Performics Performance Marketing Blog: SEM, SEO, Social & Display

The Cyber Monday Effect

    

The black horizontal bar represents Black Friday, while the blue horizontal bars represent each of the Cyber Mondays.

Search Happenings- Thanksgiving Edition

Posted by JC Longbottom, Marketing Analyst

From the Engines:

·         New Google SearchWiki allows users to move and comment on search results.

·         Microsoft to rebrand Live Search.

Other Topics of Interest:

·         Where consumers go for video online.

·         How to make your site sticky.

·         UK mobile Web growing 8X faster than PCs.

Some Fun Stuff:

·         Man tries to pay bill with spider drawing.

·         Reality bites. Panda refuses hug.

·         “Meh.”

How Day Parting Can Affect a Paid Search Campaign

Posted by Isiah Drake, Manager, Bid Strategy Team

Day parting is the method of assigning specific keyword bids to designated sections of the day and days of the week.  Day parting is used to increase or decrease keyword bids for specific time periods because many advertisers believe that there are times of the day in which traffic is higher quality than at other times.

At Performics, we believe that day parting is not necessarily a good strategy because consumers do not necessarily convert directly after a click.   For example, a late-night click may result in a daytime conversion.  Day parting rests on the notion that consumers make purchases directly after a click.  As a result, advertisers want to turn off their programs during times of the day when conversion rates are low.  Based on past research and our own Clickstream Analysis, we have found that the click to conversion path is quite complex.  Many consumers perform extensive online research at various times of the day before making a purchase. In fact, consumers can make up to ten clicks before a final purchase.  By not running ads at particular times of the day, advertisers miss out on traffic that may have ultimately resulted in conversions and fostered positive brand associations.

YouTube Sponsored Videos – Come and Get It

Posted by Andy Murray, Program Manager (Paid Search)

 

In between watching President-Elect Obama and skateboarding accidents on YouTube, you may have noticed something else.  YouTube is starting to look a lot like the Google.com search results page.  Google has used the functionality of AdWords to launch the new YouTube sponsored video product, which allows advertisers to bid on keywords that trigger their ad to appear on YouTube.  The ads appear in the “sponsored videos” section on the right rail, and sometimes above the organic results.  When clicking on the ad, the user never leaves the YouTube domain.  They land on a branded page which features a video of their choice.  This has many applications and can add real value to an advertiser’s overall search program.  As there is no video length limit, advertisers can really capitalize on each click and keep visitors on their branded YouTube page for as long as possible.  This is especially relevant when bringing a new product to market or re-positioning an existing product to an additional demographic.

 

Search Happenings

Posted by JC Longbottom, Marketing Analyst

From the Engines:

·         Yang steps down as Yahoo! CEO.

·         10 million LIFE photos added to Google Image Search.

·         Google’s Search-Based Keyword Tool: figure out what your customers are searching for.

Other Topics of Interest:

·         Search complements offline branding efforts.

·         Paid search best practices in the struggling economy.

·         7 signs your paid search campaign needs help.

·         Consumers plan to spend slightly more online this year.

Some Fun Stuff:

·         Search Happenings continues to cover the story of the man who mailed himself to freedom last week.  The creative criminal is still at large and authorities may issue an international warrant for his arrest.

·         Obama’s email quandary.

·         A flamingo fugitive.

Majority of Fortune 500 Companies Still Lack Natural Search Visibility

Posted by Brad Beiter, Senior Program Manager (Natural Search)

Conductor’s recent Natural Search Trends of the Fortune 500 study quantifies the huge natural search opportunity still available for the world’s largest brands.  For instance, Conductor reports that 72% of the Fortune 500 ranked outside the top 100 Google natural search results for most of their paid search keywords.  While the majority of the Fortune 500 has incorporated paid search into their marketing strategy, they’ve yet to take advantage of natural search.  Not only does natural search drive 80% of search engine results page clicks, but an integrated paid and natural search strategy can create efficiencies that lead to lower paid search costs.

Download the entire Conductor study.

Perfomics Featured in DMNews

Posted by Melissa Severin, Manager, Corporate Communications

Michael Kahn, Performics’ VP of Account Management and Marketing, recently contributed a column to DMNews titled “Thrifty Searchers Seek Online Deals as Economic Woes Increase.” Kahn highlights the revived role coupons and discounts have with consumers during the down economy. He also provides online marketers with specific tactics they can employ to capitalize on this consumer behavior. Read the full article.

Yahoo! SSP Myth: TLP Only Gets Brand Traffic

Posted by Jen Hyla, Senior Program Manager (Natural Search)

Many advertisers believe that the Yahoo!  SSP TLP (top level page or homepage) feed only drives traffic for brand terms or common misspellings of your brand or products.  While the TLP does get traffic from brand terms, it also generates traffic from generic or non-brand queries.  This is primarily due to two factors:

1.       The TLP (homepage) ranks well naturally because it’s generally the page on the site that has the largest number of external and internal links pointed to it.

2.       The TLP feed can be continuously optimized to drive traffic from targeted generic keywords (in addition to brand terms).  Generic keywords associated with the TLP are submitted to Yahoo! and appear in the title, description, and invisible keyword/body field of the SSP listing.  The TLP feed’s relevancy to a searcher’s keyword determines where the listing will rank.  The TLP is optimized to target 10-12 high volume keywords.

Google Context Aware (Product) Gadget Ad

Posted by Michael Conway, Program Manager (Paid Search)

Google’s Context Aware Gadget Ad looks similar to other Gadget Ads.  However, this gadget is a little bit smarter.  It serves specific product image ads in the Content network based on the relevance of that content to the product.  Given the significant amount of content that is related to product purchase and the compelling concept of being able to show specific products around that content, we feel that this type of advertising has potential.

The Context Aware Gadget can be configured the same size as any IAB standard image ad, but sizes most appropriate for product images ads are recommended.   The gadget itself has two component parts that work independently.  First is how the ad is served.  Second is how the content of the ad is populated.

Search Happenings

Posted by JC Longbottom, Marketing Analyst

From the Engines:

·         How Google uses its user interface to improve search quality.

·         Google: Use broad match to reach more customers.

·         New Google flu trends indicator.

·         Google’s SEO starter guide.

Other Topics of Interest:

·         The language of search.

·         Paid search holiday dos and don’ts for ecommerce sites.

·         Youtube plans to sell auction-based ads.

·         User experience critical this holiday season.

·         Geo-location in search about to go mainstream.

Some Fun Stuff:

·         Prisoner escapes by mail.

·         Dog drives car.