Still searching for ways to be found

Search has become so deeply ingrained into the daily behaviour of consumers and marketers that it’s hard to believe Google itself is not even 12 years old. And because search is regarded as an extremely cost-effective marketing channel, it’s no surprise that budgets have held up – and even grown – in the economic downturn.

“There is no change in search’s effectiveness and advantage over other media – it is targeting people who are actively looking for what you are selling,” comments Andreas Pouros, chief operating officer of search specialist Greenlight. “What is changing is that search is becoming more complex and interesting.”

Major brands now manage hundreds of thousands of keywords, spending millions of pounds. “Search makes up the largest share of online ad spend for most brands and it’s set to grow further this year,” comments Marin Software European managing director Ed Stevenson. “Once you’re spending a major portion of your budget on something and it’s impacting sales, you become acutely aware of the need to manage it effectively.”

Standing out in this market is a big challenge – the established method is a balance of paid and natural search. “We generally recommend a blend of pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimisation (SEO),” says Sarah Groves, associate digital director at integrated digital agency Cognition Digital. “PPC visibility is instant and fully trackable, enabling marketers to assess the best-performing keywords and prioritise them for SEO. It takes time and investment.”

PPC has become tougher over the past couple of years. Price rises have hit hard, particularly in finance and travel, where rates can reach £20 a click. Increased competition and factors such as Google removing trademark protection have driven up PPC costs, in some instances totally changing the way clients use paid search.

However, PPC’s ability to deliver traffic means it remains central to search marketing strategies, especially when used in combination with the fixed-price model of SEO. “PPC should not be ruled out,” says Chris Michael, director of user experience at digital agency Crayon. “When SEO and PPC work together, you can get much higher brand awareness and traffic. The trick with PPC is to optimise landing pages and user journeys, so the traffic you’ve paid for actually converts.”

Meanwhile, the demand for strong natural search performance has typically become a non-negotiable part of marketing strategy. There are many drivers behind the rise in natural search, including the general increase in awareness of search engine marketing as a whole and the appeal of “free traffic” in tough times.

“Search is a fascinating place at the moment,” says I Spy Marketing head of paid search Chris Speed. “Advertisers are becoming smarter about search as a marketing medium and the convergence of social media with paid and natural search has added another dimension.”

Trending topics for social searchers

Search is now bound up with channels of social media such as Twitter and Facebook. As search engines incorporate more real-time data in their results, social media is increasingly relevant.

A Twitter scrolling bar on organic search listings can provide automatic updates that allow searchers to keep up to date with events as they happen, giving brands a new challenge. “One of the things search engines have tried to incorporate is real-time search results,” explains Tom Morphy, a digital consultant working for The Coca-Cola Company. “If a new report is out on sugar levels in soft drinks and someone writes something on Twitter about our brand, we want our Twitter feed to be visible in the results.”

Another growing area for Coca-Cola is video. Content networks are still an effective way to increase brand exposure, at a relatively low cost per click. “We can optimise Coca-Cola’s videos in the YouTube channels, so when people search on the brand they will find something we control,” says Morphy. “If you don’t optimise your web assets, other people’s take on your brand will be more visible.”

Mobile search is growing faster than brands’ investment in it, providing benefits for those who want a relatively unknown channel where consumer behaviour differs. Car hire brand Avis has run mobile campaigns on Google from inception. “The BA strikes and the volcanic ash cloud produced a rapid increase in activity on our mobile campaigns,” says head of direct marketing and ecommerce for Avis Europe Xavier Vallee. “It was a good reminder of the highly contextual nature of mobile search. When a stranded UK mobile user searches in France for availability at the nearest Avis office, we want to deliver the most useful response for that specific situation.”
For marketers, search is arguably on the cusp of real changes. Mobile search is set to become more important, while retargeting, social media, cross-channel tracking and the wave of AdWords features emerging from Google all bring new complexity, as well as new opportunities.

The deciding difference

Faced with a dominant Google, other players are trying new approaches. Microsoft’s search engine Bing, the “decision engine”, will keep Google on its toes, says Duncan Parry, head of paid search at digital media agency Steak. “If Bing can innovate, it can gain market share – and crucially loyalty – for some types of search,” he says. “Consumers want solutions, and if Bing can associate a good experience with its brand, it will gain, just as Google associated its brand with finding what you want on an uncluttered page, at AltaVista’s expense.”
Yahoo!, in its partnership with Microsoft to deliver Bing, is capitalising on a demand for relevant traffic. “Google has huge volume, but this is an alternative that delivers quality traffic with high conversion,” argues Andy Jones, UK head of account management for field sales. “We have listened to advertisers and agencies and made sure we are improving the conversion rate.”

