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

Search Plus Your World’s Impact on Paid Search & SEO

Topic: Google’s incorporation of social and personal content to the SERP
Opportunity: Achieve prominent search visibility through Google+ presence
Channels Impacted: Organic search, paid search, social

Google recently began rolling out its new “Search, Plus Your World” features to the search engine results page (SERP).  The update introduced two new features that significantly impact paid search marketing and SEO:

1. People and Pages: The SERP now prominently features the Google+ Pages of both people and brands—for branded and generic queries—even when the searcher isn’t logged in
2. Personal Results: When logged in, the Google SERP now shows the searcher’s personal photos and posts from Google+ and Picasa.  Personal results include the searcher’s own content, as well as content shared with the searcher.  This new content is exclusive to the searcher, so everyone’s SERP is different.

People and Pages: Search Implications

Since Google+ Pages for Businesses launched, we’ve advocated that having a branded Google+ Page is essential for your search campaigns (see Why Your Brand Needs a Google+ Business Page Now).  We noted that the primary reason to create a Google+ Page was to aid your SEO efforts.  For instance, social content from brands is increasing achieving prominent visibility on the Google SERP, especially for branded searches.  We told brands to expect to see their Google+ Business Pages in the top organic results for branded keywords very soon.  What we didn’t expect was the prominence that Google would give Google+ Business Pages.  For instance, the below search for “fashion” gives H&M’s Google+ Page visibility equivalent to a position-1 paid-search bid, even when the searcher is not signed in:

Multiply the Effect of Your Brand’s Super Bowl Commercial through Digital Integration

Topic: Digital strategies to support your Super Bowl commercial
Opportunity:  Maximize your Super Bowl commercial investment
Channels Impacted: TV, paid search, organic search, mobile, social, display

This year, Super Bowl advertisers will spend a record $3.5 million per 30-second spot.  This investment positions advertisers in front of the largest television audience of the year; for instance, Super Bowl 2011 drew a record 111 million U.S. viewers.  And this year—for the first time ever—the big game will air online (including on mobile devices).  Football fans—and commercial fans—won’t miss a second of the action, even as they run to the fridge and the bathroom.

A Super Bowl commercial buy is the ultimate branding play.  But getting your product/service in front of 100+ million people doesn’t mean your job as a marketer is done.  Your Super Bowl ad boosts brand awareness, thus spurring people to search online for your brand or talk about your commercial on social networks.  Once this happens, you must maintain the connection that your Super Bowl commercial created with your participant.

We’ve provided five tips to strategically optimize your Super Bowl investment and position your brand to capture the demand created by your 30-second spot:

1.  Ensure 100% Search Coverage, Especially on Mobile

This year more than ever, Super Bowl viewers won’t be glued to their television screens.  They’ll be multi-viewing—using their tablets and smartphones to see online-only camera angles, in-game highlights, live stats, commercial replays and behind-the-scenes access.  Since last Super Bowl, we’ve seen an explosion in mobile device usage, and smartphones and tablets were among the top holiday gifts.  Super Bowl 2012 is the perfect time for viewers to complement their TV with tablets and smartphones. 

In particular, we expect mobile search usage to spike during the game as viewers seek out their favorite commercials.  This means that brands must support their Super Bowl commercials with paid search campaigns on desktop, smartphones and tablets.  Ensure that you have ample paid search budget allocated to support potentially huge traffic spikes—Super Bowl commercial keywords are always among the hottest Google search terms during and after the game.  Bid on brand and brand + “Super Bowl commercial” keywords on the engines and YouTube.  Align your Super Bowl search campaign with marketing/PR plans to ensure coverage and ad rank during commercial launch, as well as two to three weeks post-Super Bowl to extend shelf life.  Test your commercial on smartphones and tablets to ensure an optimal mobile experience for your viewer.

2. Beware of Hijackers

You’re the one investing $3.5 million for your 30-second spot.  But your competitors may seek to steal your thunder.  The most notorious example of hijacking occurred in 2006 when Pontiac ran a Super Bowl commercial that encouraged viewers to Google “Pontiac.”  Competitor Mazda took advantage, aggressively bidding on the “Pontiac” keyword and driving searchers to a landing page that compared Pontiac to Mazda. 

Mobile Paid & Organic Search Trends and Tips: December 2011

Mobile Search Trends and Best Practices- Dec. 2011

View more presentations from Performics

Holiday Wish Lists: Gadgets

Posted by Cristina Lucero, Research Associate

This year, many holiday wish lists include gadgets like smartphones, TVs, tablets, Blu-ray players, 3-D TVs and desktop computers.  Of all demographics, dads with young kids are most likely to want these gifts, as well as purchase them for others.  For instance—according to Ipsos—42% of dads said they were planning to purchase a smartphone this year compared to 34% of moms. 

