The Other 20 Percent of Success
In July, I misquoted Woody Allen in my article “Nine-Tenths of Search Success.” What Allen actually said is “80% of success is showing up.” My point from July remains that in search marketing, just showing up—for searchers at any stage of the consideration process—is the majority of the battle. So don’t overlook the obvious. Find out what your target consumers are searching for, then show up on those keywords, considering the long-term impact of that visibility, not just immediate click-to-conversion ROI as your barometer.
But what about the other 20%? It turns out that the not-so-obvious last 20% of success in search marketing takes about 80% of the effort. This is especially true as the search marketing industry evolves and competition grows.
This year many marketers will find the low-hanging fruit harvested, but at least two key opportunities for substantial search success remain through improved targeting and the integration of search across channels.
Target the right searchers
In my previous article, we discussed how a number of paths lead consumers to a Website and how search budgets must shift to reflect the overall role search plays in each path. Several new techniques enhance the ability of search targeting to connect the consumer’s intent and a marketer’s offer.
Content targeting, for instance, still a relatively underused tool, enables marketers to target by keyword advertisements that appear on content pages across thousands of sites. When consumers read online content ranging from news articles to their favorite blogs or forum posts, they are exposed to ads matched to the unique content of each page.
Many advertisers dismissed content targeting early on, citing its direct tie to search campaigns in Google’s AdWords platform and the difficulty in tracking and bidding separately. Today AdWords allows separate campaigns and content bidding. Successful content campaigns use highly focused lists of keywords in small ad groups targeting specific types of content read by consumers. Some of our most successful content campaigns contain many ad groups with just one or two keywords each, with ads and landing pages tailored to the content as well. These keywords can now be phrases that searchers don’t explicitly enter but that are present in articles, blogs, or forum posts, creating an opportunity to engage specific consumers based on their interests and not just on explicitly entered search queries.
With careful tending, content targeting can yield increased click and sales volume. Marketers should monitor the sites driving traffic through content networks. While the engines don’t typically report on individual sites, the originating sites should be available through a “referring URL” report in site analytics or an agency’s reports. To improve site effectiveness, also consider blacklisting those sites and ad groups that drive excessive unproductive clicks and visits.
Similarly, geo-targeting of ads to searchers based on their location (as determined from their IP address), can drive additional success. Again, the effort is to think beyond the simple query to where your target customers are when they search. To create this connection, you need to build parallel campaigns with customized copy and highly relevant landing pages. Geo-targeting requires scalable technology and processes to tap into, but once set up and optimized, it can deliver even more value from search. (See my December column for some predictions about local search in 2007.)
Finally, expect increased traction from demographic targeting in search, such as the ability to bid more to have ads rank higher for specific age group/gender combinations. Like content targeting and geo-targeting, it requires effort to set up and test, but the investment in time should yield valuable insights and improved results.
Other marketing channels that work with search
Do you want to tap the full potential of search marketing? Consider it hand in hand with other marketing channels such as affiliate marketing.
In the simplest terms, affiliate marketing provides merchants with a commission-based online sales force. This reseller network of Websites earns commission only when a sale or other predetermined action takes place. Many affiliates are highly adept at using search to drive sales for their marketing partners. Affiliates gladly work with online marketers, many of whom set various policies to retain control over their affiliates’ use of search to drive traffic. For instance, the most brand-sensitive merchants may limit brand-term bidding, while others give affiliates free reign in hopes of dominating the search results pages.
Enlisting trusted affiliates as partners, like the other less obvious approaches to search, will help you create a successful search marketing program. Whether we’re talking about 80% or nine-tenths, the right strategy can reduce costs, increase reach, and generate more results.
Cam Balzer is vice president of strategic planning at Performics, the Chicago-based performance marketing division of DoubleClick, and a monthly contributor to CHIEF MARKETER. Contact him at [email protected].
Other articles by Cam Balzer:
Search in 2007: The Year of Integration
Search Engine Marketing Does More Than Ever This Holiday Season
Quantifying Online Search’s Impact on Offline Demand
Listen to the Data: Using Search to Understand Your Market
Click Fraud: Three Important Considerations
Four Tactics for Search Optimization Success
If You Build It, They Will Come… If You Attract Them
