A recent research study of business technology buyers found that unaided brand awareness and brand perceptions of a global 500 business technology were significantly higher when the brand’s listings were in prominent positions on a search engine results page – even when that brand’s listings are not clicked on by the searcher.
Furthermore, the study suggested that so-called cannibalization1 of organic traffic by traffic from high-ranking paid ads may not be as significant a risk as commonly assumed.
This research should help search and brand advertising strategists alike in addressing important questions about search advertising and business technology buyers, including: Do business technology buyers read search ads? What is the value of a search impression? Are there branding benefits to occupying higher-ranked positions on the page (leaving aside the clicks a brand sees)? Are paid ads as credible as organic listings?
How do the brand benefits of search advertising compare to alternative advertising investments such as online display advertising, print, radio or TV? Can even a well-established and respected brand experience lift? To what degree might a top-ranked paid ad cannibalize traffic from a high-ranking organic listing?
Presence and position in search listings affect brand metrics
The brand impact of occupying the top sponsored position was roughly equal to that of the top organic position. Unaided awareness among the group exposed to the test brand’s listing in top sponsored position was 54 percent, versus 17 percent in the group which saw a results page that did not have the test brand in paid or organic search results (218 percent lift). The group exposed to the test brand’s listing in top organic position had unaided awareness of 56 percent (229 percent lift). The group exposed to the test brand’s listing in the top side-sponsored position had unaided awareness of 38 percent (124 percent lift).
Directional differences in top-box purchase consideration were noted among the test groups, but were short of an 80 percent statistical significance level. Groups exposed to the test brand in either top sponsored or top organic positions had 57 percent top-box brand consideration, while the control had 51 percent (12 percent lift). Among the group exposed to the test brand in the side sponsored position, top box consideration was actually lower than the control condition by five percent. No statistically significant differences were observed among the test groups with respect to purchase intent.
Groups that saw the test brand in the top sponsored and top organic positions also were more likely to have positive perceptions about the brand, as evidenced by the doubling of the test brand’s net promoter score.
A common question debated by search strategists is whether there is benefit for a brand to run a top sponsored listing when that brand is already ranking high in the organic listings for a particular query. Using a second round of research, we investigated the combination of to sponsored and top organic positions (TS+TO), and top sponsored and third organic positions (TS+3O) for the test brand, and compared the averages against groups where the test brand was only in the top organic or third organic positions, respectively. When adding a top sponsored ad to a brand already in top organic position, there was a 19 percent lift seen in unaided awareness, and a
five percent increase in purchase consideration. In the group with a top sponsored ad and a brand listed in the third organic position, there was a 13 percent greater level of unaided awareness seen versus the group with the test brand’s listing only in the third organic position. Again, no statistically significant differences were observed with respect to purchase consideration between these groups.
Click preference by ad and organic position
This study also examined relative likelihood to click on the test brand’s links when occupying various positions on a search results page. After being exposed to their randomly-assigned results page and answering brand questions (see methodology below), subjects were returned to the results page and asked to click on the link they’d be most likely to click on first.
In groups with the test brand in either the top sponsored or top organic position, first clicks on the test brand’s listing occurred with nearly identical frequency (38 percent and 39 percent, respectively), suggesting equal attractiveness of these listings to business technology buyers.
This study found that a top-sponsored ad above a top-ranking organic listing produced greater total click volume with low levels of organic cannibalization. Some search marketers that have high organic rankings for certain keywords are concerned about running high-ranking ads on the same keywords, due to the potential to reduce organic traffic (which is seen as free) and increase paid traffic (which is not free) – a phenomenon known as cannibalization. The logic behind the concern is that searchers who would otherwise click a brand’s organic link will instead click on the brand’s paid link because the paid link is higher on the SERP and will therefore be seen first.
There have also been previous studies that suggest there may be synergistic effects of running paid ads above keywords for which a brand has high rank in organic results. That is, clicks on the organic link rise when this occurs, rather than fall. When the test brand was in the top organic position only, it received 44 percent of total clicks1. When in top organic and top sponsored positions, the test brand received 65 percent – an increase in total clicks of about 50 percent. There was also no evidence of cannibalism: When the test brand was in both top paid and top sponsored positions, the organic listing received 49 percent of clicks, up from 44 percent when the test brand was in top organic position without the top sponsored ad above.
The tests involving the third organic position (3O) and third organic and top sponsored positions (3O+TS) were noteworthy, because many brands find themselves outside the top organic position for non-branded keywords. The test brand received 19 percent of total clicks when in third organic position only, but 39 percent of total clicks when in both third organic and top sponsored positions – double the volume.
Clicks on the sponsored listing, in the combined case, accounted for 26 percent (2/3 of the 39 percent total), while organic clicks accounted for 13 percent (1/3 of the 39 percent). This suggests that cannibalization may be higher when a brand’s organic position is relatively low and the sponsored position is relatively high – but the total increase in click traffic is also greater.
