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

TREND: SERP-Embedded Coupons as Belts Tighten

According to the June 2011 American Pulse Study by BIG Research, Americans have come to the realization that despite price increases, salaries will likely remain stagnant.  In fact, 89.9% of Americans with jobs don’t expect a pay increase in 2012 and will thus significantly cut spending each week.  Given no salary increase, people plan to make a variety of financial changes:

• 58.9% spending less on clothing
• 53.1% comparison shopping
• 50.0% staying on a strict budget
• 42% spending less on groceries
• only 6.6% no change

Performance Marketing Implications

With more people focused on belt-tightening, brands must engage customers through deals and offers.  But with so many online discounters, coupon sites, and group-buying sites, how does your brand stand out from the crowd?  One way is to embed your coupon on the search engine results page (SERP).  Paid search advertisers have always focused on highlighting deals and offers within ad copy, but now advertisers have new in-SERP beta opportunities to embed coupons in search listings. 

Google+ and Social Search: Great Potential, Greater Challenges

BACKGROUND

On June 28, Google started a “field trial” for its new social product, Google+.  Google+ has four main features: Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and Mobile.  Users can sort friends into Circles, discover shared interests through Sparks and video-chat about those interests in Hangouts.  Google+ also incorporates the +1 Button—Google+ users have a profile that houses a stream of all the content the user has shared and +1’d.  The +1 Button is Google’s response to the Facebook “Like” button, and Google+ is Google’s response to, well, Facebook in general.

IMPLICATIONS FOR SEARCH ADVERTISERS

Google’s end goal is to create its own network of social connections and shared content that can be used to make search more intimate and relevant.  Conversely, Bing has tapped Facebook to make search more intimate and relevant—Bing now shows “Liked” results from people in the searcher’s Facebook network.  Whether it’s on Google or Bing, there’s no doubt that social cues are transforming the search engine results page (SERP). 

If Google can succeed in driving large scale Google+ adoption—and derive a wealth of social cues from Google+ users—search could be revolutionized.  Google+ users could see highly-customized SERPs that rank results based on recommendations/likes from Circles.  Shared interests discovered through Sparks could float to the top of the SERP.  In other words, the searcher’s friends will play a significant role in influencing where a result ranks and whether it gets clicked—both in natural search and paid search (if social cues are integrated into Quality Score).  Search marketing strategies will thus focus around influencing customers to participate with your brand by sharing your content with Circles, discovering your brand through Sparks, talking about your brand in Hangouts and +1ing your content. 

CHALLENGES FOR GOOGLE+

Early reviews of Google+ have been positive and people are excited about its features.  That being said, the social landscape is crowded.  No matter how cool Google+ is—and how much scale Google has—getting people to adopt another social network or social sharing site will be a challenge.  People are busy managing their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, YouTube and Salesforce Chatter accounts.  This means that Google+—to gain large-scale adoption—must not only be better than Facebook et. al, but significantly better. 

ICANN Approves New gTLDs: SEO Implications

Posted by Jonah A. Berger, SEO Manager

SEO effect not to be felt at the outset, but businesses should take note

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees the world’s domain name system, recently voted in favor of introducing new gTLDs to the Webosphere. Starting January 2012, established public and private organizations can apply for the rights to the gTLD(s) of their choice – both branded (e.g. .mcdonalds) and non-branded (e.g. .restaurant) – at a cost. The one-time evaluation fee is $185,000 and owners will need to pay a recurring fee of $25,000 annually. The evaluation process can take anywhere from 9 to 20 months, so it can be assumed that the first of the new gTLDs will go live in 2013.

This blog provides additional background on the ICANN announcement, discusses how it may impact gTLDs moving forward, and describes what it could mean for brands and the future SEO landscape. 

