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

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

Why Your Brand Needs a Google+ Business Page Now

Topic: Google+ Business Pages
Opportunity: Social link equity, Google+ and Google search visibility for your brand
Channels: Social, SEO, Paid Search

Google has launched Google+ Business Pages, finally giving brands an identity on Google+.  Google+ Business Pages don’t yet have the functionality of Facebook Pages, but brands still should create a Google+ Page now.  How to do it? It’s easy—only a few minutes to set up:

1. Keep in mind that Pages are connected to one person’s personal Google+ profile.  Thus, that person will be the administrator of your brand’s Google+ Page.  Additional administrators cannot, as of now, be added.  So plan exactly who you want to manage your brand’s Page.
2. Have that person join Google+ as a regular user
3. Then, easily create your brand’s Google+ Page using the instructions provided

  
Why Create a Google+ Page?

You have a Facebook Page, Twitter Profile, LinkedIn Page, Tumblr Page, YouTube Channel and maybe even a MySpace Page.  So why does your brand need another social media page?  Well, first—even if you don’t plan to use your Google+ Page—you must claim your official brand Page, or someone else will.  It’s currently very easy for someone to steal your official page.  Mashable’s Todd Wasserman illustrated this by creating a fake official brand page for Coca-Cola.  Google will take down pages created by those who don’t have authority over your brand, and Google does have practices in place to identify and eliminate fake pages—including verification badges, proof of ownership and “report this profile” functionality.  But why go through the trouble of reclaiming your official brand page?  Claim your brand now!  Google+ has 40 million users who represent a large potential reach for your brand.  Also, keep in mind that your fans can create “unofficial” Pages for your brand; but you want to be officially represented.

Leading to Black Friday, Retailers Increase Paid Search Spend 88% Over 2010

Posted by Ryan Hornacek, Analyst

In anticipation of holiday, Performics has been tracking key paid search metrics for our aggregate group of retailer clients through Q4.  Compared to the same week last year (10/30 to 11/5), our retailers are dedicating significantly more budget to paid search leading up to Black Friday 2011.  Retailers are attempting to capture market share in the weeks before Black Friday.  Over the last week (10/30 to 11/5) specifically, paid search spend is up 88% vs. 2010, and—as a result—paid search clicks are up 43%.

Are Your Prepared for the First Spike in Holiday Mobile Search?

Posted by Cristina Lucero, Research Associate

Historically, there are two major spikes in mobile search traffic leading up to holiday.  The first spike occurs on Black Friday, when searchers use their phones to find the best in-store Black Friday deals.  The second spike occurs on the last weekend before Christmas, when shoppers have missed the Internet shipping deadline and must now turn to their mobile devices to find where they can buy in-store.  The below graph from the Google Mobile Ads Blog nicely illustrates these two spikes for top retail brand keywords in holiday 2009 and 2010:

Try Search Retargeting to Boost Sales This Holiday

Posted by Dan Malachowski, Senior Marketing Strategist

This holiday, many advertisers are integrating search and performance display to find the right shoppers at the right price.  In planning your holiday performance marketing strategies, think about supplementing your search campaign with search retargeting.

The power of retargeting lies in the ability to use search to identify participants who are interested in your brand (but didn’t purchase yet) and follow those participants beyond the search engine.  Retargeting can be especially effective in broadening the reach of search brand keywords.  For instance, brand keywords drive strong search ROI but can be limited in scale.  Retargeting boosts the scale of brand keywords as advertisers can retarget (with display ads) shoppers who searched for their brand/product names, but did not take action from the search results page. 

How Will Google’s New “Bottom Ads” Impact Search?

Recently, Google announced a new desktop ad placement where certain right-side ads will move to the bottom of the search engine results page (SERP).  Based on user experience per query, Google may push some right-side ads to the bottom (the number of ads on the SERP will not change).  Currently, bottom ads only show for queries with fewer ads.  This change only applies to Google.com (not the Search Partner Network).  It also doesn’t apply to Google mobile search, which already features bottom ad placements.  Advertisers cannot opt-out of bottom ads.

 
Impact on Paid Search

It’s possible that—based on the query—your lower right side ad could be pushed to the bottom.  But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Google has utilized Eyescan research to determine that searchers’ eyes direct to the center of the page, rather than to the right side.  In testing, Google has found that bottom ads have comparable click-through rates (CTRs) as right-side ads.