Methodology
Independent marketing research firm OTX, commissioned by Google, administered web-based experiments using a precisely controlled test environment that simulates the Google search experience but manipulates the listings on the results pages. OTX recruited two groups of approximately 800 similarly-qualified U.S. IT professionals. Respondents were compensated for participating but were not told about the research objects or who sponsored the research. The following screening criteria applied:
- US residents
- At least sometimes use a search engine for business-related needs
- Must influence purchases within the brand’s space
- Company size: 50 percent from large (1000+ employees), 25 percent medium (500-999 employees), 25 percent small (
- No sensitive industry employment (Advertising/Public Relations, Marketing/Market Research) in Spring 2009
Within each research group, participants were instructed to search Google for a specific non-branded technology product phrase. The exact terms searched on are confidential, but the following are illustrative of the types of terms used in the study: “CRM software”, “unified communications”, “managed firewall”, “videoconferencing”, “hosted email”, “web conferencing”, “WAN acceleration”.
After searching, each respondent was randomly shown one of four different test conditions as outlined in the matrix below. The search engine results pages (SERPs) seen by each respondent varied by having the test brand’s listings appear in different positions in the organic and sponsored results. The test brand was a real major global Fortune 500 company that offers a wide range of products, services, and solutions in the information technology and communications space.
Results corroborate earlier consumer and business studies
This research produced findings consistent with a wide range of similar studies conducted with consumer and business audiences and brands, suggesting there may be more similarity between business buyer search behaviour and consumer buyer search behaviour than commonly assumed by search marketing practitioners.
As far back as 2004, the IAB and Nielsen produced large-scale research that showed a top-position text ad for a test brand on a search results page increased a brand’s unaided awareness by 27 percent versus a test condition when the brand did not appear at all on a search results page1.
Another large-scale 2007 research study conducted by Enquiro of car-buying adults examined and quantified the impact on brand metrics and perceptions of exposure to search listings in different positions for branded and unbranded queries.
This study observed lifts in unaided awareness for the test brand of about 20 percent when occupying either top sponsored or top organic positions during an unbranded search. Purchase consideration was lifted by 5-10 percent when the test brand occupied either top organic or top paid positions, versus the control case, without the test brand present on the SERP.
More recently, a March study executed by MetrixLab using a similar methodology with a consumer packaged goods brand found a 19 percent lift in brand awareness and 6 percent lift in brand perceptions for a brand occupying top sponsored search position3.
More dramatic findings were found among consumer travel and hospitality brands, with test brands in top sponsored positions seeing unaided awareness rise by 4-5 times the brand’s unaided awareness levels when not appearing on a search results page at all. Consumers exposed to apparel brand Levi’s in the top sponsored position saw a 27 percent increase in unaided brand awareness and a 6 percent increase in likelihood to recommend the brand to a friend or relative compared to consumers who saw search results pages where Levi’s did not appear at all on the page.
One plausible explanation for the variation of lifts seen in these types of studies is the baseline level of brand metrics for the test brand used in the study. The less familiar the brand, the greater the potential lift when the brand occupies higher ranking positions due to the small denominator.
Discussion & Implications for Marketers
Evidence has shown that search engines are a critical touch point in many buyer’s path to purchase, especially business technology buyers. Search engines may be used as part of research technical and business requirements developments, solution discovery and analysis, vendor short list development, comparisons and product specifications, pilots and trials, peer and expert analyst perspectives, and more.
Most marketers have developed techniques for analyzing and valuing direct traffic referred to their web site from search engines. With respect to paid search, most organizations optimize their campaigns with the primary goal of achieving the lowest possible cost per action (an order, a requestfor information or a sales call, etc.).
However, multi-channel sellers (such as mobile operators) and indirect sellers (like product manufacturers and ingredient brands) usually have a different focus for online marketing: To increase awareness, consideration and preference for the brand with the aim of influencing the buyer’s choice when he or she ultimately buys a product or service through another touchpoint – often one that offers no direct linkage to purchase behavior.
Therefore, more marketers have begun to investigate whether there are brand benefits from higher positions in search rankings, and whether sponsored listings are as effective as organic listings.
While some business marketers may believe that professional IT buyers have a bias against advertising that makes them more likely to ignore paid listings them in favor of organic listings, this research refutes that hypothesis. With respect to both brand metrics and click activity, top organic and top sponsored positions were shown to produce nearly identical lift and impact.
This study has confirmed and quantified the brand impact of search for a well-known business technology brand. Achieving prominent positions on search landing pages for unbranded terms – whether in paid, organic, or both – yields significant brand benefits beyond those who click through to a brand’s web site.
General marketers and agencies at organizations with brand marketing goals should consider the findings of this report as they plan a holistic strategy across key buyer touch points and advertising alternatives.
Furthermore, search marketers and agencies should integrate and apply these findings into distinct strategies for position, bidding, measurement, and account structure for important non-branded terms.
Technical Research Footnotes
Sample analysis revealed some slight differences in title and search usage frequency among test cells. To determine whether these variations created significant differences, groups were re-weighted (with efficiencies varying from 95 percent to 98.5 percent) and key findings were re-tested to look for significant changes from unweighted results. No statistically significant differences were observed, so for simplicity, we have used unweighted results in this report.
Unless otherwise noted, all differences between test groups cited in this paper were statistically significant at the 95 percent+ confidence level.