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

2012 CES Key Trends and Highlights

2012 CES Summary

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Google’s Privacy Policy Update: Paid Search, Display & SEO Implications

Topic: Google’s integration of user data across all Google properties
Opportunity: More relevant paid search and retargeting opportunities; more personal organic SERPs
Channels Impacted: Paid search, display, SEO, social, video

Last week, Google announced that—as of March 1, 2012—it will be updating its Privacy Policy to enable the combination of user data from one Google service with user data from other Google services.  Google currently has 70+ different privacy policies covering its various products.  With the March 1st update, Google will have a new main Privacy Policy that treats each signed-in Google user as a single user across all Google products, including Google Search, Android, Gmail, Google+ and YouTube.  Google notes that the update will allow it “to integrate our different products more closely so that we can create a beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google.” 

In order to sign in to Google, users must accept the new Privacy Policy.  However, users can opt out of the customized experience or adjust/delete information that Google has collected on them via the Ads Preferences Manager.  Additionally, since Google’s announcement, sites like Gizmodo have outlined alternative options in search, email, social, calendar, photo, docs, and video for privacy-concerned Google users.  The update has also generated a request by lawmakers for Google to explain why the changes are necessary and how user privacy will be protected.

Implications for Advertisers

The point of the new Privacy Policy is to allow Google to gain user permission to share valuable user-interest data across all Google properties.  This sharing enables Google to better customize ads and search listings to each individual user.  The key is user data, including demographics and interests.  Google is already a powerhouse in search, video (YouTube) and display.  With the Privacy Policy update, Google is positioning itself as a one-stop shop for targeted advertising and exclusive use of data for buying media via its advertising channels.

As Google is able to link more user data across its properties, it will be able to provide more relevant, tailored paid search ads, display ads and organic listings.  For example, Google can tailor advertising based on each user’s interests—interests that Google discovers through what the user is talking about on Gmail, sharing on Google+ or watching on YouTube.  For search and display marketers, this could increase relevancy, thus boosting conversions and lowering advertising costs:

Paid Search & Display

Google can now leverage cross-property user data to create more unique, relevant search engine results pages (SERPs) for each user.  Let’s provide a real-life example: Informed by interests that a user expresses on Google+, Gmail and YouTube, Google can better understand which version of “Delta”—airline or faucets—a user is searching for, and provide more relevant results.  If that user has been talking to his Google+ friends about replacing his sink faucets, Google could display a Delta Faucet paid search ad on top of a Delta Airlines ad.  This can increase performance for Delta Faucet as the brand will drive more relevant clicks.  Relevancy fosters better Quality Scores, thus lowering paid search costs.

Applying Paid Search Optimization Techniques Beyond the Search Engine Results Page

Posted by Craig Greenfield, SVP, Performance Innovation

This blog was orginally posted on emarketing & commerce

In 2010, Forrester’s The Future of Search Marketing report predicted that “search marketing will become an umbrella term that applies to using any targeted media to help an advertiser get found.” Forrester was right. It’s now clear that search isn’t limited to being just a channel.  Search is the science of understanding intent and acting on it to efficiently connect people to your brand—no matter if that connection is made on a search engine, social networking site, display network, affiliate network or other emerging medium. To foster these connections, search engine marketing best practices can be extended well beyond the search engine results page.

First, I’ll consider how traditional paid search techniques can be applied to display advertising to drive new-to-file customers. Like search, biddable display provides advertisers with targeting capabilities to find the right customer at the right price.  While search marketers create segmentation via keywords to find the right audience, display marketers create segmentation via data sources. For example, during back-to-school season this past year, one of Performics’ apparel retailer clients sought to efficiently boost year-over-year daily sales though performance display. Like we do with search campaigns, we restructured the retailer’s display campaign at a more granular level (31 different ads in 2011 versus 6 ads in 2010) to support product/offer testing.  The restructure revealed deeper audience insights, helping us buy only the impressions we wanted (i.e. the right placements at the right price). We also increased relevance through site retargeting (i.e. serving display ads to people who visited the advertiser’s website but didn’t take action). These strategies resulted in a 211 percent year-over-year increase in average daily sales at a 120 percent return on investment.

