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

Pinterest Opportunities & Strategies for Brands

Topic: Leveraging earned media opportunities on Pinterest
Opportunity:  Increase participation, engagement, site traffic and sales
Channels Impacted: Social, organic search

Right now, Pinterest is the hottest social media site on the Web.  Pinterest’s exponential growth in both traffic volume and user engagement indicates that it’s more than just the flavor of the moment—it’s here to stay.  Hitwise reported that Pinterest traffic increased 36 percent (to 103 million visitors) from January 12 to February 12; Pinterest drove more traffic to publishers in February than Twitter.  And according to comScore, Pinterest users spent an average of 89 minutes on the site in January 2012 compared to 21 minutes on Twitter, 17 minutes on LinkedIn and only 3 minutes on Google+.

So what exactly is Pinterest?  And how can marketers use it to increase participation, engagement, native site traffic and sales? 

Pinterest’s mission statement is “to connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting.”  First, a user on Pinterest discovers a new “thing” and pins it to one of their Pinterest boards.  Then, the user’s followers comment on the pin and re-pin it.  There’s a wide variety of pinning categories—from apparel to technology to home décor:

Performics Weekly Digital Research Recap

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

United States

Channel Insights

Search

-What If Yahoo! Sells Right Media? (ClickZ)

• Yahoo! may sell off some of its ad platforms. The move is seen as an alternative to investing resources needed to upgrade the platforms.
• Such a move wouldn't exit Yahoo! from ad technology entirely. The company owns a large portfolio of ad products, including Blue Lithium, Dapper, and a huge ad optimization platform - each of which has a technology component. However the sale of Right Media in particular would change the company's role in the ad-buying ecosystem.
• Performics reaction: "As an advertiser, we're less concerned about the technology and more concerned about the inventory changing. Right Media has probably the most extensive selection of high-quality bidded inventory available to trading desks like ours at Performics, so as long as they don't lose anything we're happy."
• Read the full article here.

Performics' POV on Google's “Over-Optimization” Update

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Natural Search Specialist & the Performics SEO Team

Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Web spam team, briefly outlined an algorithm update designed to “level the playing field” between sites with good content and sites that over-use SEO. This update will make search results more useful for Google users, but site owners who have invested in SEO will be understandably concerned about the effect this update will have on their visibility and ranking. Will all sites be penalized for using SEO? Is SEO still necessary for visibility, or is it now a liability?

Update: Google officially announced the "SEO" update  on April 24, 2012.

This document presents Performics’ POV on this upcoming algorithmic change and its likely impact on Web results.

What sites will the update target and penalize?

Websites that prioritize SEO strategies over relevant, useful content will be the most likely to experience a reduction in visibility.

When will this update hit Google’s result pages?

Matt Cutts discussed this algorithm update on March 9, 2012 but did not provide any specific release date. He said “Hopefully, in the next couple months or so, in the coming weeks, we hope to release it.”  Does this mean next week or before the end of the year? Your guess is as good as ours on this one.

What specific SEO strategies should be avoided?

It is important to understand the context of Mr. Cutt’s comments. As of March 20th, Google has made no official announcements about the contents of the update. News of this update came when Matt Cutts was at a SXSW conference panel and an audience member asked about how Google plans to address search keyword markets that have been saturated with optimized content. For example, certain search queries can return a full page of results that have nothing to recommend them except their optimization for that specific query with common SEO tactics. This can push relevant, useful content further down in the results, which leaves actual subject matter experts at a disadvantage if their sites haven’t done SEO.

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

Potential Impacts of Google’s “Big” Search Changes

Topic: Google’s direct answers and semantic search updates as reported by The Wall Street Journal
Opportunity:  Maintaining/gaining visibility on a potentially new search results page
Channels Impacted: Organic search, paid search

Background

This week, The Wall Street Journal reported that, over the next few months, Google will be giving its organic results a “makeover.”  The WSJ claimed that this update is “among the biggest in the company’s history and could affect millions of websites that rely on Google’s current page-ranking results.”  The changes fall into two categories:

1. Direct Answers:   Like Wolfram Alpha (or Bing, “The Decision Engine”), Google will start providing more facts and answers directly on the search engine results pages (SERPs) so that searchers won’t have to click-through the SERP to get facts/answers.  For instance, a person searching for “Lake Tahoe” would see—directly on the SERP—facts about Lake Tahoe like the lake’s location, size or altitude.
2. Semantic Search: Google will seek to provide more relevant results by understanding the actual meaning of searchers’ queries.  Semantic search associates different keywords with each other to uncover relationships between keywords and facts.  The Wall Street Journal gives an example: People searching for “Hemingway” would see results for Hemingway’s books, as well as other related content.

The Wall Street Journal noted that these changes could impact ten to twenty percent of all search queries.  However, some search experts—like SearchEngineLand’s Danny Sullivan—are skeptical about the reach and importance of the updates.  Sullivan noted that (1) search engines have been providing direct answers for years and (2) Google “arguably has been doing semantic search since 2003, when it began searching for synonyms of words actually entered.” 

Potential Implications for Brands

Time will tell whether these updates are really “among the biggest in [Google’s] history.”  But, in the meantime, we can speculate about some potential organic and paid search implications:

Direct Answers

Providing more answers and facts on the SERP (instead of links) aligns with Google’s goal of keeping searchers engaged with Google properties—whether it’s Google Search, YouTube, Picasa or Google+. Many of Google’s recent updates embrace this strategy, especially the Search Plus Your World release.  Search Plus Your World gives great SERP prominence to Google+ Pages (arguably at the expense of other social networks, like Twitter).  Likewise, direct answers will keep searchers more engaged with Google’s own facts and answers; searchers won’t have to click-through to other answer sites, like Wikipedia.  Thus, this update could reduce search traffic to answer/fact-oriented websites.  In turn, searchers will spend more time on Google, helping Google compete with sites like Facebook in terms of time spent.  Ultimately, more time spent on Google could spur additional engagement opportunities for advertisers.

