Search marketing, in all its various forms, is truly a phenomena. Which other marketing disciplines could boast 70 per cent year-on-year growth in 2005 in the UK (Source: E-Consultancy)?
The same research estimated the search marketing industry to be worth £600 million in the UK in Q2 2005, which is even more impressive given that the primary deliverable (pay-per-click or keyword advertising) was launched less than five years ago. Whilst traditional mediums such as advertising and direct mail are attracting increased scrutiny, and telemarketing and email are suffering from the burdens of further legislation – search marketing is forging ahead, steadily securing a bigger share of overall spend.
Until now, expansion of pay-per-click advertising has largely driven this market onwards, but service providers recognise diversification and innovation as the means to drive further expansion. To that end, as well as increasing the sophistication of pay-per-click offerings, considerable sums have been invested in developing new services, which are more flexible, intuitive and responsive to the searcher’s needs.
Measure for measure
There seems to be little question that pay-per-click has been the most important search marketing medium to date, in terms of actively generating revenues for end-users and service providers. As such, much of the development activity has focused on increasing its effectiveness, thereby providing a more compelling case for using it.
“The main priority is still pay-per-click,” says Arjo Ghosh, MD of search engine marketing agency Spannerworks. “It has not changed as an advertising medium, but the tools for using it have changed. The main new feature is enhanced analytics capabilities, which enables better measurement of investment, and the mapping of user behaviour. It provides a much better overview.” Given that the key advantage of search marketing over other forms is the ability to measure its effectiveness, anything which enhances this benefit will logically increase its attractiveness as a medium.
Ghosh explains that Google has facilitated this enhanced access to analytics through the purchase of a specialist in that area called Urchin, whose technology is now offered free to Google pay-per-click customers. “Previously you had to buy a separate application to get this kind of understanding,” he adds. “The penetration of analytics is much greater now. This is a big change.”
Back to nature
Despite its popularity, pay-per-click is only part of the story: so-called ‘natural search’ constitutes the other major component, to be found in the left hand column of the search engine results page. This represents results based on the content and structure of a website, and how it relates to the search terms supplied, as identified by the search engine’s criteria. Knowledge of these criteria would enable a company to substantially enhance its visibility in natural search listings, and therefore search engines understandably keep them a closely guarded secret.
But the consequence of this has been the emergence of considerable myth, rumour and speculation surrounding natural search. It’s often been called a ‘black art’, and this lack of transparency has been a major barrier to many companies taking natural search seriously. Too many companies were put off because it was seen as too difficult. Others were taken in by unscrupulous players, making unsubstantive claims about their abilities to generate results through natural search. Such operators have only served to undermine the reputation of the medium.
However, there is evidence of a growing understanding of natural search, as well as a commitment to address it through search engine optimisation; in other words restructuring and re-editing a website in a way which will have a genuine impact on its search listing.
“Two years ago it was only the early adopters who were adapting their sites for natural search,” claims Ghosh of Spannerworks. “Now it is becoming far more mainstream.” He says many companies have already maximised their use of pay-per-click, and are looking for other ways of increasing their visibility online. “Previously they thought natural search was too hard; it was just for the techies.” Now, he claims, the maturity of the medium is convincing companies to return and reinvestigate the opportunities of natural search. In investment terms, it is catching up with its more commercial rival.
Talk isn’t cheap
Development and greater uptake of existing mediums has only been part of the B2B search marketing story in the last 12 months. There has also been new products and services, the most obvious of which is pay-per-call, launched in September 2005 by Miva, who claims it is the most significant leap forward in search marketing since the arrival of pay-per-click (which it also launched in the UK).
The service works by facilitating a phonecall between the searcher and the advertiser, should they choose to click on the link on a search results page.
The potential advantages of this over pay-per-click are largely twofold. Firstly, it offers the opportunity for companies selling complex products or services to speak directly to a prospect, to better communicate the benefits. Secondly, it enables those organisations without a significant web presence (and therefore nowhere to ‘click’ through to) to leverage the benefits of search marketing. Both of these are particularly pertinent to B2B. As Seb Bishop, chief marketing officer of Miva says, “Pay-per-click is very conducive to B2B transactions. Trade buyers will often want to negotiate over the phone. They are typically making complex buying decisions or buying in bulk.”
The main disadvantage is price: unsurprisingly a phone conversation is vastly more valuable than a visit to a website. Miva claims to be charging as much as £18 per phone call, whilst clicks typically cost only pennies.
Obviously Miva has been shouting about the potential of pay-per-call from the rooftops, but reaction from the rest of the market has been mixed. Grant Whiteside, founding technical director of AmberGreen, says “pay-per-call will work better for complex products. It has a fantastic future – it is not just Miva which is doing it.”
But Ed Stephenson, director of search at 24/7 Search, is cautious. “We have adopted a ‘wait and see’ attitude to pay-per-call. At the moment it is very much in its infancy, and doesn’t represent a very large part of our business because of the lack of traffic. The number of sites featuring the ads is minimal.” He says the industry is based on results, and at the moment there simply isn’t enough to go on.
Meanwhile, Tony Millen, marketing director at RBI, which runs dedicated B2B search engine Kellysearch, is downright sceptical. “I’m not convinced that pay-per-call is the answer. We tested a model like this a number of years ago, and the business market was not ready for it. The problem is that the end-user relinquishes control of the process. Why would they want to be called if they can get all the information they want from a website?”
He continues, “advertisers just want to know who the visitors to their site are, and they can find this out with better tracking of click-throughs.” Millen claims that this is the approach that Kellysearch is adopting, through various trials of new technology in the US.
Bishop of Miva, however, is adamant that the new offering will be a success. “The volumes are coming,” he insists. “It was the same when we launched pay-per-click: it took time to achieve critical mass.”
Vertical search
One key way in which search marketing will continue to change in the future is in terms of competition; specifically amongst the search engines, with MSN announcing its decision to enter the market (see box out).
But MSN will not be the only source of competition for Google and Yahoo in the future. “Search marketing is booming, and as it booms niches will appear,” says Nick Morley head of sales and marketing at Seekport. He claims there is growing unease amongst big media groups of the power of the two big search engines, and their control of the now significant search marketing revenues attained through searches on their various sites. The strength of their brands is increasingly seen as a conflict.
As a result, he says, such media owners are seeking to move away from reliance on Google or Yahoo to provide such services, and towards partnerships with white-label search providers such as Seekport and Miva.
The attraction for end-users is highly targeted results, which is likely to be more useful than a mainstream search engine. Morley comments, “if you are looking for a generalised web search, you will probably still go to Google or Yahoo. But specialist searches can deliver a very thin slice of the web.”
Seb Bishop of Miva, adds, “There is a shift going on. People would like to search on a site where they have allegiance. Media owners want to work with someone who isn’t taking their money.” In B2C, this might be a football club, in B2B this might be a trusted magazine or content provider – Miva is already working with Dennis Publishing. He suggests Google’s recent unpopular decision to slash agency commission on its services is further evidence of the dissatisfaction with the ‘big two’ search engines. White-label search is small at the moment in the UK, but with both Miva and Seekport pushing it hard, it can only grow.
But will the rise of vertical search services really be a significant dent to Google and Yahoo’s dominance? Again, opinions differ. Ed Stephenson of 24/7 Search thinks not. “Ninety per cent of the search market will always be with the large portals.”
Into the horizon
Although there is lots of excitement about newer flavours of search marketing, and the development of so-far unsung ones, arguably the most significant enhancement will be in greater targeting. This will facilitate far more effective local searching, creating both B2B and B2C opportunities. Arjo Ghosh of Spannerworks, comments, “it’s the convergence of web analytics, demographics and geo-targeting, and we are already starting to see it happen. Browser preferences will also enable greater personalisation of search results.”
Grant Whiteside of Ambergreen believes mobile search is a key opportunity for the future. “The British are married to their mobiles and PDAs, and this could be a key area for B2B. But the architecture of sites is crucial and the interface will have to improve. “At the moment the Blackberry does not have a Javascript functionality. But this is just a matter of time.”
Hand holding
With ‘blue-sky’ developments such as local and mobile search, and the potential of pay-per-call, observers all agree that it is a medium with a bright future.
Arjo Ghosh of Spannerworks believes that some of the mystique surrounding search marketing may be falling away; both in terms of how it is done and what results it can deliver, and that this in turn will drive acceptance. “The cost of pay-per-call, for example has led people to begin questioning the cost of search marketing. They are actually starting to return to traditional mediums, such as direct mail. Search marketing is generally more cost effective than other forms of marketing, but rising costs are raising questions. Ultimately search marketing will find its place in the canon of marketing alongside other disciplines.”
Ghosh believes that far from being a separate standalone discipline, and a technical black art, the future of search lies inside the marketing department. He claims it can and should have a symbiotic relationship with other mediums. “If you do good PR, and put the press releases on your website, you will get good search results. Balanced marketing will lead to better search results.” He concludes, “It is a misconception that search is any different to other forms of marketing. It is not something to be scared of.”
Results in the right context
Another ‘flavour’ of search marketing that can be expected to grow in future is contextual search. This is the kind of search results listed in a box within an article eg. on a national newspaper website. Search engines attempt to match links with the content of the editorial, although often the results can be rather hit and miss. Nonetheless, Overture has identified it as a key growth area for 2006. Sales director Richard Firminger comments, “contextual search has grown very fast, and is definitely our second most important offering behind pay-per-click. It will continue to grow as it becomes more sophisticated, but I can’t ever see it catching pay-per-call.” He adds that with awareness currently relatively low, the market will have to be educated. Enthusiasm from the agency side, however, is more muted with Ed Stephenson, director of search at 24/7 Search, suggesting they are is ‘looking into’ contextual search.