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:

A Social Holiday

Posted by Cristina Lucero, Research Associate

Many retailers are turning to social media to further engage participants this holiday.  This is because 44% of shoppers plan to use social media sites when shopping this year.  (Deloitte).  Social shopping includes seeking discounts, reading reviews and researching gift ideas.  In fact, 45% of people “Like” a brand primarily to receive discounts/special offers:

The Power of Google +1 in Organic Search

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Natural Search Specialist

Search engine users who are logged in to Google are now seeing pages in their search results because those pages are recommended by people who are in their Google+ circles. 

For example, when I’m logged in to Google and I search for “Performics,” the third-ranked result is the Performics Twitter feed.  Perhaps not un-coincidentally, this particular URL was +1’d by fellow employees who are in my Google+ circles:

Now, the Performics Twitter feed isn’t an unlikely choice for the 3rd result, as this URL delivers content which is useful and relevant to the search query.  Not only does having my colleague’s photos below the link offer me a compelling reason to click, but it could be that their +1 caused this result to rank #3.  For example, when I’m not logged in to Google, the Performics Twitter page is ranked #5, below the fold.

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

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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 Forecasts Biggest Holiday Ever for Mobile Paid Search; December Mobile Clickshare to Jump from 9.5% to 17.3% YoY

Low CPCs Present Huge Holiday Buying Opportunity for Advertisers

Posted by James Beveridge, Senior Analyst & Cristina Lucero, Research Associate

Mobile paid search was big last holiday, but it will be small in comparison to what Performics expects to see this holiday.  In December 2010, mobile paid search was 9.5% of all Google paid search clicks (desktop + mobile).  Mobile clicks then tapered off in January and February 2011 but have steadily risen ever since.  For Performics’ aggregate client base, Google search clicks from mobile devices are now 14.2% of all search clicks (September 2011). 

Holiday’s historically strong mobile performance—coupled with the continual acceleration of mobile paid search in 2011—indicates that this holiday will be the biggest ever for mobile search.  Without fail, December will be mobile’s biggest month in terms of mobile activity and mobile share vs. desktop.   At Performics, we’re forecasting that mobile paid search clicks will be 17.3% of all search clicks in December 2011:

Interestingly, November mobile click share will fall from October due to historically huge desktop search volume in November.  The primary events in November are Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the following week, and while mobile activity did lift over this period last year, it was outpaced slightly by standard desktop searches.  The wild card this year will be increased tablet usage.  We think that tablets could show incredibly strong search share over the Cyber Stretch and at least mirror desktop’s day-level seasonality, very possibly outpacing it.  Tablets continued to grow—up from 34.3% of all mobile search clicks in August to 35.8% in September.

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:

United States

Channel Insights

Social

- Facebook wants to de-emphasize click-throughs and put more focus on engagement. (Facebook)

• The key point is that social “signals” — Likes, retweets, etc. — are becoming a much more powerful force in determining user behavior online and therefore engagement plays a more critical role.
• This move toward social networks and socially driven engagement as a form of advertising is changing the search landscape as internet users are being influenced more by the recommendations and social signals of their friends.
• However, to prove that advertising on Facebook makes sense for brands, Facebook has to show there’s something else to be gained than just prompting users to click on a banner ad.
• The problem is that many advertisers haven’t yet made the leap to seeing “likes” and mentions of a brand as being worth as much or more than a click-through.

- Understanding the New Facebook 'Page Insights'. (Facebook)

• With Facebook's new page insights, brands can see how the messages they put on their page reach people throughout the Facebook network, and they can also optimize for the messages -- whether they are photos, videos, questions, etc.
• Marketers should use Page Insights to improve how much people share content on a brand's Page with others – which in turn increases virality and reach.
• Marketers should analyze the new post analytics data to see what content creates the most engagement and do more of that to increase virality and brand awareness which will drive growth and adoption amongst friends of fans.

Marketing as a Function of Your Entire Organization

This blog was originally posted on eMarketingandCommerce.com

Posted by Craig Greenfield, SVP Performance Innovation

In a world where earned content is increasingly influencing marketing programs, marketing as a function is changing. Marketing can no longer live solely in your marketing department. From customer service to product development to human resources, it must live everywhere in your organization. If marketing isn’t tied to your overall business strategy, it’s pretty much useless.

The most telling example is the synergy between marketing and customer service. Do your customer-facing employees sit in the marketing department? No, they work on the front line, in the field, in your stores and service centers. Depending on how they interact with your customers, they foster either customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Your customer-facing employees thus wield incredible potential to influence your earned content.