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THE RIGHT SEARCH: Niche Marketing in the Online Information Arena By Alan Pearlstein
08/24/2007
By Alan Pearlstein
If you’re not doing online search marketing, you’re missing the biggest opportunity in marketing today. And if you’re not doing paid searches, you’re missing the personalization and marketing control that is inherent online. The Internet is the first place the majority of people with computers turn to for information on financial services, and the volume is increasing beyond all predictions. A brand that lacks prominent positioning in search listings might as well not be on the Internet at all.
If you’re not doing online search marketing, you’re missing the biggest opportunity in marketing today. And if you’re not doing paid searches, you’re missing the personalization and marketing control that is inherent online. The Internet is the first place the majority of people with computers turn to for information on financial services, and the volume is increasing beyond all predictions. A brand that lacks prominent positioning in search listings might as well not be on the Internet at all.
Two kinds of searches exist — natural and paid — and it’s increasingly important to invest in both. Natural listings take the center of a search page, while paid listings typically run across the top and down the right side. While the search engines identify paid list ings as sponsored advertising, the reality is that most consumers don’t recognize the difference.
Many marketers instinctively favor natural searches, feeling the listings will have more credibility than paid advertising and won’t cost them anything. Natural listings do get two-thirds of the clicks. Because it is unpaid content, a high natural-search listing has the aura of a third-party endorsement — Google thinks it is good.
If the goal is to motivate consumers, paid searches must be part of the mix. When it comes to commerce-related searches, paid searches are often more efficient and accurate than natural searches. Because paid searches operate on an auction basis — with marketers paying per click — the top positions go to the company willing to pay the greatest amount per inquiry. So only the most efficient players in a business can afford to have the top listings.
Another benefit owes to the nature of online media. People’s eyes go to a lot of different places on a search results page and the pattern varies by occasion. Some people will usually scroll the left side of the screen for the first four natural search listings, but will jump to the paid search listings on the right side if they have more time. The point is, there’s no single best way to read a search results screen. As a result, there should be no single way to do marketing in the same place.
Progressive marketers view search marketing as taking two shots instead of one. The first shot, natural search, is almost entirely determined by what’s on the website. The search engine’s algorithms do the rest. Put simply, a search engine’s program crawls through websites looking for particular combinations of terms and data, and organizes listings based on its findings. Because the formulas change continually, natural search is a gamble. All of the work done to engineer a search-attractive website can be undone quickly by a techie at the search engine.
Anyone who bids successfully on a paid search and gets a natural search listing within the top 20 has just doubled exposure where it counts the most — on the first page. The result will be fewer duplicate inquiries than you might assume. The reason is that each search generates a few clicks. The goal is to get one of those. If a search is done for mutual funds, there may be 12 natural and eight paid listings on the page, and the user will click on two or three. The odds of duplication are extremely low.
In a paid search, the message can be controlled — what you say, when and where you say it, and, perhaps most important, where people are led when they click the link. It allows people to create a customized landing page that leads the searcher to a particular place or piece of information. The landing page is the on-ramp to the Internet’s escalating value for marketers — from consumer insights to marketing leads and full-on customer relationship management (CRM).
As I wrote this, I did a Google search for mutual funds. Morningstar came up as the first entry in the natural listing. The company also was first in the paid listing. When I clicked on the natural listing, the link took me to the company’s homepage. By contrast, when I clicked on the paid link, I went to a landing page offering a free 14-day trial of the information service. What makes this significant is that it’s likely that Morningstar’s research has shown that a 14-day trial is the best offer they can make to acquire a new customer efficiently. Click on the free trial, and there’s a registration page. Morningstar now has my information, which is a giant step toward making me a customer. There was nothing specific to engage me in the editorial link to the home-page, and there was no real data capture. That’s the difference between editorial and advertising.
While paid searches work on basic marketing principles, they are fundamentally different from traditional advertising, the model that governs most marketing thinking. At the end point is a continuous bidding process, just like eBay, where advertisers vie for the top spots. The keys to picking the right terms are leveraging technology and applying consumer sense. Success requires some simple, yet profound, changes in thinking. Following are five of them.
Think in terms of niches and targets. Bigger isn’t necessarily better when it comes to online searches. Newcomers often translate traditional advertising tenets into high bidding for the most popular search terms. They think the campaign will generate wide impressions that way. The result is a tremendous waste. Often, the agency will blow the budget before they can even begin to track results.