A Hefty Price Tag and Shades of Gray

No matter how successful the new gTLDs become, what can’t be overlooked today is the fact that their unveiling will be most beneficial for big business. Companies that don’t find themselves on or anywhere near the Fortune 500 list probably don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars set aside for a rainy day, especially if that day approaches but the forecast is mixed. Essentially, this is the case because as appealing as it sounds to have a brand name appearing to the right of the dot in a URL, there’s no guaranteed ROI and no way to tell when – and if – Web users are going to move away from typing .com without hesitation and toward a .yourbusinessname or even .yourvertical. It can be assumed that if a product like Diet Coke is moved to diet.coke, plenty of users will still be typing dietcoke.com or even diet.coke.com into their address bars. As for search engines, which are discussed later on, whether or not (and when) they adopt the new gTLDs is up in the air, as is the value the gTLDs will provide sites.  

Why is Google Showing Different Results for the Same Company?

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Natural Search Specialist

Every company seems to be the same.  They’re all made up of a bunch of different departments and it seems like none of them ever talk to each other.  While this is slightly annoying if you work for the company, it can be really annoying when the result is giving people the wrong information for months at a time while they swear the problem has been fixed. 

If you’re seeing weird things in your business’s Google Places listing, you’re not alone.  While cruising around the Web, we did a search on Google for a business name and a location, as shown in the following screenshot:

  
The top result was the Google Place Page for the company, which included the company address and telephone number shown below:

  

Performics Weekly Research Recap

Posted by Cristina Lucero and Christina Mannarino, Performics Research & Insights Team

Highlighted below are emerging trends and insights from the week of June 20, 2011:

United States
Channel Insights

Mobile

Mobile commerce is expected to reach $31 billion by 2016 and be 7% of overall ecommerce sales (Forrester).

• Forrester expects that mobile commerce will top $6 billion by the end of this year (2011) and grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 39% through 2016.
• Retailers can expect 2% of their online web sales to be transacted through mobile devices in 2011.
• One of the biggest opportunities for mobile shopping rests with store associates who can use handheld devices to educate themselves and consumers, as well as save sales when products are out of stock.

Time spent on mobile apps has surpassed web browsing (Flurry).

• The average user now spends 9% more time using mobile apps than the Internet.
• Facebook has increasingly taken its share of time spent on the Internet, now making up 14 of the 74 minutes spent per day by consumers, or about one sixth of all Internet minutes.
• Consumers spend nearly half their time using games, and a third in social networking apps.  Combined, these two categories control a whopping 79% of consumers’ total app time.
• Read the full story here.

Nearly a quarter of online adults (24%) have used the Internet to make a phone call (Pew Internet).

• In 2007, online calling from Internet users was only about 8% (6% of all adults). Skype, one of the more popular online calling services, is considered to be a large contributor to the increase.
• Demographically, Internet users with higher levels of education and household income, as well as younger online adults, were more likely than others to use the Internet for phone calls.
• Read the full story here.

Developer Tips on the Google +1 Button: Giving You the Skinny on +1 Optimizing

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Natural Search Specialist

It’s here.  Google has thrown down the gauntlet to Facebook.  The “+1” button is now appearing in Web sites and in Google search results pages.  How can Webmasters make the most of this button? 

Google recently held a webinar for developers on installing and using this button on their sites.  If you didn’t have a chance to listen, here I’ll present some of the most significant items from the perspective of search engine optimization.

First things first: you can get the official code for the +1 button here:
http://google.com/webmasters/+1button 

Of primary interest was the revelation that yes, Google will be using +1 as another algorithmic signal to help rankings.  It’s official; more +1s = higher ranks, so it’s in your interest to get this button on your site.  It goes without saying that Google will have spam detection technology in place to help prevent misuse.

What the webinar stressed was that this is a new item, and, strange as it may seem to us professional SEOs, some people might not know what the +1 button does.  For this reason, Google gave some advice on putting it up in your site in these, the days of early adoption:

1. Add some text near the +1 button that lets people know if they click on it, they will be endorsing your site’s content.
2. Wherever you put the +1 button, make it clear to your visitors which item they are endorsing when they click on it.

