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

Mobile Search Surges into 2012

Posted by James Beveridge, Senior Analyst

Due to relentless month-over-month increases in mobile paid search impression and click share, Performics is predicting that 2012 will be a huge year—even bigger than 2011—for mobile search.  Mobile search has already started with a bang in January.  By the summer, we project that Google mobile paid search impressions will be 20% of all mobile paid search impressions, and Google mobile paid search clicks will approach 28% of all mobile paid search clicks.  Below, we report on mobile impressions, clicks, click-through rates (CTRs) and cost per clicks (CPCs) through January 2012 for our aggregate client base.  While December 2011 was the biggest month ever for mobile paid search, January 2012 followed closely behind:

Impressions

Total mobile paid search impressions on Google (as a percentage of all impressions (computers + mobile)) peaked at 16.4% in December, the highest of all-time.  And mobile paid search impressions remained high in January, at 15.9% of all paid search impressions (computers + mobile).  Tablets have been a significant factor in the mobile search surge; they represented 38% of all mobile impressions in Nov/Dec 2011, and continued to rise in share to 40% of mobile impressions in January.

Based on recent trends, we believe mobile impression share could rise to 20% over the next 6 months.  The below graph forecasts mobile impression share through June 2012:

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.

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. 

Holiday Online Sales Wrap-Up

Posted by Cristina Lucero, Research Associate

For the holiday season-to-date, $35.3 billion has been spent online, marking a 15% increase versus the corresponding days last year (comScore).  The most recent week (ending Dec. 25) witnessed $2.8 billion in spending, an increase of 16% versus the same week last year.  Peak online holiday spending occurred on Nov. 28th (Cyber Monday); according to comScore, “online retail sales topped $1.25 billion that day—the heaviest online shopping day in history.”

Building Inbound Links at the Enterprise Level (Video)

Posted by Lauren Bradley, Associate Account Manager

Post-Cyber Week Paid Search Metrics Remain Strong; YoY CPCs Fall for Second Consecutive Week

Posted by Ryan Hornacek, Analyst

During the week of 12/4 to 12/10, our aggregate group of retailer clients spent 43% more on paid search than they did the same week in 2010, gaining 53% more YoY clicks.  Although spend was still up 43%, this is the lowest YoY spend increase we’ve seen this holiday season since the week of 10/16–10/22 (where spend increased 38%).  This shows that retailers have tapered-off spend increases after huge YoY increases during Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.   However, we do expect retailers to make major spend pushes in the coming week, especially on Free Shipping Day. 

Additionally, we’ve now seen two consecutive weeks of lower YoY CPCs.  During the 12/4 to 12/10 week, CPCs were 7% lower than the same week last year.  It will be interesting to see whether CPCs remain low as competition heats up again on Free Shipping Day.  The below charts and graphs show YoY trends in clicks, spend and CPC:

Cyber Monday: By the Numbers

Posted by Cristina Lucero, Research Associate

Last year, for the first time, the Monday after Thanksgiving was the biggest online shopping day of the year by sales and the first day ever that online sales passed $1 billion, according to comScore.  However, this Cyber Monday surpassed last year’s, reaching $1.25 billion in online spending.  Cyber Monday 2011 took the cake as the heaviest online spending day in history and the second day on record to surpass the billion-dollar threshold.   Heavy discounts contributed to the big day—78 percent of retailers offered online promotions, almost half offered discounts, 38 percent ran limited-time flash sales and one third offered free shipping (Shop.org).

 

Thanksgiving & Black Friday Paid Search Performance: Spend & Clicks Rise Significantly

Performics' analysts have been crunching Black Friday numbers and findings include:

• Thanksgiving Day saw the biggest increases in activity: paid search spend up 128% and clicks up 87% year-over-year
• Black Friday saw paid search spend up 120% and clicks up 65% YoY
• CPCs steadily increased throughout the week, rising 34% YoY on Black Friday
• Mobile was over 20% of Google paid search clicks on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Performics predicts that mobile paid search will make up 25.4% of all clicks (desktop + mobile) in December 2011.

Matt Miller, SVP of Strategy & Analytics noted, "While the effects of the recession are not over for retailers, we take the increased search activity as an indicator of pent-up demand for goods this holiday. However, the new post-recession shopper is researching online and on their mobile devices more than ever, to find the right combination of quality and price. Many of our clients this year took advantage of the early opportunity and increased their budgets accordingly to capture this demand."

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