Additionally, African-American and Hispanic parents of children aged 6–14 are more likely to buy smartphones and TVs than their Caucasian counterparts—47% and 48% respectively, compared to only 33% of Caucasian families.  Below is a table from Ipsos showing which demographic groups plan to purchase various consumer electronic products this holiday.  Some interesting findings include that 25% of Asian/Pacific Islanders plan to purchase the iPad 2, and 22% of Hispanics plan to purchase a 3-D TV:

Last Minute Black Friday Trends & Tips

Posted by Cristina Lucero, Research Associate

Black Friday is finally here!  Here are a few last minute trends and tips to get you ready for the big shopping weekend:

Trends

• 44% of participants plan to use social media sites when holiday shopping this year.  (Deloitte).  Many retailers are running Facebook campaigns to engage shoppers and promote deals.  (Internet Retailer).  In fact, 74% of retailers plan to use their Facebook pages to engage shoppers this Black Friday; up from 57% last year.  (BIG Research).  NRF reports that 17.3% of shoppers will monitor retailers’ Facebook pages on Black Friday, and 11.3% will check group-buying sites like Groupon and LivingSocial.
• 40% of e-commerce transactions included free shipping in Q3 2011 (comScore)
• Apps are big this holiday, including ShopSavvy, which allows shoppers to scan a product’s bar code to see if they’re getting the best deal, and Snaptell, which enables shoppers to snap pictures of products to see reviews and prices from various stores

Why Your Brand Needs a Google+ Business Page Now

Topic: Google+ Business Pages
Opportunity: Social link equity, Google+ and Google search visibility for your brand
Channels: Social, SEO, Paid Search

Google has launched Google+ Business Pages, finally giving brands an identity on Google+.  Google+ Business Pages don’t yet have the functionality of Facebook Pages, but brands still should create a Google+ Page now.  How to do it? It’s easy—only a few minutes to set up:

1. Keep in mind that Pages are connected to one person’s personal Google+ profile.  Thus, that person will be the administrator of your brand’s Google+ Page.  Additional administrators cannot, as of now, be added.  So plan exactly who you want to manage your brand’s Page.
2. Have that person join Google+ as a regular user
3. Then, easily create your brand’s Google+ Page using the instructions provided

  
Why Create a Google+ Page?

You have a Facebook Page, Twitter Profile, LinkedIn Page, Tumblr Page, YouTube Channel and maybe even a MySpace Page.  So why does your brand need another social media page?  Well, first—even if you don’t plan to use your Google+ Page—you must claim your official brand Page, or someone else will.  It’s currently very easy for someone to steal your official page.  Mashable’s Todd Wasserman illustrated this by creating a fake official brand page for Coca-Cola.  Google will take down pages created by those who don’t have authority over your brand, and Google does have practices in place to identify and eliminate fake pages—including verification badges, proof of ownership and “report this profile” functionality.  But why go through the trouble of reclaiming your official brand page?  Claim your brand now!  Google+ has 40 million users who represent a large potential reach for your brand.  Also, keep in mind that your fans can create “unofficial” Pages for your brand; but you want to be officially represented.

Performics Weekly Research Recap

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

Hello Everyone!

Highlighted below are some emerging trends and insights that maybe of interest to you from October 28th. 

United States

Channel Insights

Social

- Social Media Marketing and Darwin: Can Marketers Evolve? (MediaPost)

• Marketers can no longer program participants with advertising; instead, now your imperative is to attract people through unique content and authentic brand experiences.
• The next generation of retail is a blended in-store experience enhanced by digital technologies.
• To succeed, you’ll need to understand where your brand fits into your customers’ lifestyles.

Search

- Google Introduces “Bid For Calls” On The PC. (Google)

• Depending on the amount of bids and how many calls are received, Google will begin to include calls in its ads quality score.
• Advertisers whose paid-search ads are generating lots of calls may see a boost in their AdWords rankings accordingly.
• In other words, “call-through rate” will now be a factor in ranking

- Understanding Google’s Latest Landing Page Quality Score Release. (Google)

• Google announced that going forward, landing page quality will be a larger factor in an ad’s overall Quality Score.
• The behavioral signals that Google traces must therefore be related to what they can track for all advertisers, not just those with Google conversion tracking: bounce rate, propensity to search again in short order, time on site, etc.
• At the end of the day, it will reward advertisers for picking the best page among the available choices for your PPC landing pages, and design those pages for maximum effectiveness in monetizing traffic.

Mobile & Tablet

- Paid Search, Mobile Take Front Seat In Holiday Strategies. (Marin)

• Keep local in mind by separating mobile from desktop campaigns, so the content includes location and mobile-specific content.
• Increasing mobile response rates means marketers should tap into position-based bidding to ensure that ads serve up above the fold.
• Another benefit of having separate campaigns is that you can show location ex­tensions within the ad creative.
• Quickly pointing mobile shoppers to your nearest location can be the difference between buyers walking into your store instead of your competitor’s.

Thanks for your time!