This makes sense; the button is not going to work unless it gets wide adoption.  Google stated it would be making their own efforts to spread the word about what +1 does, but putting this button in front of your site’s fans and explaining what it does will give your site’s fans the opportunity to help you.

Performics Local Search Team Accelerates Click-Through Rates for Local Dealer Group While Putting the Breaks on Click Costs

Challenge
A group of local dealers for a major auto retailer sought to boost paid search click-through rates (CTRs) while—at the same time—lowering cost-per-click (CPCs). The group’s goal was to achieve CTRs in excess of 1% at an average CPC of under $2.00.

Solution
Holistic optimization strategies included:

• Hyper-Targeting: Performics defined a more focused marketing area for the dealers based on Google Analytics data that revealed the most natural and organic search volume around the vehicle brand. Pre optimization, the dealer group was targeting based on DMA. DMA targeting spanned across a large area that may have included searchers unlikely to drive 50+ miles to find a vehicle. By refocusing the targeting, we displayed paid search ads to searchers more likely to buy from each dealer.
  
  
• Keyword Management: To improve efficiency and lower CPCs, Performics built out exact matches while pausing broad match terms that were driving high impressions but low clicks. We also replaced geo-modified keywords outside of the new targeting areas with geo-modifiers within our new target areas. Additionally, search query reports were used to identify new keywords.
  
  
• Custom Copy Creation: New copy—which reflected each dealer’s landing page language—was developed to increase relevancy between keywords, copy and landing pages, thus improving Quality Score.

Genuine Strategies to Outsmart Paid Search Counterfeiters

This blog was first posted on emarketingandcommerce.com.

Posted by Craig Greenfield, SVP Performance Innovation

According to MarkMonitor, counterfeiters sold $135 billion in goods online in 2010. Many counterfeiters are now using paid search to engage U.S. searchers. Search engines make this possible by allowing third parties—potentially counterfeiters—to bid on others' trademarks (e.g., Coach bags, Oakley sunglasses, Rosetta Stone). Search engines prohibit advertisers from promoting counterfeit goods, but smart counterfeiters regularly evade the engines. Offshore counterfeiters also evade U.S. law enforcement, which only has jurisdiction to seize domestic domains. As a result, some high-end retailers and software providers are being forced to wage a constant paid search battle against counterfeiters.

Let's look at Coach, a brand susceptible to counterfeiting. According to Coach's Web site, the only sites that sell authentic Coach products are Coach.com, Macys.com, Nordstrom.com and Dillards.com. However, according to Google's search engine results page (SERP), searchers can buy authentic Coach products from sites like Cosaletoday.info, Aomart.info, Alibuys.info and Bestaomall.info.

Actually, the domain names of the counterfeiter sites don't even matter; every time Google removes an ad, the counterfeiter puts the same content on a different domain and buys a new ad. Controlling counterfeiter paid search ads is like a game of Whac-A-Mole—every time one is eliminated, a new one pops up. 

Google Rolls Out +1 Button for Websites

Posted by Jonah A. Berger, Manager, SEO

More than two months have passed since Google first made the +1 button public in its search results, and now webmasters can add the button to their sites with just a few lines of code. This document focuses on a variety of topics related to the +1 button – most importantly how webmasters should implement it on their sites today to further enhance their search marketing efforts and content sharing capabilities.

WHAT’S NEW?

When the initial +1 button was released by Google, it lacked any landing page correlation because it could only be found in search results. To utilize it, searchers either had to click the button before they visited the destination page, or visit the page, return to the search result and then click the button. Now, the clicking of the +1 button in search results automatically ties the button to the search result, the page itself and vice-versa. This way, visitors who find quality content on a page can click the associated +1 button, and those in (and outside, depending on privacy settings) their Google network can benefit from uncovering the same +1’d pages as they search.

