a day later, Google's Marissa Mayer was up at Web 2.0 announcing that Google would be launching similar services soon.
It appears Google is a little worried about Bing. And that's great news for Twitter.
Is social media marketing making search campaigns cheaper?
Have you been wondering why Google's make such a big push into display and social over the last few months? Well The Wall Street Journal has a theory: Google's revenue growth is down 25% this year and marketers are getting more bang for their buck in search. Meaning that Google has to look to other revenue streams if it wants to continue the impressive growth its experienced over the past decade.
Google's new global ads represent a shift. Just not in search.
For a company that has long relied on word of mouth to promote its products — Google has been going crazy with advertising lately. This summer the company launched an old school ad campaign, complete with billboard and print ads, to promote its cloud-based apps business. And now the company is announcing that its "Going Google" billboard campaign will be going global, with more print, online and outdoor ads promoting the Google suite of office products.
Tom Oliveri, director of enterprise marketing at Google, tells The New York Times this will be “one of the most visible Google has done and the most significant campaign for the enterprise side.” The company is also looking to hire two big marketing titles.
Is the this notoriously anti-marketing company changing its tune on advertising? Maybe. But not because of changes in the search business.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