As companies experiment with new interfaces and dimensions to search, Forrester Research analyst Nate Elliott sounds a note of caution about the growing complexity. “Things like mobile search will be important, but marketers must stick to the basics: worry about how to work Google’s online search, bid effectively, optimise your landing page and your conversion funnel.”

 

 

FUTURE TRENDS

What does the next year hold?

Mark Fagan
Chair of the IPA Search Group and digital media director, Golley Slater
“There is so much more for search agencies to consider now and in the coming months. It is not just about pure search any more – rather it is about content, reputation management and social media. Search is more likely to be integrated in future.

“Attribution models for search marketing will become a hot topic over the next year. We will also be looking closely at the Yahoo!/Microsoft deal and the moves that Facebook is making with its entrance into the pay-per-click field and the opening of its application programming interface.”

Marie Thirlwall
Senior product manager, Bing UK
“In the past 12 months, search has taken a leap forward from its role as a blue-link web directory, to become a more multimedia-integrated service connecting consumers with what they want, when and how they want it.

“Technological advances and the population’s growing internet sophistication are influencing the future of search. Several themes are emerging this year that have been incorporated into some of the search engines, including real-time, semantic, visual or spatial searching.
“Although the plethora of “search buzzwords” can seem very confusing, at Bing we simplify this into three pillars/ firstly, improved results based on searcher’s intent; secondly, a more engaging, visual experience; and thirdly, helping searchers accomplish key tasks. The challenge is to interpret meaning from one to three keywords and deliver a search experience exceeding user expectations.

“As this becomes more predictable over time, we will also see new ways to engage consumers through search engine marketing and optimisation. We expect the fast pace of innovation to continue, so watch this space.”

Gary Reid
Head of search, Carat
“Search marketers face three distinct challenges, from both Google’s drive for relevancy and from the Yahoo!/Bing partnership. Firstly full development of integrated information sets, such as the blending of images, video and real-time news by Google, and Bing’s drive to give users what they are looking for, such as the contact phone number in the results page may reduce click-through rates on paid adverts and natural search results.

“Aggregated data sets will become an everyday part of search campaigns to improve understanding of return on investment beyond keyword buys, including behavioural and demographic data. Yahoo!’s introduction of such data gives us a flavour of where this is going.”

Peter Fitzgerald
Industry leader, Google UK
“In online retail there are four key themes we think will shape developments in search in 2011.
The first is mobile. The rate at which consumers are adopting smartphones and internet-enabled devices is growing exponentially, and we anticipate that 2011 will continue to be about large-scale consumer adoption of these devices. As more consumers engage with m-commerce, the challenge for content providers will be to increase and improve their mobile media offerings.

“Social will be another powerful trend. A good example is the retailer Best Buy, which has embraced a full complement of social networking/ forums, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Social will play an increasing role over the next 12 months. Whether that is in businesses looking to connect directly with their customers, or consumers seeking a more personalised experience in searches that reflect user interaction and contributions.

“International and “always-on” are the two other trends we feel will help shape search for 2011. Ensuring that you are ’always-on’ or fully discoverable online, and able to bring your assets to an international audience are going to be more significant in ecommerce. The low price of the pound is likely to make the prospect of international sales from the UK attractive in a wider, global market.”

Jack Wallington
Head of industry programmes, IAB
“The internet is suddenly a mainstay of mobiles and a far richer experience on computers, driving radical search evolution both in its use and for marketing. The likes of images, videos, maps and ecommerce in search results – known as Universal Search – are becoming as important, if not more so, than plain text links. Search is also accommodating rapidly updated and more disposable social media content. It’s increasingly obvious that social media has thrown the spotlight back onto search engine optimisation this year as marketers try to utilise online communities to maximise cost efficiencies. Advertisers also need to understand how social properties like Facebook and Twitter are search engines too, all forcing search agencies to become ’social media specialists’, which is luckily a natural fit.”

Stephen Fields
Head of traffic, LOVEFiLM.com
“To date, the steps taken to integrate real-time/social search by the likes of Bing and Google have been pretty poor. Simply presenting people with a list of what the last three random strangers have tweeted about Product X doesn’t really help people find what they are looking for. To fix this, I expect to see search engines continuing to experiment with how they integrate social and search – they’ve clearly got their work cut out trying to get the balance between recency and relevancy right.

“The coming year is also sure to see search engines and social networks rolling out further and smarter personalisation of search results.”