WHY NOW?

This latest release has search marketers and webmasters in particular asking questions like “How will this button fare?” “Why this button, why now?” and “How can my site benefit from it?” For a quick +1 refresher (Note: Performics first discussed the +1 button on its blog in April 2011), the button is Google’s answer to Facebook’s universal “Like” button, which continues to show up all over the Web, including in top competitor Bing’s search results and on countless millions of pages. When a user clicks a +1 button in search results and now on a Web page, they’re publicly stamping their approval of that content to everyone in their Google network and the Webosphere (again depending on privacy settings). Saying “Google network” may cause some Web users to snicker because Google has struggled to use its network of mish-mashed products (Wave and Buzz come to mind) to form a sensical, well-rounded social circle. The current Google social circle intends to use a Google Profile as a hub to share and exchange information with sites like Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, as well as Google Buzz, Google Reader, et al.

THE GROWTH OF SOCIAL SEARCH

In a way, one primary goal of the +1 button, at least socially to Google, is for it to create a network of social connections that helps make searching more intimate and relevant. For example, the more +1s a search result garners, the better the chance that family, friends and coworkers will click through and visit that page. The addition of the +1 button to Web pages creates a one-way page to search result relationship that Google has never experienced but Bing certainly has. On the heels of Bing’s May 2011 announcement of a more social search, which includes improved “Liked” results, expanded Facebook profile search capabilities and more, and Twitter’s launch of a new “Follow” button that allows logged-in Twitter users to follow a Twitter account without having to leave the page they’re on, the time is now for Google to put a stamp that finally sticks on social search by convincing those who “Like” Web content to +1 it instead.

Catapult SEO with Your Customers’ Help: Participatory SEO on the Social SERP

Posted by Dan Malachowski, Senior Marketing Strategist

Today’s search engine results page (SERP) is increasingly incorporating social aspects—from real-time tweets, to Google Place page reviews, to user-generated video.  Recently, Google released the +1 Button, which allows searchers to “+1” results and see what their friends have +1’d.  Bing counter-attacked with Facebook-enhanced results, which highlight “Liked” results from people in the searcher’s Facebook network.  Results Liked by friends float to the top of the SERP and stand out with friends’ pictures and the Facebook “thumb” symbol.  Bing—with its Facebook partnership—is strongly positioned against Google in the social SERP battle.

As the engines strive to perfect social search, SEO is fundamentally changing.  On the social SERP, prominent visibility often depends on whether your customers are participating with your brand.  For instance, search results are perceived as more relevant—and more clickable—when searchers see that their friends have +1’d or Liked the results.  Positive reviews in Google Place pages lead to more clicks.  And customer chatter achieves visibility via real-time search.  The social SERP’s value lies in enabling participants to help their friends break through the clutter.  Searchers’ friends are increasingly controlling where results rank and whether they get clicked.  At Performics, we call this participatory search; it’s word of mouth marketing on the SERP.  Participants—through Likes, +1s, tweets and reviews—now wield great influence over your SEO efforts.  To optimize your natural listings, you need your customers’ help.  SEO thus becomes a mutual investment between your brand and your customers.  Natural search visibility depends on encouraging your participants to advocate for your brand.

Performics’ and ROI Research’s S-Net (The Impact of Social Media) Study—released on June 7th—surveyed 2,997 active social networkers and found that they are willing to advocate for brands on the social networks.  This advocacy bubbles up to the social SERP.  Social networkers are actually twice as likely to verbalize satisfaction as to verbalize disappointment. This satisfaction translates into Likes, +1s, tweets, reviews and user-generated YouTube videos that make your brand more visible in natural search.  S-Net broke out those likely to verbalize satisfaction and disappointment by vertical.  For instance, social networkers are very likely to verbalize satisfaction in the restaurant vertical, and restaurant reviews are highly prominent in natural search: