• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
 
101
CHAPTER 6
The Connection of Online Searchand Advertising
O
nline search,” Ken Cassar of Nielsen//NetRatings claims, “is the primary tool most people rely onto do everyday research” (Nielsen//Net Ratings 2006b). Indeed. U.Ssearches nearly doubled from December 2004 to November 2006, ris-ing from 3.3 billion to 6.2 billion searches across 60 measured searchengines (Nielsen//NetRatings 2006a).Beyond “everyday research,” more than 90% of people find orlaunch websites through search (Spiderhelp 2006), even when theyknow the URL. At one public school we know, the teachers’ lounge di-rectory lists the school website as “Google Our School Name.” Typingin a few keywords or phrases, browsing a results page, and clickingon a link saves time and is more accurate. Because search engines in-dex websites, results pages often contain links to different sections orindividual listings within them, like product pages, making it easierand faster for searchers to go where they want and get the informa-tion that answers particular questions. For others requiring learn-ing, research, and evaluating information, searching is more like a journey.As we write, some online advertising commentators point outthat while the number of searches is growing, search’s growth rate isslowing. But that’s expected: After such explosive growth, percentagegains become smaller as bases get larger. For search engines, though,the battles shift to percentage of share, new products, revenuegrowth, and profitability. Can we say search is a maturing market?Yes. A mature market? Hardly.Search is a big business for advertising. In this chapter we firstreview consumer search—the number of searchers, the popularity of “
ccc_playbook_101-132_ch06.qxd 3/9/07 4:10 PM Page 101
 
search as an online activity, what people search for, and how theysearch and read results, all of which influence search advertising buy-ing strategy. After establishing the consumer side of search, we turnto search engine marketing, which is not one but a family of tech-niques. We explain them and then illustrate the ways search enginemarketing strategies are used to accomplish a wide range of onlineadvertising objectives.
Portrait of the Online Searcher
Just about everybody who goes online does it. More than any otheronline activity, search reflects people’s far-ranging interests and moti- vations guided by who they are, where they live, their interests, andevents in the world at large. Search is not an end in itself. It worksthrough ads and listings, provides gateways to websites large andsmall, social to technical, pop to highbrow, mass to class that are notmerely sites, but destinations and immersions.The most popular activity online, Pew (2005) research tells us, isemail for 77% of the consumers they surveyed. Like bringing in thepostal mail, most people check their in-boxes daily. The second mostpopular internet activity? Looking for stuff with search engines, at63%. Expanding online offerings makes search ever more necessary.After search, getting news ranks third at 46%, and then activities be-come quite specialized. Doing job-related research, instant messag-ing, and online banking range from 29% down to 18%. Visiting chatrooms, making online travel reservations, reading blogs, and partici-pating in online auctions bring up the rear at 8% or less. Search ag-gregates audience, and is a chief reason why search is of such interestto online marketers as a primary way to reach consumers online.Searchers comprise 80% of the total online population and 51% of the U.S. population (Pew 2005). Their numbers will grow—eMarketer(2006h) forecasts the searcher population climbing to 166 million in2010, 85% of all online users and 56% of the U.S. population. Alongwith the number of searchers, the frequency of searches will grow aswell as search engines expand to be the primary interface between on-line users and the internet and as people use search more and morefor navigational purposes (Hotchkiss 2006).The power of search is for buying advertising targeted to a con-text, interest, or category.The Internet & American Life Project studies conducted by Pew
102THE ONLINE ADVERTISING PLAYBOOK
ccc_playbook_101-132_ch06.qxd 3/9/07 4:10 PM Page 102
 
Trusts in conjunction with comScore Media Metrix track a panel of internet users. They find that over 60% of all adult web surfers, about60 million, use search engines on any given day (Pew 2005), and theyconduct an average of two searches per day (Fallows 2005). You prob-ably know from your own experience that some people, about 25%,type into the search box several times throughout the day (eMarketer2006h). They’re checking stocks, doing business research, grabbingsports scores, dropping in at MySpace, checking movie listings, orlooking for some cool product to buy. Advertising opportunitiesabound—connecting intent with content.Although hundreds of search engines exist, about 44% of searchers use just one engine, about 48% use up to three engines,and only about 7% use more than three. Differences exist among thesegroups. According to Fallows (2005), the number of searches peoplelaunch and their search confidence increase with the number of en-gines used. “More engaged” searchers often match their search ques-tions to individual engines and evaluate information by cross-checkingdifferent results and sources. “Less engaged” searchers typically searchfor less important information and appear content to take the resultsthey’re given at face value.Google skews slightly more toward men (53%). Yahoo! splitsevenly. Women outnumber men on MSN Search, Ask.com, and AOLSearch by margins ranging from 6% to 18% (Advertising Age 2006).Keep in mind that these splits may not apply to the entire site. Audi-ence profiles for specific sections, such as technology or health, oftendiffer. For targeting and media buying, make certain that search en-gines’ user profiles match your customer profiles.Most folks who search every day use broadband connections: ca-ble, DSL, office networks, satellite, or mobile web-enabled handsets,like pocket PCs, BlackBerrys, or Apple iPhones. High speed con-tributes to searching in a big way. People with broadband at work orat home are about equally likely, 57% and 54% respectively, to lookstuff up with search engines each day. But the “killer searchers,”nearly 80% of these searchers, take advantage of broadband at work
 and
at home.While search is the second most popular activity online, peoplespend far less time with search than they do with other internet activi-ties, accounting for a shade under 5% of their total online time in thefourth quarter of 2005 (eMarketer 2006h). Search advertising spend,which we detail a bit later, commands currently about half of all online
The Connection of Online Search and Advertising103
ccc_playbook_101-132_ch06.qxd 3/9/07 4:10 PM Page 103
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...