Semantic Search

With semantic search, organic listings could increase in relevance as Google better understands the actual intent behind each query.  Brands that are actually relevant to their keywords stand to gain as a more accurate, semantic algorithm will tend to rank them higher.  However, semantic search does complicate SEO.  Going forward, brands should approach keyword research and copywriting in a way that incorporates not only keywords and phrases, but the actual meaning behind those keywords and phrases.  On a semantic SERP, SEOs need to think semantically.  Google’s algorithm update will now consider not only the words and phrases on a page, but the sentences, paragraphs and overall themes of the page/site and how this content relates to other things.

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.

Making the Most of Paid Search to Engage B2B Buyers

This article first appeared on ChiefMarketer.com on March 8, 2012

Posted by Leo Dalakos, VP Strategy & Analytics

Many business-to-business marketers struggle to efficiently find, segment and engage their potential customers on search engines. But most B2B marketers aren't fully taking advantage of emerging search engine opportunities and strategies.  Here's five underutilized B2B paid search marketing opportunities:

1.  Identify B2B user needs, then segment via ad extensions. There are primarily three types of B2B participants: (1) the User Buyer (who identifies the organization's need for the product), (2) the Technical Buyer (who screens/researches vendors), and (3) the Economic Buyer (who controls the budget and is concerned with ROI). These participants have different needs; therefore, they respond to different messages and content.  For example, the Technical Buyer wants content on features, reviews and product comparisons while the Economic Buyer wants information on price and quality. But, as a marketer, you often don't know which buyer is behind a certain query. So how do you appeal to all buyers? First, identify the distinct needs of each buyer. Second, build paid search landing pages that house content that speaks to each need. Then, segment buyers via various ad extensions:

• Sitelinks: Sitelinks are links below your ad that direct users to different landing pages on your site. Use sitelinks to segment user types based on needs. For instance, an advertiser could include a "Features" sitelink to engage the Technical Buyer alongside a "Pricing Menu" sitelink to engage the Economic Buyer. If you sell a product to both business and non-business users, segment non-business users with a sitelink (i.e. "Printers for Home").
• Video: Video ad extensions—like Yahoo! Rich Ads in Search—enable advertisers to embed a video within a paid search ad. Video is a particularly powerful tool for B2B marketers, especially in engaging the Technical Buyer who often wants to see your product in action.
• Click to Call, Location Extensions, and "Find Nearby": Make it easy for the User Buyer to get your product when he needs it by including your phone number and address in your ad. Additionally, Google's "Find Nearby" feature helps searchers find where a product is sold and if that product is in stock.

2.  Hyper Tailor to B2B: To run efficient search campaigns, B2B marketers must filter out unqualified, non-business-user clicks. Perform ongoing ad copy testing to uncover which messages resonate best with business users (and don't resonate with non-business users). Create landing pages that speak directly to B2B.

Managing False & Malicious Online Reviews

With Yelp’s recent IPO, we thought it would be helpful to remind brands how to best manage their reputations on online review sites.  Your search engine marketing efforts are becoming increasingly dependent on what your participants say about your brand online.  Participant reviews—on Yelp, Google Places, and Citysearch—now occupy prominent positions on the search engine results pages (SERPs), especially for searches with local intent.  Whether a new-to-file customer walks through your door often depends on a review they read through a search engine.  The problem is that many of these reviews are fake.  For instance, a recent Cornell University study found that about half of all online hotel reviews are fake.  These fake reviews could be positive.  But they could also be negative—perhaps posted by a competitor looking to disparage your reputation.  And, according to B2B Magazine, one negative online review could cost you thirty new customers.

Savvy marketing strategies are often best suited to manage false and malicious reviews.  Managing reviews starts with engaging in a two-way conversation with your reviewers—both critics and fans.  This requires (1) monitoring, (2) reporting malicious reviews and (3) participating in the online conversation about your brand.

(1) Monitor

You can’t manage online reviews unless you’re monitoring them.  Every brand should designate resources—either in marketing, customer relations or public relations—to monitoring online brand reputation.  For larger brands, this may require social listening tools or conversation analysis capabilities. 

• Claim your business listings on Yelp, Google Places and other review sites so that you’re able to monitor more easily
• Monitor the conversation around your brand in real-time.  Time matters; every minute that a false and malicious review sits on your review page could cost you business.

(2) Report

It’s always worth it to report false and malicious reviews to the search engine or review site.  If the review looks like spam, the site may remove it.  To report a review in Google Places:

• Go to the “Report a Problem Link” at the bottom of your Place Page
• Place Page owners can then submit a form to Google indicating that the review contains incorrect information or spam 

(3) Participate

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

Technology Spotlight: Will “Summly” Change the Way We Read Search Results Pages?

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Natural Search Specialist

A new iPhone application called Summly has been getting some press, along with its creator, Nick D’Aloisio. The future development of this app is worth watching because it could increase the efficiency of search engine results pages for the people who read them. What if search result snippets became more relevant and really helped you decide whether it was worth your time to read the article? Would you spend more time searching, or less?

What the Summly app does is this: you give it a URL and then the app will read the contents of the URL and use AI to decide what the most important sentences in the article are. Then the app summarizes the article into three bullet points.

As you might expect, this app has the potential to save some people time. Rather than read a whole web page to decide if it’s relevant to what you need, the app can present you with bullet points from the page instead. You can read those and make a decision about whether it’s worth it to read the whole article, or try a different search query.