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

Performics Weekly Digital Research Recap

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

United States

Channel Insights

Search

-Pew Research Center Report: Search Engine Use 2012

• 91% of online adults use search engines to find information on the web, up from 84% in June 2004
• Search is most popular among young adult Internet users, those who have been to college, and those with the highest household incomes
• Frequency of search engine use varies by age, education and income, with adults under age 50 and those with more education and higher household incomes using search more frequently than others
• Google is far and away the most popular search engine.  Fully 83% of searchers use Google more often than any other search engine.  Yahoo! is a very distant second at just 6%.
• Read the full report here

-comScore Releases January 2012 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

• Google gained share vs. last month. However, the big news is that Bing is now firmly ahead of Yahoo in “explicit core search.” But using comScore’s expanded “total core search” definition, Yahoo! remains ahead of Bing.  Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in January with 66.2 percent market share (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by Microsoft Sites with 15.2 percent (up 0.1 percentage points) and Yahoo! Sites with 14.1 percent.
• Read the full comScore report here

Thoughts on Big Data from Performics, AdGooroo, OptiMine & Grainger

Posted by Matt Beran, Manager, Customer Advocacy

On the evening of Tuesday, March 13th, Performics co-hosted an event with OptiMine and AdGooroo at Bin 36 Wine Café on big data. “Digital Marketing in a Multi-Channel Ecosystem: Deliver Against Business Goals & Thrive in a World of Big Data Marketing” was an evening of cocktails and informative discussion as a panel of four industry leaders—Richard Stokes of AdGooroo, Eamon Boyle of Performics, Robert Cooley, PhD of OptiMine Software and David Chen of Grainger—moderated by Josh Dreller of Fuor Digital, talked about tackling ways to use data to make smarter marketing decisions, meet brand KPIs and deliver against business goals. They discussed best practices to build a digital foundation, bolster cross-channel effects, and reinforce the power of data-driven decision-making.

The discussion began with a question on how organizations could leverage big data. It was agreed upon that accidental data collection isn’t the right way to do it. You need granular data and lots of it. It’s like a speed boat and the Titanic: are you racing around looking at only the tip of the iceberg, or are you getting crushed by what you can’t see? To start, companies need to figure out how they’re going to apply the data, not the sources it’s coming from. What do you want to do with the data? Use cases—“I want to improve my paid search conversion rate”—and work backwards from there. Data is complicated. You need to know what you really want to do with it and break that down into its incremental parts. Look at it in unique ways.

Performics Weekly Digital Research Recap

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

United States

Channel Insights

Mobile

-A completely redesigned Google Search App for Windows 7.5 phones (Google)

• Windows Phone owners can access the Google Search App, available in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Some of the features include:

1. Google Autocomplete: As you type in your search, autocomplete offers search predictions that often match your intended search term making search entry easier and faster.
2. Voice Search: With the voice feature, you can avoid typing all together. Simply press the microphone and begin speaking your query.
3. My Location: With your permission, Google can use your device location to provide nearby results easily and accurately. For instance, a search for “coffee shops” quickly displays the nearest places you can go to for a cup of coffee.

• Read the full Google Blog post

Social

-Facebook Warns Brands that Scale in Social Won't Come For Free (Facebook)

• To reach a sizable share of your fan base, you'll need some paid "stories"
• To encourage paid ads, Facebook unveiled a tool, Reach Generator, that will let marketers buy all the reach they want

1. The pitch is that just 16% of fans currently see organic content posted by brands: Most of it is weeded out by Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm, designed to enhance users' experience by putting only the most relevant content in their news feeds. 
2. Using the paid ad tool could increase a brand's exposure percentage to 75%

• Read the full AdAge article

Search

Facebook's New Advertising Offerings from the Facebook Marketers Conference

Posted by Megan Halscheid, Director, Performance Innovation

1. Facebook Timeline for Brands

Today, Facebook announced Timeline for Brand pages.  Brands have from now until March 30th to customize their pages based on the new layout. On March 30th, all pages will be upgraded to the new Timeline layout.

Here are some of the new features of Brand Timelines:

• Design Overhaul: Brands now have the opportunity to make a statement with the new page cover photo and how they want their brands reflected on Facebook.  Some example pages Facebook highlighted at its Marketers Conference were Redbull, Nike, Ben & Jerry's, American Express and Starbucks.
• Tab Prioritization: The new layout will allow brands to highlight specific tabs, but other tabs will be more hidden and only shown below the fold.  Brands will have to decide which tabs are most important to their marketing efforts to display above the fold.
• No Default Landing Page: All users will be directed to the main page, rather than brands having the ability to direct users to specific tabs. However, brands will still be able to direct users to specific tabs through Facebook Ads.  
• Post Pinning: Brands will now have the ability to pin key posts to the top of their pages for up to seven days, making it much easier to highlight important posts for a longer period of time.  This will help make up for the fact that brands won't be able to direct users to specific tabs within a page.
• Private Messages Available between Brands and Users: Brands will also be able to privately message fans, meaning that Facebook can be used more powerfully as a customer service tool.

Facebook also provided a clear overview of the new layout features. And, see here for more information on managing Facebook pages with the new layout.

2.  Facebook Offers

Brands can create Facebook Offers like any other Page Post. Currently, Offers are in beta, but will be available to all brands in March.  These Offers can be currently promoted through Facebook Premium buys (CPM) to increase their visibility. 

Facebook Offers is a good opportunity for many retail brands and may be very effective in promoting conversions and generating new-to-file customers. 

Don’t Be Creepy: Using Robust User Data for Ad Targeting While Respecting Privacy

Posted by Craig Greenfield, EVP, Global Managing Director

This blog was originally posted on eMarketing & Commerce

Google announced that on March 1 it will be updating its Privacy Policy to enable the integration of user data across Google properties. As it integrates more cross-property data, including information on user interests and demographics, Google can provide advertisers with more robust and precise targeting capabilities in search and display.

For instance, Google may uncover a certain person’s interests through their interactions on Gmail or Google+. This capability may someday enable an advertiser to direct search or display ads to a person based on those interests.

Although users can opt out of the experience and adjust and delete information that Google has collected, the Privacy Policy update has been met with some backlash.  Lawmakers in the U.S. and European Union have asked Google to explain why the changes are necessary and how privacy will be protected. A privacy advocacy group sought a court order directing the FTC to sue Google, and sites like Gizmodo have urged people to take control of their privacy by switching to various non-Google-owned properties for search, email, social, photos, docs and video.

Assuming Google goes forward with the update and activates the potential for more robust targeting options, advertisers should keep a few things in mind to increase performance while respecting privacy:

2012 CES Key Trends and Highlights

2012 CES Summary

View more presentations from Performics

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: