Earlier this week, eMarketer published its most recent view on the U.S. advertising space and the spending trends within it. The company noted the point gains being made year over year for digital marketing and explained the impact in its intro as such:

“Digital marketing offers compelling benefits, especially for cash-conscious companies in a recession, because marketers can more readily measure the results of Internet advertising than with most traditional media.  This produces more-efficient advertising and higher ROI, which in turn pushes traditional media to compete with lower pricing.”

So, advertisers are gravitating to more measurable forms of marketing and also looking to channels that produce higher ROI. Makes sense, but when you look at some recent findings from SEMPO’s annual search survey, you start to see a disconnect.

In their ‘08 study, SEMPO asked both advertisers and agencies what metrics they track and the findings were interesting. In the case of brand impact, the agencies surveyed said – by a wide margin (20%+) -  that they measured this more so than the direct advertisers. If marketers are moving dollars online because ROI is better, then why are their agencies worried so much about brand?

It leads to the obvious question. Can search build brands?

I think the jury is still out; but I would contend that search is much more a facilitation vehicle than a vehicle for establishing a brand. Creating brand connectivity in 140 characters is a daunting task when a consumer is predisposed to a brand, let alone when engaging for the first time. If an unknown brand is trying to establish a place and is using search, then there is a one-off opportunity to become acknowledged. But it’s unlikely that Apple-level loyalists are going to rise from such limited interactions.

So, what’s with agencies’ obsession with brand impact? My sense is two things are working here.

1. Agencies in the search marketing industry traditionally have worked under percent of spend models, whereby focusing up the funnel on brand development keywords is a financial win that can be explained as brand building.

2. Up the funnel activity should be about creating a better connection with consumer intent to help brand owners understand if value exists from buying paid search or looking at alternative investments in the search space that allow for alternative focus. Instead, agencies are trying to justify further investment away from other channels by contending that they are moving the needle on brand loyalty.

Can a brand see lift by using search as a primary vehicle? Yes. Will those brands be able to go from 0 to 60 simply using search? If so, I’ve yet to see a solid example of it. All cases studies I’ve seen show that search is a tremendous supplementary vehicle for brand building. So, when agencies suggest they are more interested in brand build than advertisers are, it comes as no surprise. Should brands be more concerned about up the funnel actions? Yes. Should agencies do a better job on that function with priming the funnel and creating connections? If they want to keep growing their investments, it would be a wise move. Because search is not a brick by brick builder for brands, it’s the glue that enables blocks to be added, upon using owned brand content.

Recently, an automotive company made the decision to remove all brand terms from their paid search campaign which ranked well organically. The thought influencing this decision was, “We rank well organically already, let’s invest the dollars elsewhere (namely other media, GASP!).” To much dismay, the crucial brand terms were paused, however closer attention was then paid to the monitoring the overall performance of these key terms in the organic silo to track performance.

As many automotive retailers do, the advertiser ran a summer promotion in which they had special offers in place for each model. This particular promotion was a perfect example of utilizing paid search to provide custom messaging to potential customers. A potential customer searching for their brand in Yahoo! would see the organic search results for the auto company, yet not be alerted to the special offer. One might argue, “Well, if they click through to the site via organic, they would see the offer on the homepage.” However, this was not the case 50% of the time as the homepage was being rotated with a new model and the summer promotion. Had the advertiser been purchasing their key brand terms during this promotion, the ad copy would have spoken directly to the special offers of this event, as well as driven the searcher directly to a landing page detailing the promotion, thus driving the customer one step closer to locating a dealer or scheduling a test drive. This example is one of many in which advertisers miss key opportunities to target an already loyal customer base.

In addition to controlling the message and landing page, owning your brand terms in paid search gives you, the advertiser, increased visibility and a greater overall share of voice as you own more real estate and impact more of the SERP than you could through organic alone. As further evidence, an Enquiro study from mid 2007 showed a 7% increase in brand favorability when the advertiser appeared in both organic and paid search when conducting a branded search query. Put simply, owning your brand terms in paid search allows your name to be seen one more time, driving home your relevance to the query one more time, and ideally making the searcher more likely to choose your brand over your competitors.

My final argument (and I promise to rest my case after this) to owning your brand terms in paid search, lies in your bottom line. Your brand terms, by the very nature of being your brand terms, typically come at a very inexpensive cost. On the front end, the search engines tend to give you a break on these terms because you are perceived as most relevant to their users for the intended search query. On the back end, these terms convert! There is a greater chance someone searching for your brand terms has a high favorability towards you and thus a greater chance of converting than someone searching for a general term. There is also greater likelihood the searcher is further along in the purchase funnel when searching for your brand and your stellar messaging is going to push them towards the conversion!!

So, in conclusion, owning your brand in paid search is a smart, albeit wise, decision in developing a successful paid search marketing strategy. Leaving your brand terms out of your paid search campaign is like stocking the store shelves with products containing no brand labels on them. Who knows what they’ll buy?!

1. Just get users to your site; they’ll find what they are looking for when they get there

Actually, no. They probably won’t. In fact, they’ll probably leave about 2 seconds after realizing that the page they’ve been taken to doesn’t have what they want. I feel like this happens to me a lot when I’m shopping online, constantly taken to sites that have nothing even resembling what I’m looking for. I remember a specific time when I was searching for “beige pumps.” And, thanks to dynamic keyword insertion, I was greeted with a page full of ads claiming to have the perfect beige pumps for me. I then clicked on an ad and was taken to a page displaying pumps in every color of the rainbow. Every color, except beige (despite what the ad told me). Maybe this site had my dream shoes somewhere, but I didn’t stick around to find out.

It’s easy to think that just getting a searcher to your homepage is enough, but if you can’t take them to something relevant to what they’re looking for – better yet, exactly what they’re looking for, they’ll leave just as quickly as they arrived. It is important to customize your landing pages so that when a user clicks on your ad, they’re taken to what they’re looking for, right away.

2. More traffic equals more money

I think it is a natural compulsion of advertisers to try and get as many people to their site as possible. When I started working in search, clicks seemed like a big deal to me. Clicks, click-through-rates, even impressions — people who saw an ad, hadn’t actually clicked but could have — all seemed terribly important to me. I quickly realized it is not about clicks, it is about conversions. Sure, clicks are important. They are what make your online conversions possible. But, what good is it to run thousands of people through your site if only a couple of them result in a sale or sign up? Wouldn’t it be better to only have a few hundred visitors that result in a couple dozen sales or registrations?

More traffic does not equal more money, it just equals more traffic. More qualified traffic, on the other hand, is a different story and that’s where search’s impact on your business takes place. It’s important to remain focused on quality, not quantity, to maximize your return on investment.

3. Search is its own marketing effort, independent from other media

It may seem as if the online and offline advertising worlds are completely separate, but that kind of thinking does the advertiser a huge disservice. Advertisers should use search to leverage what is happening offline in their online marketing efforts. If a product or ad catches a consumer’s eye offline, it’s a safe bet that his/her next step will be to go online and search for it. Search marketing should be used in conjunction with other marketing efforts to present a cohesive brand image. If online and offline marketing are completely independent of one other, it sends a confusing message to the consumer. Just as the McDonald’s tag line “I’m Lovin’ It” can be found in their television, radio and print ads, search ads should contain this same slogan to affirm their brand messaging.

4. Search leads are equal to traditional leads

No, they’re not equal. In most cases, leads generated from search marketing are probably better because people are actively seeking you and your services. Instead of being one of the thousands of traditional advertising messages that people are bombarded with every day, search ads bring the consumer to you, rather than vice versa.

5. Search is a transactional marketing tool, not a branding one

A lot people view search merely as a means to an end. A vehicle that takes the consumer to the buying process and closes the sale. And sometimes it is. But search can also be used to build a company’s brand image online and reinforce their branding efforts offline. One way to do this is by ensuring search ad copy reflects the messaging in other media. (Like the previous McDonald’s example.) Another way is to ensure high frequency online. Some advertisers don’t see the value in buying paid listings on brand terms when they have great organic results. But the point is to increase the frequency your ad and message are displayed, thereby increasing your brand exposure and recognition. It also gives you visibility when your competition might be present.

]]> http://groupmsearch.com/blog/2008/09/debunking-search-marketing-myths-5-important-things-you-quickly-learn-after-diving-into-search/feed/ 2 http://groupmsearch.com/blog/2008/09/do-i-lose-control-of-my-message-in-social-media/ http://groupmsearch.com/blog/2008/09/do-i-lose-control-of-my-message-in-social-media/#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:36:02 +0000 Reem Abeidoh http://www.searchfuel.com/?p=163 Continue reading →]]> News about social media has run rampant in offices across the country in the past few years. If companies aren’t already engaging in the social networking sites, they are attending conferences to learn more about the benefits of participation. If they aren’t already meeting to discuss new media, they are asking marketing agencies to provide strategic recommendations. A concern often shared throughout this process is: What if I lose control of my brand message?

A concern about participating in social media exists amongst Fortune 500 companies. Why should they transfer a portion of their budget from advertising to social media marketing? Through traditional media, brand managers were at least able to control the message that was distributed and “pushed” out to the public. It has been a trusted form of communications that directly reached their core consumer. In an unstable space like the internet, how can they ensure that their brand is consistently being represented positively?

It is important to note that the way consumers currently obtain information is gradually evolving from traditional media to social media. The shift has essentially occurred in the way people want to receive information. The power has been transferred from the formalized institutions, like broadcast and print, to the consumers. Social media has given a voice to the masses. With the rise of social media, an average Joe can influence as many people as a prestigious newspaper.

Consumers are publicly discussing the brands they like and dislike. They share their experiences with the product on their blog, related forums and social networking sites. That available knowledge helps potential customers make purchasing decisions. For example: if Joe and Shane say their experience with a brand was poor, Adam will probably begin to consider the competitor. The company needs to be privy of such instances to maintain and grow its customer base. How does it do that? Firstly, it should listen by monitoring the relevant sites. Secondly, it should participate in the conversation and provide key information that can help convince Adam that he should give that particular product a try.

To protect and promote a brand, it is important that a company participates in the conversation. It has to play the same game in the same field at the same time as its consumers. By being part of the team, your brand can become a trusted household brand. Social media humanizes your brand by giving it a name, face, and personality!