Archive for the ‘Search Engine Marketing’

Google is making more tweaks to it’s Quality Score Algorithm. They seemingly will normalize the data dependent on the position in order to be “more precise” in serving up the more relevant ad. Positions have a direct effect on CTR. If lower CTR ads found in the lower positions were placed in a higher position, it is entirely possible the new CTR would be better than the current holder of those high placements.

Straight from the horses mouth that is Google.

“Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the most significant component of Quality Score because it directly indicates which ads are most relevant to our searchers. As you probably have observed, ads in high positions typically earn better CTR than those in low positions, because ads in high positions are more visible to searchers. To calculate the most accurate Quality Scores, it’s important that the influence of ad position on CTR be taken into account and removed from the Quality Score.
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SEM in the travel space is not easy. We know, as here at LeadQual we have a number of travel related clients serving different parts of the world. To help all those who struggle and work hard in this space, I wanted to share some data from a ComScore study of 50,000 UK web users. This study focused on user behavior and trends for the online travel industry. Some note worthy facts.

“I like to take my time to buy”

• 15.9% of purchasers buy holiday travel items from the first site they visit
• But only 1.6% will buy in their first session
• This means 14.3% will return at a later time!
• Most users will visit your site at least twice before transacting
• On average it takes 29 days for a transaction to occur for a holiday user
• 30% of transaction occur more than 6 weeks after initial search!

Note: Check delayed conversion especially on Google accounts. Re-pull old reports and update your conversion information. Note that Google’s cookie is only 30 days, so check your backend data to determine if the value of the clicks you are paying for are worth more than it has.

“If I remember your name, I’ll be back”

• 35% of Transactions occur without a keyword search
• Almost 50% of travel searches are brand keyterms (names of companies)

Note: Branding is huge! Good URL is crucial. Bidding on Brand even more crucial!A user may come in and see your PPC ad, but end up not making a decision right away. When they are ready, if your URL is memorable and easy, they’ll just type that in the browser and purchase.
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Search Engine Marketing
For those looking to really capitalize on the holiday season, it is very important to start shoring up a plan weeks in advance. Q4 Holidays brings a special time in the online world where the average user has a different mindset and the volume (for retail) lifts dramatically. It is very important to create specialized campaigns targeting the consumer and their specific needs. Here at LeadQual we have a number of clients from different industries that see different seasonal changes during the Holiday season. We are already starting to plan for the new holiday season. Below is a quick checklist of how you too can prepare your Search Engine Marketing for the Holidays:
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Holiday spending has been weakest in 17 years but TNS Retail Foward forecasts a 1.5% growth for the holiday Q4 in key retail areas. Online sales is expected to grow 9% to $42.5 billion during the holiday seasons compared to 19% in 2007.

Apparel retailers are expected to decline in 1.3%. Homegoods channels and Furniture/ home furnishing stores are expected to decline by 1%. Consumer electronic stores on the other hand is expected to grow at 4% partially helped by consumer conversion to digital TV signals. Mass retailers are also expected to show a 5.6% growth as higher food prices are expected to shift consumers to focus on value.

Holiday Shopping
Mediamark (MRI) is expecting 35% of adults (62.3 million) will begain holiday shopping before Thanksgiving while another 35.8% is expected to shopt between Thanksgiving and Dec 15th. 25.6% (45.3 Million) is expected to shopt from December 16 to December 23rd.

Paul Lee
Director of Online Marketing
LeadQual - SEM

Yesterday, Yahoo announced the rebranding of IndexTools into Yahoo Web Analytics. It is currently in beta and only available as an enterprise product. IndexTool was acquired by Yahoo in April 2008. Yahoo immediately started to work on integrating the tool in a similar fashion to the well known Google Analytics. The service was made free with the distinct advantage of having data updated every few minutes.
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