As a rule of thumb, the more granular the keywords, the better the return. Online bank will generate lots of traffic, but much of it will come from browsers. Online savings account with no minimums will get fewer clicks, but a higher percentage of the searchers will be looking to open an account. Conversion rates will be higher. And, since the narrower term will likely be bought with a lower bid, ROI will be greater.
Always test. To get the most from a search, be fluid. That means continually testing different combinations. There are more intricacies to online search marketing than any other form of advertising and every element is in motion. Slight shifts in keyword combinations or listings, for example, can dramatically alter results. There is no way to know this ahead of time. We currently manage campaigns with more than 800,000 keyword combinations going at any one time. The search engines allow multiple tags to be tested for every keyword. We can bid to be the number one spot or the last on the list. All of these variables need to be tested on an ongoing basis to arrive at the most cost-effective formula.
Bid by keyword. Newcomers to searches often buy a keyword with all of the phrases that contain it, which seems more efficient. The problem is that locking up a word carries an understandably high price tag. Bidding on specific keyword combinations, on the other hand, allows an advertiser to keep pricing in line and get the highest return from ad messages.
Another advantage to the word-by-word approach is that landing pages specific to particular combinations can be set up. Keyword combinations trigger different motivations. Match the landing page to the motivation, and you’re halfway to a conversion. Align every link along the same term (for example, checking bank account), and a higher percentage of the right people will follow the trail home.
Build a system. This approach generates thousands of keywords. For example, Borders employs more than 800,000 keyword combinations in its online search. It’s impossible to do this without the right system to control every keyword, monitor results and manage the campaign in real time. We use custom web crawlers that gather words and product codes from a client’s and competitor’s sites to build a foundation. We then use a word-combining program to create a keyword list, which includes myriad phrasing combinations.
Another custom software program communicates with the search engine’s operation system (using what’s known as its application program interface, or API) to manage keyword bidding and track activity. Still another custom software tool allows us to establish target ROI by keyword and manage the bidding process automatically. That’s how the effect of different keyword combinations can be monitored.
Market nationally and locally. You don’t have to be national to use a search. Local and regional banks can work with Google so their ads only show up where they have locations. Google can identify searchers based on where they live, and can deliver messages accordingly. A Chicago bank can take advantage of search just like a big bank can. If financial services companies can incorporate these changes in thinking, it may make all the difference in the way they are viewed by their potential customers. The more opportunities they are given to click on a financial services website, the more opportunity the company will have to get their business. ■
Alan Pearlstein is CEO of Flying Point Media (www.flyingpt.com), a New York-based online marketing agency whose clients include Emigrant Direct, Maxell and Borders. He can reached at alan@flyingpt.com.
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If you’re not doing online search marketing, you’re missing the biggest opportunity in marketing today. And if you’re not doing paid searches, you’re missing the personalization and marketing control that is inherent online. The Internet is the first place the majority of people with computers turn to for information on financial services, and the volume is increasing beyond all predictions. A brand that lacks prominent positioning in search listings might as well not be on the Internet at all.
Two kinds of searches exist — natural and paid — and it’s increasingly important to invest in both. Natural listings take the center of a search page, while paid listings typically run across the top and down the right side. While the search engines identify paid list ings as sponsored advertising, the reality is that most consumers don’t recognize the difference.
Many marketers instinctively favor natural searches, feeling the listings will have more credibility than paid advertising and won’t cost them anything. Natural listings do get two-thirds of the clicks. Because it is unpaid content, a high natural-search listing has the aura of a third-party endorsement — Google thinks it is good.
If the goal is to motivate consumers, paid searches must be part of the mix. When it comes to commerce-related searches, paid searches are often more efficient and accurate than natural searches. Because paid searches operate on an auction basis — with marketers paying per click — the top positions go to the company willing to pay the greatest amount per inquiry. So only the most efficient players in a business can afford to have the top listings.
Another benefit owes to the nature of online media. People’s eyes go to a lot of different places on a search results page and the pattern varies by occasion. Some people will usually scroll the left side of the screen for the first four natural search listings, but will jump to the paid search listings on the right side if they have more time. The point is, there’s no single best way to read a search results screen. As a result, there should be no single way to do marketing in the same place.
Progressive marketers view search marketing as taking two shots instead of one. The first shot, natural search, is almost entirely determined by what’s on the website. The search engine’s algorithms do the rest. Put simply, a search engine’s program crawls through websites looking for particular combinations of terms and data, and organizes listings based on its findings. Because the formulas change continually, natural search is a gamble. All of the work done to engineer a search-attractive website can be undone quickly by a techie at the search engine.