Research Team

Additional articles added to the Research Library:

CHANNEL INSIGHTS

“Mobile Social Usage Soars To Nearly A Quarter Of U.S. Population”

“How Social Media Impacts Brand Marketing”

“Tablet Users Keen On News, Not Payments”

“Stat of the Day: Half of Kids Under 8 Have Access to Mobile Media”

“The Alterian Brand Relevancy Tour”

Social Shopping & the Holiday Purchase Process

Posted by Cristina Lucero, Research Associate

This holiday, your participants will use social networks to both (1) learn about deals and (2) hear what others are saying about your products.  For instance, 58% of people follow retail brands on social networks to stay up-to-date on sales and promotions (eMarketer), while others use social networks to inform their purchasing decisions, gauging what their friends are saying about your products.

The Performics Social Shopping Study (Oct. 2011) revealed that social networks play a huge role in (1) the product research phase (2) the time right before a person commits to a purchase and (3) the time after the purchase (by sharing the experience).  66% of the survey respondents use social networks when searching for a product, 64% right before committing to purchasing and 59% after purchasing.  Additionally—according to eMarketer—57% of participants conducted some type of holiday shopping activity on a social network in 2010:

Surprising Shopping Study Results: Men Engage More Frequently Than Women in Five of Six Online Social Shopping Activities

Many social networkers occasionally or frequently conduct in-store search & social activities; Shopping sites trump social and deal sites before the purchase

CHICAGO – October 27, 2011 – Performics, the performance marketing agency owned by Publicis Groupe, today unveiled its 2011 Social Shopping Study which found men are more likely than women to conduct five of six social shopping activities. Contradicting commonly held beliefs about gender and social behaviors, the study showed men more frequently research product information, read reviews, compare products, find product availability and get store information via social networks, shopping and deal sites; while women reign supreme when searching for deals, coupons and specials on similar sites.

Performics Social Shopping Study Infographic October 2011

View more presentations from Performics

Aside from Facebook, men frequent social networks (at least once a month) substantially more than women:

• YouTube (54 vs. 34 percent)
• Twitter (37 vs. 24 percent)
• Google+ (36 vs. 24 percent)
• Myspace (31 vs. 20 percent)
• LinkedIn (20 vs. 16 percent)
• Facebook (96 vs. 97 percent)

Performics Weekly Research Recap

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

Hello Everyone!

Highlighted below are some emerging trends and insights that maybe of interest to you from October 21st. 

United States

Channel Insights

Search

 - Google To Begin Encrypting Searches & Outbound Clicks By Default With SSL Search. (Google)

• The change to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) search also means that sites people visit after clicking on results at Google will no longer receive “referrer” data that reveals what those people searched for, except in the case of ads.
• Google analytics will only track SEO generally, not specifically. This means the search terms won’t be associated with a particular visit, because they aren’t being passed along.
• Referrer blocking won’t be happening with ads. If someone clicks on an ad, the advertiser’s site will continue to receive all the same information it currently gets with unencrypted search.

- Microsoft To Turn Bing Into Improved Search Service Via Apps. (MediaPost)

• Search today provides a more programmed experience, but in the future on Bing, it will happen naturally.
• The app would recommend things you likely want to see to provide a much more implicit search, rather than typing into a Web browser and typing 'restaurants near Belleview' and then going back to the map.
• The Bing team will focus on connecting queries, a proxy for intent, with actions, not just information.

- Paid search spending increases 7% in Q3. (Internet Retailer)

• In the United States, 81.6% of paid search spending went to Google Inc., up slightly from the same period last year.
• In Europe, spending on paid search ads increased 20% in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2010.
• As the Yahoo/Bing alliance approaches its one-year anniversary, it shows little impact on the search engine landscape.

Mobile

- Marketers: Mobile Social Networking Scores With Users. (Experian Simmons)

• The study found voice calling applications (usually a native app on the phone) had the highest daily reach, at 62%, followed by messaging (51%), browser (47%), email (45%) and social networking apps (38%).
• Social networking highest the frequency, with people checking social apps on average 17.7 times a day.
• “…It can be appreciated how significant the role of social networking plays in mobile behavior, and marketers may be well advised to focus their attention in this area.”

Social

- The State Of Social Media 2011: Social Is The New Normal. (FastCompany)

• The state of social media is about how people are spending their time, interacting and connecting with one another, and what happens as a result.
• Facebook is now the size of the entire Internet in 2004. And, as Nielsen shows us, at 53.5%, Facebook accounts for the majority of total time spent online.
• Marketers must create an online experience for the social participant through multiple channels in order to engage and connect with them.

International Insights

Demographics

- In Asia, Marketers Pay Heed to a Growing Older Population. (AdAge)

• Companies are so caught up in wanting to be young and hip and they're ignoring this issue that the seniors are going to be a force to be reckoned with.
• In Asia, home to large populations of older participants -- in places such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong -- marketers have found unique ways of tweaking their products or marketing to appeal to golden lifestyles.
• Marketers: don't underestimate the 50-plus set, a group that will have increasing importance as developed economies age.

 

Thanks for your time!

Research Team

Additional articles:

CHANNEL INSIGHTS

“YouTube’s e-commerce push”

“Mobile Commerce Forum Report: Mobile drives big results for a small retailer”

DEMOGRAPHICS

“Targeting Millennials? You Have to Think Outside the Traditional Color Lines”