Posts Tagged SEM
Retailers are spending more in Q4, 2008, search marketing, study says
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
Even though online consumers are spending less per transaction than a year ago, retailers have spent 33% more on search marketing through the first half of the fourth quarter reports a new study.
The study notes that visitors to retail e-commerce sites through the first half of Q4 converted to buyers at a slightly higher rate than during the same period last year, up 0.25%. At the same time, however, average order values have declined by 6.2%, according to the study, “Mid Q4 2008 U.S. Search Market Report.” The study tracked more than 30 million clicks on ads on the Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines during the first half of the fourth quarters in 2007 and 2008.
The increase in spending on search marketing despite the decline in average order value indicates that retailers are relaxing their goals for return on investment from search marketing. At the same time, retailers are aggressively using paid search to capture more of consumers’ online purchasing, the firm adds.
Shar Van Boskirk, a marketing analyst at Forrester Research Inc., says she has found that the struggling economy has prompted marketers to spend more on paid-search and other direct-response marketing tools. “My research with interactive marketers indicates that they are happily increasing spend on search marketing (as well as other interactive, direct response marketing tools like e-mail) in a recession,” she says. “Not only is online search a measurable tool, but it also tends to work because it finds shoppers when they are in-market and actively researching or shopping.”
Posted by Tom Polanski in Marketing on December 19th, 2008
Does Search Need a New Business Model?
David Berkowitz wrote:
ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni suggested as much in his opening day keynote at MediaPost’s Search Insider Summit this week. He stressed that marketers are realizing so much more value from search than they’re paying for, and that means there’s money being left on the table. Here’s some of his analysis as to why (read more stats in my blog’s coverage of the session):
• One-third of ad dollars are focused on brand building, which is the reverse of traditional media, so we need to figure out how to use search and display to increase branding value.
• There are three components of how search drives buying: direct online effects (16%), latent online effects (21%), and latent offline effects (63%), so 84% of the value isn’t being monetized by search engines, and marketers aren’t generally measuring it.
• Enquiro did a study that showed a 16% brand lift when a brand was advertised in the top sponsored and organic results, so even without a click, there was value.
• ComScore’s data shows that only about 5% of Google’s paid links result in a click; the other 95% of ads are really “unpaid links,” yet they deliver value to advertisers.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising, Agencies on May 21st, 2008