Media Guardian – ‘Search finding the right mix’

Lyndsay Menzies – MD bigmouthmedia UK

4 October 2007

The Search Landscape

• Increasingly competitive– UK search market will grow by 58% during the year, up from £1.41billion in

2006– The UK is expected to account for over 50% of all online ad spend in

Western Europe in 2007 (eMarketer, July 07) • Expensive to get wrong• Increased investment required – difficult to rely on one channel

now• Increase opportunities make good decisions more critical –

PPC, SEO, Video, mobile, ad serving where should you be ?!• Huge gains from striking the balance

Where we are today – SEO

• Good content is crucial – for your users, to encourage linking

• Quality / ‘influence’ is key – be an authority • Buzz is big ! • Give brand a voice – online PR • Search engines move the goal posts but the same broad

rules apply• Formats changing – ‘one box’, hybrid results • Personalised search • Local search

Where we are today- PPC

• Quality score • Content network is a viable option once again • Demographic targeting improvements • Paid Search expanding in scope

• Tools for multi-national or agency accounts; MCC and Google Uploader

• Increasing transparency• View only access to accounts• Content Network reports

How are users changing ?

• Users are becoming more sophisticated • User ‘need’ is increasing – more interaction with a

brand on a higher level • Impatience is increasing • Opinion is ‘king’ • The web is (more) experience lead – can your brand

exploit this ?• Expectation of personalised results • Trust is important

– 40% of searches end in no result – 50% of searches are refined

What do you want to achieve ?

• Conversion– Sale, registration

• Brand exposure – Profile, ‘buzz’, interaction

• BOTH ?!

• How can you use search to achieve it ? …

Key Considerations

Coding Team

Press / Media Teams

Legal !

Content Team

Suppliers (Links)

CopywritingDesigners

Championing SearchInvolve all stakeholders

In-house Pitfalls to be aware of …

• NO specific objectives set• Lack of budget• Budget wasted through lack of economies of scale • Online opportunities are missed – by viewing OM as

one channel not many• Lack of measurement or review• Lack of integration between PPC/ SEO and other types

of OM

Considerations –‘traditional’ channels

Know the limitations of your channels ..SEO

– You need to invest in your site – ongoing !

– Content is crucial

– You have less control over messaging

PPC

– You need to invest in your pages

– You need to track

– Brand vs generic debate

Affiliates

–You may end up paying for non converted sales

–You need to police your affiliates

–If you have a direct competitor who has bigger purse strings

Identifying your users

What kind of behaviour is your target audience displaying ?

– Research vs buy ?– Generic vs ‘tail search’– Where do brand searches come ?

• Existing users – navigational searches • Post research – ‘last click’ • Impulse clicks – after seeing brand related advertising – on or

offline

.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

2005

2006

2007

Navigational Non-Navigational

20% increase in navigational

searches in past two years

Interacting with your users

– Know your customer segmentation – Where are they likely to be ?

• Google, Yahoo! – mainstream search • Social media portals • Directory based searching

– What makes your users tick ?– Gather data & apply (with caution !)

• Virgin Wines

Searcher Profiles

Intention Media• When the “user” already has an “intent”.

• The user intents to research or purchase something specific

• For example,

– Paid search– Organic search– Affiliate

• (could also be Attention Media)

Attention Media• When the users

attention needs to be won

• For example,

– TV– Banner

advertising– Posters

Searcher Profiles

Social Media• When the user has some form of relationship with and can interact

with the medium • For example,

– Forums– Blogs– Social Networks

Define your audience

• Searcher profiling – take the time to define ! • Assign attributes to the profile

– What is their value to the site ?– What is their propensity to defer ? (deference cycle)– What is their propensity to search by proxy ? (very low to very high)

‘Business traveller’

•high value,

•low deference, •medium search by proxy

‘Silver surfer’ •Mid/ high value,

•High deference,

•low search by proxy

What role does search play ? Example – working parent browsing

• 9.30pm Monday – search for ‘ flights to Florida’ click on organic adverts as part of research

• 10pm Wednesday – check email receive an email link from friend to Handbag.com sees upgrade advert (OMP) for BA.com on home page

• Saturday 4pm – search for ‘direct flights to Florida from Manchester’ click on affiliate PPC ad

• Saturday 4.45pm – brand search on BA.com click on Paid search (high instance of last click bookings)

• Click Path Analysis – becoming increasingly important

• Helps to determine the true value of keywords that involved in the buying path.

• Shows that searches often start with generic terms, include tail terms and end in brand terms

•Find the ‘TRUE ROI’

Click One“short break ”

Click Two“activity break UK”

Click Three“brand”

SALE

Tracking the click path

Standing out from the crowd - being an early adopter

Social Search

• Social Media Optimisation increasingly popular. Marketers experimenting with brand campaigns with poor ROI tracking.

• Future: Growing importance of social and trust networks. Social will become one of digital’s best “attention media” marketing.

• Future: Better ROI tracking.• Future: Growing challenge of bloggers and forums

resenting unethical and aggressive social marketers.

Search InnovationsAtomisation

• Your online advertising• Press release distribution sites• ‘Media’ sites – ‘official’ coverage of you• Affiliates (not always in your knowledge)• Search Engines (whether they click or not)• In E-mails• Partner sites (trade affiliations, government sites.)• Directories• Blogs/Communities – people talking about you• Virtual Worlds – e.g. Second Life• The desktop

Yahoo! Answers http://uk.answers.yahoo.com

Search InnovationsGadgets / Widgets

Southwest Airlines - Ding!

• Desktop Application• Launched Feb 2005• 2 million subscribers• $130m in revenues

Search InnovationsGadgets / Widgets

Ryanair - Bing!

iGoogle / Google Gadgets

• Use specific RSS feeds which are updated daily

• Think about your customer segment !

Become an authority

Integrating Search‘Catch Phrases’

Search interfaces are changing…

Future Proofing the Site Local Business Ads

Google Mapsnow availableon mobilephones

Future Proofing the Site Social Buttons

Key Influence ForumsWhere savvy shoppers go first

• Significant influence gained from loyal communities• They have gained trust due to their impartial status• Users are extremely savvy • Useful to detect how good your offer is / what your users think• Can send traffic spikes to your website

Key Influence ForumsTraffic Spikes

• Look at traffic, conversions and user comments

• Monitor in-store performance

Early adoption benefitsSecond Life - Aloft Hotel

What should you take from this ?

• Opportunities are increasing

• You will get the hard sell

• Do your homework ! (or get your team to!)

• Not everything works – ask for hard facts / case studies unless its in your innovations budget

How do you get the mix right ?

•Test carefully – if you can track

•Track – make sure you use this data wisely. Define the data that is useful and use wisely.

•Only be seduced by hard facts (unless it falls into your innovations budget!)

• ‘Fail fast rule’ –

… be prepared to try and fail,

…but when you fail …fail fast !

How do you balance your efforts & budget ?

• What's important to you ?

• When can you not afford to fail ? (Retailer at Xmas, Airline in January )

• Employ a budget approach that reflect this (no static month on month budgets !)

• 80:20 rule

• Hold your team / agency accountable – where they can be

• ‘Bread and butter’ vs innovation – set aside innovation budget. Get buy in !

Lyndsay.Menzies@bigmouthmedia.com

bigmouthmedia.com

Questions …

Thank You!