Newest Eye-Tracking Study Results for Google

I’m excited to say the results are just back from our second annual eye-tracking study of major search engines. (You can see my column on our first-year results here.)

As you may know, eye-tracking labs study what real-life people’s eyes — and mice — do when they look at something on a computer screen. The final report, a four-color heat map, reveals what was seen and what was not, how far people scrolled down, and where they clicked (including things weren’t even clickable, which happens more than you may think).

Naturally one goal of this year’s study was to determine if anything major had changed since last year. Turns out, one of the biggest changes is something every marketer should pay close attention to:

the Google OneBox.

The OneBox is that quick list of hotlinks that Google often places at the very top of the standard organic (natural) results listings. Although what Google uses the OneBox for is a moving target, as of press time the search engine often posted a list of these types of links:

* local search results (especially critical for brick-and-mortar retailers)

* Google News headlines

* stock symbols

* scholarly articles

* product lists drawn from online catalogs

* major sections of your site that get significant direct traffic.

As noted, there’s a lot of flux in what specifically Google is placing in the OneBox. For example, product hotlinks also contained in Froogle used to be there far more often than they are at present.

You should periodically review how Google uses this OneBox, for two key reasons:

1) All OneBox clickthroughs are free. These are organic results — not pay-per-click (PPC) — so you don’t pay for them. On the other hand, you can’t control them either. Only extremely thorough search engine optimization can help you out.

2) According to MarketingSherpa’s new eye-tracking study, search users pay more attention to the OneBox listings than to almost anything else on the search results page. Paid listings, especially the right-hand column AdWords ads, are getting periphery attention … if any at all.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at the eye-tracking heat map results for yourself in this PDF report (open access, no registration requested):

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/exs/SMBGExcerpt_07.pdf

The major question from marketers that our research team fields in response to these search-results heat maps is inevitably “If no one ever looks at the right-hand column of ads, why do I get so many clicks on my ads there?”

The truth is, obviously some people do look at that column. But it’s a very small percentage of total traffic. You may think you received a lot of clicks … but compared with the total number of visitors who landed on the page with your ad, you got very few. Top organic listings for the same exact search result inevitably received far, far more clicks than your ad did. That’s been a known — and studied — fact for a half-decade now. Eye-tracking studies merely show you why this is the case.

What can help your ad generate more attention? Before you ask that, first do whatever you can to improve your organic rankings — especially for OneBox potential.

Then, start testing tweaks to your copywriting. Aside from raising your bidding, copy is the only tactic you have to get that attention.

Every time we’ve researched copywriting tests for search ads, the marketers could demonstrate outstanding changes, often with seemingly small tweaks. Two keys to explore:

1) Review your direct competitors’ copy on the same results page. (You can do this manually if you’re in a fairly small market or use software for more-competitive niches.) Look at the words they use and the words you use. Which one would the most qualified prospects be more likely to find clickworthy?

Note: That’s not always big savings or the word “free.” Sometimes quality assurances or phrases such as “24/7 customer service” can do much better for you.

2) Go on a domain-name shopping spree (especially if you’re not a trusted, well-known brand already). Buy domains that match your top-performing keywords in some way. Example: If you market CRM software, buy “CRM101.com” and test it. (Yes, you can have it resolve over to your regular landing page. But you must own the domain to be allowed to use it even for vanity marketing purposes.)

Numerous tests have shown that your visible domain name in a Google ad does double duty as marketing copy. So why not treat it as such?

Anne Holland is president of MarketingSherpa, a research firm publishing buyer’s guides and benchmark data for its 237,000 marketing executive subscribers. For a copy of MarketingSherpa’s new Search Marketing Benchmark Guide for 2007, go to:
http://www.sherpastore.com/Search-Marketing-Benchmark-SEO-PPC.html?8966

© MarketingSherpa, Inc. 2006