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

Yahoo! Axis’s Potential Impact on Paid Search, Organic Search & Display

BACKGROUND

On May 24th, Yahoo! announced its new light-weight browser, Axis.  Axis is a plug-in to desktop browsers and a stand-alone app on mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad.  It’s only available in the U.S. and is still in development for Android devices.  Axis combines searching and browsing.  It populates instant answers and highly-visual previews as searchers type.  On mobile devices, Axis’s visual experience has received rave reviews; CNET wrote, “On the iPad, Axis is simply a great browser.  The integrated search feature is intuitive, and being able to move through search results without having to go back to search makes sense”:

 
Axis works slightly differently on desktops.  People use their preferred browser, and the Axis search box sits on the bottom-left corner of the user’s window, expanding as the user searches:

The Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights & Do Not Track: Early Thoughts for Advertisers

On February 23rd, the White House unveiled the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, which seeks to give people more control over their personal data online.  The Bill of Rights is an industry-wide agreement developed by the White House, FTC, Commerce Department and Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) (which represents over ninety percent of the U.S. online advertising industry).  The “rights” in the agreement include:

1. Individual Control: The right to exercise control of what personal data companies collect and how that data is used 
2. Transparency: The right to easily understandable and accessible privacy policy information
3. Respect for Context: The right that companies will only use personal data consistent with the context in which users provide the data
4. Security: The right to secure management of personal data
5. Access and Accuracy: The right to access and edit personal data
6. Focused Collection: The right to limit the collection and retention of personal data
7. Accountability: The right that companies adhere to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights

The White House will encourage all stakeholders (including browser manufacturers, advertising networks and websites) to respect these rights; it will also work with Congress to enact legislation that enforces the rights. 

Do Not Track

One way that the agreement seeks to protect privacy rights is by requiring browser makers to implement an easy-to-use Do Not Track feature.  Websites and advertising networks must honor Do Not Track by not tracking users who’ve opted out of tracking via their browsers.  However, there’s still an open question as to exactly what qualifies as “tracking,” and the DAA, FTC and Commerce Department will have to work through this in the coming months.  For instance, Google has stated that Do Not Track will impact “some aspects of tailored advertising” but will not affect signed-in users who’ve requested personalization.

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:

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.

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.