The PPC industry is getting interesting again. The Yahoo/Bing Search Alliance, the growth in performance display marketing including channels such as Facebook and Twitter and the increasing credibility of retargeting are all driving a revitalisation of the industry. Marin Software Managing Director, Ed Stevenson, takes a deeper look at these trends
The life of a search marketer used to be simple. Consumers would carry out searches on an engine, either on a laptop or desktop computer, and get directed to your website, where they could go on to make a transaction. When we had worked this out, PPC – despite generating good returns – just didn’t look that sexy.
Well PPC has undergone a facelift, and search marketers’ worlds are changing as a result. The Consumer now has a range of devices to use when starting their buying cycle (laptop, desktop, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, to name a few), can enquire across a number of search and social media platforms (Google, Yahoo/Bing, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn etc), and increasingly decides to transact off-site (mobile apps, social apps, Facebook pages etc).
So, with an increasingly complex landscape, what are the major trends to look out for? Which areas should you focus on as a search marketer? Here are our thoughts:
Yahoo & Bing create tipping point
The global search engine landscape is at a tipping point. With the search alliance set to come into force in the UK within the next couple of months, we ran some research at Marin Software looking at the impact the partnership has had on the US market to date. The results were very interesting. They revealed that shares of paid search impressions increased from 19% to 23% and the share of paid clicks rose from 19% to 21% in the first few months since the agreement went into effect.
The respective increases of 4% and 2% are even more interesting, as Google’s share was reduced by these same percentages for the period. When you consider that, for advertisers, the alliance offers lower Cost Per Clicks (CPCs) and Cost Per Actions (CPAs) in comparison to industry averages, it’s a potentially alluring prospect. So, although marginal, the research showed that the alliance is indeed at a potential tipping point in its objective to dent Google’s dominance.
We’re calling this a “tipping point” as Google is still dominating the search market in mainland Europe with a 90%+ share. To dent this, Microsoft will have to be near-perfect in its execution should it leverage its current tipping point.
When you look at the global market, Google’s dominance is further challenged. For example, Baidu holds 60% of the Chinese search market and there are other large competitors in other fast developing economies like Russia and Japan.
Search marketers spread their seed
Not only are the number of platforms and devices search marketers need to account for growing, but their skills are also being transferred into the performance display market. As the running of paid search campaigns becomes more efficient through platforms like ours, they have more time to focus attention on what is fast becoming known as the performance display market.
Search marketers’ knowledge in Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising and granular targeting are well suited to the performance display market. With the surge in spend on CPC Facebook Advertising last year, the growth in the Google Display Network, along with the likely advent of CPC display advertising on Twitter in 2011, search marketers are already taking on responsibility for more advertising formats.
Stretching search skills to Facebook
The first area of performance display that search marketers need to focus their attention on is Facebook Advertising. Although the techniques are similar to search, there are some adaptations search marketers need to make in order to improve the performance of their Facebook Advertising campaigns:
i.Keep it social
Many brands are driving traffic from Facebook Advertising to a website and attempting to convert users there. While this can work, refining the experience to account for the social surrounding of Facebook will typically deliver better results. Custom Pages or Applications on
Facebook capture traffic within the platform, resulting in lower bounce rates.
As Custom Pages allow users to “Like” your product or brand, you can then remarket to them using status updates to highlight any deals or upcoming events. Meanwhile, Facebook Apps give even more control as you can gather detailed demographic data from user profiles, for your targeting.
ii. Expand targeting
Facebook Advertising’s USP is the ability to target users on their likes and interests. However, like search keywords, users don’t always use the same phrases to describe these. In order to target a full audience of potential customers, you’ll need to investigate beyond your general keyword research.
Use a root analysis of your targeting parameter to expand your audience and increase performance. Enter your targeting parameter into Facebook’s “Likes & Interests” targeting setting and you’ll find related terms. Using travel as an example, entering “travelling w” increases the list to include “travelling with friends” and “we love travelling around the globe.” This expansion increases your audience and will help improve ROI.
iii. Segmentation, segmentation, segmentation
There are 500 million Facebook users, creating a huge audience for your ads. Not all users are the same and they won’t all react in the same way to your adverts. Therefore, breaking down your audience into segments will help you understand how valuable each one is, and help you optimise bids accordingly.
Age, location, and gender are all good places to start and will help you identify the high converting segments. As you measure variance between your segmented advertisements, you can adjust your bids accordingly to improve the overall ROI for Facebook Advertising campaigns.
iv. Let the blind see again
Facebook is a social network. Users want to interact with friends, share their photos and play games. As such they go through a lot of impressions. To avoid posting interruptive or irritating ads, search marketers need to learn the tricks of the online display advertising trade.
With this is mind, you need to ensure you are rotating creative regularly, because ads can be served to the same users multiple times. It doesn’t take long for consumers to completely tune out to repeat ads so regular rotation will increase click-through-rates. Secondly, the most successful ads include colourful, engaging images — and of course, a compelling and relevant offer. Colourful borders like orange or yellow, will contrast with the blue and white Facebook interface. The most-clicked ads are not necessarily the most attractive; they are the ones that jump off the page.
Remarketing proves its worth
Remarketing obviously offers more chance of click-through when compared to traditional display targeting tactics. However, the question still remains: what is the value of re-acquiring someone you already acquired? Look for this question to be answered.
In 2011, remarketing tools will become better integrated into attribution systems, allowing marketers to calculate a true cost-of-acquisition across channels. The first big shift will come from tighter integration of Google Analytics metrics for measuring the impact of Google remarketing on the overall attribution funnel. Pure play remarketing vendors will also get into the act, looking to partner with, or get acquired by, larger analytics or ad serving players to help close the measurement loop.
If you’re in the ecommerce field you can’t afford to overlook remarketing this year. Firstly, because of its proven ability to increase ROI, but also because a tighter integration will take us yet another step closer to closing the attribution loop.
As search marketing spreads and fragments in the ways described above, it will increase complexity for the marketer without necessarily increasing revenues. As this shift occurs, it’s the first marketers to adopt these processes that will benefit from building a multi-channel customer base at a time when acquisition costs are still relatively low.
So now is the time to start making your move.
Ed Stevenson
Managing Director EMEA &APAC, Marin Software