Anyone who bids successfully on a paid search and gets a natural search listing within the top 20 has just doubled exposure where it counts the most — on the first page. The result will be fewer duplicate inquiries than you might assume. The reason is that each search generates a few clicks. The goal is to get one of those. If a search is done for mutual funds, there may be 12 natural and eight paid listings on the page, and the user will click on two or three. The odds of duplication are extremely low.
In a paid search, the message can be controlled — what you say, when and where you say it, and, perhaps most important, where people are led when they click the link. It allows people to create a customized landing page that leads the searcher to a particular place or piece of information. The landing page is the on-ramp to the Internet’s escalating value for marketers — from consumer insights to marketing leads and full-on customer relationship management (CRM).
As I wrote this, I did a Google search for mutual funds. Morningstar came up as the first entry in the natural listing. The company also was first in the paid listing. When I clicked on the natural listing, the link took me to the company’s homepage. By contrast, when I clicked on the paid link, I went to a landing page offering a free 14-day trial of the information service. What makes this significant is that it’s likely that Morningstar’s research has shown that a 14-day trial is the best offer they can make to acquire a new customer efficiently. Click on the free trial, and there’s a registration page. Morningstar now has my information, which is a giant step toward making me a customer. There was nothing specific to engage me in the editorial link to the home-page, and there was no real data capture. That’s the difference between editorial and advertising.
While paid searches work on basic marketing principles, they are fundamentally different from traditional advertising, the model that governs most marketing thinking. At the end point is a continuous bidding process, just like eBay, where advertisers vie for the top spots. The keys to picking the right terms are leveraging technology and applying consumer sense. Success requires some simple, yet profound, changes in thinking. Following are five of them.
Think in terms of niches and targets. Bigger isn’t necessarily better when it comes to online searches. Newcomers often translate traditional advertising tenets into high bidding for the most popular search terms. They think the campaign will generate wide impressions that way. The result is a tremendous waste. Often, the agency will blow the budget before they can even begin to track results.
As a rule of thumb, the more granular the keywords, the better the return. Online bank will generate lots of traffic, but much of it will come from browsers. Online savings account with no minimums will get fewer clicks, but a higher percentage of the searchers will be looking to open an account. Conversion rates will be higher. And, since the narrower term will likely be bought with a lower bid, ROI will be greater.
Always test. To get the most from a search, be fluid. That means continually testing different combinations. There are more intricacies to online search marketing than any other form of advertising and every element is in motion. Slight shifts in keyword combinations or listings, for example, can dramatically alter results. There is no way to know this ahead of time. We currently manage campaigns with more than 800,000 keyword combinations going at any one time. The search engines allow multiple tags to be tested for every keyword. We can bid to be the number one spot or the last on the list. All of these variables need to be tested on an ongoing basis to arrive at the most cost-effective formula.
Bid by keyword. Newcomers to searches often buy a keyword with all of the phrases that contain it, which seems more efficient. The problem is that locking up a word carries an understandably high price tag. Bidding on specific keyword combinations, on the other hand, allows an advertiser to keep pricing in line and get the highest return from ad messages.
Another advantage to the word-by-word approach is that landing pages specific to particular combinations can be set up. Keyword combinations trigger different motivations. Match the landing page to the motivation, and you’re halfway to a conversion. Align every link along the same term (for example, checking bank account), and a higher percentage of the right people will follow the trail home.
Build a system. This approach generates thousands of keywords. For example, Borders employs more than 800,000 keyword combinations in its online search. It’s impossible to do this without the right system to control every keyword, monitor results and manage the campaign in real time. We use custom web crawlers that gather words and product codes from a client’s and competitor’s sites to build a foundation. We then use a word-combining program to create a keyword list, which includes myriad phrasing combinations.
Another custom software program communicates with the search engine’s operation system (using what’s known as its application program interface, or API) to manage keyword bidding and track activity. Still another custom software tool allows us to establish target ROI by keyword and manage the bidding process automatically. That’s how the effect of different keyword combinations can be monitored.
Market nationally and locally. You don’t have to be national to use a search. Local and regional banks can work with Google so their ads only show up where they have locations. Google can identify searchers based on where they live, and can deliver messages accordingly. A Chicago bank can take advantage of search just like a big bank can. If financial services companies can incorporate these changes in thinking, it may make all the difference in the way they are viewed by their potential customers. The more opportunities they are given to click on a financial services website, the more opportunity the company will have to get their business. ■
Alan Pearlstein is CEO of Flying Point Media (www.flyingpt.com), a New York-based online marketing agency whose clients include Emigrant Direct, Maxell and Borders. He can reached at alan@flyingpt.com.