Success with Search

By Maor Daniel, National Marketing Manager with Yahoo! Search Marketing

Everyday Canadian consumers & businesses perform 33 Million search engine queries. These queries range in purpose from general interest to brand research to product comparisons to price shopping and more.

The proven effectiveness of search engine traffic as a direct response tool has made it the fastest-growing online advertising segment over the last five years according to statistics from The Internet Advertising Bureau of Canada (IABC). Additional IAB statistics indicated that search represented an astounding 35% share of all online advertising last year, up from just 9% in 2003. "Canadian businesses are starting to understand the power of connecting products and services to consumers and businesses when & where they are looking for them," says Martin Byrne, National Director – Yahoo! Search Marketing, "and they’re starting to grasp how important it is to take a truly holistic approach." A holistic approach, he says, means bridging offline and online media, as well as leveraging the two complementary strategies of both organic search and paid placement (pay per click).

WHY DOES SEARCH WORK?
Search works for 3 main reasons:

Timing – Message consumers and businesses when they are in the purchase final

Relevance – Message consumers and businesses with solutions that match their needs

Simplicity – Short messaging formats keep value proposition and message simple

Here is an example of someone looking to purchase a bed and how they would utilize search to find it.

WHAT ARE THE TWO MAIN COMPONENTS OF SEARCH?
Organic listings are the core of search engines and are the informal directory of the internet, usually located on the left hand area of the page. They represent a scanning of internet content and links and ranking based on the relevance of the content relative to the word or phrases the user has entered. This relevance scoring is based on of factors as presence of keywords in HTML Title tags within Web pages, etc.

Paid listings usually appear at the top, or down the right side, of the results page. They are generally ranked using a formula that incorporates what the advertisers has bid for the value of a click vs. the performance of the ad and the relevance of the content it leads to. Paid listings allow advertisers to craft language, message and key words to create advertising that best drives online conversions, while reducing their cost-per click rate.

When it comes to organic search, the key for any advertiser is to ensure their website is being ranked near the top, based on relevant key words searched. According to an Eye Tracking Study performed by Vancouver-based search engine marketing firm Enquiro, 100% of audiences view the top three organic listings every time they type in a key word and hit “go”— no matter what search engine they use.

Just 50% of audiences, however, view the organic listing in the sixth position at all as well as they do the top-right sponsored ad. Search engine optimization (SEO) requires delving deeper into how algorithms rank Websites on results pages, but the extra effort is worth it as per above, and because the listing can persistently rank high without the daily or weekly infusion of cash that paid placement may require. In the Eye Tracking study above, researchers found most users scan search results in a “golden triangle” pattern (see chart), characterized by that familiar upper left orientation. “Clicks also happen fairly quickly,” explains Gord Hotchkiss, president and CEO of Enquiro “Consumers usually select the top one or two sites in an organic search because they trust the search engine has performed its job right by finding them the results they are looking for.” The Eye Tracking study found that while indeed 76% of participants found what they were searching for on the first click, a significant 26% returned to the search results page disappointed.

Those that returned to the results page scanned it in a much different way the second time around. Hotchkiss says this is because users no longer “believe” the search engine is able to rank organic listings to their liking, so at this point they are more likely to scan other areas of the results page.

On second viewing, Hotchkiss says, the probability of paid sponsored ads receiving a click “rises dramatically.” So, should search engines let their algorithms be a little less accurate, and drive users from organic to paid listings, in order to increase revenue? To do that, would be to their peril. Users want to receive and click on relevant organic results. After all, perceived results relevance is the reason why consumers use one search engine over the other. And what’s more, the combination of both organic and paid search strategies has been proven to be greater than the sum of their parts.

WHERE TO EXPECT NEXT?
Search is expanding into more specialized areas, in particular local verticals. According to Borrel Associates, the amount advertisers will spend on local paid search will reach US$987 million in 2006 — double the amount spent last year.

Keeping in step, Yahoo.ca has launched its new search algorithm that will help bring up more relevant and locally-driven search results. Mark Updegrove, vice president of sales at Yahoo Canada, says this will encourage more users to conduct local searches, as well as improve organic and paid listing results for local establishments.

Advertisers should also consider their SEM (Search Engine Marketing) strategy for listings in local online directories, such as YellowPages.ca. These directories allow consumers to search for businesses based on geographical criteria, regardless of whether a business has a website or not.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Consider these benefits of using search engine marketing when looking for new ways to promote your products and services online:

• Search is the right medium to find clients when they are seeking for products & services
• In comparison to other marketing methodologies such as banner ads, telemarketing and direct mail search delivers the most cost effective way to acquire customers
• Search engines match the right customers with the right products
  * Some restrictions apply.

Contact Yahoo! Search Marketing at: 1-866-YAHOOSM or email
customersolutions-YSM@yahoo-inc.com

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