Internet

Extending Search Marketing Beyond the Search

Written by David Bayer on April 8, 2008 9:42 am EST

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Jeremy Liew provides insight into the future of search marketing in his post Monetizing Search. As I indicated directly to Jeremy, this really got me going on a number of thoughts as it relates to the data we are currently analyzing across our network. Our findings have been the following:

1. Long tail traffic converts better than ‘head’ traffic. Particularly as it relates to local search (‘mortgage refinance in Orlando fl’ vs. ‘mortgage refinance’) we are finding that the more descriptive a users intent, the higher the conversion to transaction. Transacting searchers seem to be more specific than browsing searchers, thus one reason for our interest in the long tail.

2. Informational and navigational intentions frequently become transactional after the search. Many users who transact across our network begin their search with an informational or navigational query. Of particular interest are the volume of transactions we are driving from business phone, address & company name searches. As indicated by the IBM Taxonomy of the Web document, one would expect that searchers who query such terms intend to find the website associated with such company. That is not what we are seeing.

3. Understand what induces this transactional behavior. While it may be difficult to monetize informational or navigational searches on the search engine (i.e. Adwords), of particular interest are the after search experiences of a user who began with an informational/navigational intent and, at some point, become a ‘transactor’. In order to understand this, one would presumably have to have the metadata related to the search, the after search engagement with additional information/content, and perhaps the user him/herself. Many of the large media networks, as they evolve into early Internet Operating Systems with search, network, transactional & individual metadata, will be able to tie this information together.

4. Convert searchers to buyers. As intentions and online behavior are better understood, at both a globally and individually, the transaction can be persuaded through the delivery of the “triggering” after-search information. Similarly, transactional opportunities can be inserted at that moment when the user has illustrated a pattern of behavior indicative of a likelihood to transact.

As this relates to the future of search marketing, one might imagine the extension of search marketing beyond the search engine. Will search marketing be limited to the click that takes place after the search, or will it extend beyond the search and throughout the entire after-search navigational experience? Clearly as companies own the search, content properties, and transactional points across their own operating systems, these data points will be more easily woven together.

Trackback URL for this post: http://www.gimmiethescoop.com/extending-search-marketing-beyond-the-search/trackback