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Search Marketing Myths: Reality Check!

Search marketing is such an obscure art to most that myths around it grow and ciurculate unchallenged. The hype stops here, insists i-level's Amanda Jones, as she shines a light on 7 common myths currently doing the rounds...

Search marketing is such an obscure art to most people that the myths around it grow and circulate largely unchallenged. The hype stops here, as we shine a light on 7 common myths currently doing the rounds...

By Amanda Jones

[Register and post your own comments on this article below...]

MYTH: Search doesn’t have a role to play in brand advertising

MOSTLY FALSE: It’s true that you can’t build a brand solely using Search Engine Marketing. In an ideal Search Engine Marketer’s world, all consumer would use search engines to look for specific brands and products that they have heard of and want to buy. Wouldn’t our campaign conversion rates stay consistently high and our ROI healthy? The reality, however, is that people tend not to know what they are looking for when they start out: we see this in the searches they make and in campaign response and conversion rates. The role of Search is to put a brand in front of a captive audience, to make them aware of it, to give them the opportunity to learn more about a brand and hopefully shift perception. Search can ensure that a brand stays in a consumer’s consideration set from the research stage right through to purchase. So yes, Search absolutely has a branding role to play.

MYTH: If Natural Search is free why would I bother with Pay per Click (or Paid Placement)?

There are two myths to dispell here: firstly, natural search – or the practice of achieving natural search - doesn’t come without a price tag. Even if you have SEO expertise in-house you will need to pay for this resource to design, re-design or optimise your website in a search engine-friendly way. Secondly, targeting the natural search results and not the paid-for would be to run half a campaign or ignore up to half of the opportunity (while on Google around 70% of the traffic is derived from the natural search results, on other engines this percentage share is closer to fifty). Put another way, why would you do PR and not advertising, or vice versa? And besides, paying ten pence (or sometimes less) for a highly qualified lead is hardly considered a poor investment. So go on, bother with both!

MYTH: “Organic search is much more powerful than paid search. And with Word of Mouth responsible for something like 80% of all purchasing decisions, no-one trusts ads any longer” (Justin Kirby, MD of DMC)

PART TRUTH: Justin is right: word of mouth and organic search are both a powerful thing and coincidentally feed off one another. Take “Googling” as an example: you hear an industry rumour in the pub one evening, next day you head straight for Google to see the rumour is circulating the world wide web. And on Google, the organic results are the more popular and often the more powerful set of listings in terms of conversion. But on other engines fewer people realise the difference between what’s advertising and what’s organic. On Yahoo!, for example, some of the perceived “organic” results as paid for through their paid inclusion programme. Research shows that consumers increasingly care less whether the listings are influence by advertising dollars. What they are looking for are relevant and appealing results – it’s often easier to make a paid listing look more appealing and targeted than a natural result. Search is still a non-intrusive media paid-search works. So if it aint broke, why try and fix it?

MYTH: Search is best handled separately from the rest of my media mix

FALSE: Search is integral to consumers’ media consumption, so why should Search Marketing be silo’d off? Search needs to be planned alongside TV, Press Radio, PR – any advertising that is creating interest and awareness in your brand or product. Digitally, there are many synergies, Affiliates and Search being one – both strategies can benefit from combined planning, implementation and learnings. And looking beyond media, Search informs and is informed by website design, customer experience and usability. Search therefore needs to be at the heart of the Marcoms mix.

MYTH: Pay per Click Search is becoming an increasingly cost prohibitive medium

For some smaller advertisers this could be true, particularly those operating in fiercely competitive sectors such as Finance or Travel. But lest we forget why we’re all here in Search: we are talking about low risk, low hanging fruit! As long as you offer a competitive price and product, and a clear path to purchase, the outcome will be a low acquisition cost and a potentially high lifetime value per customer. Time too for a reality check: when was the last time you benchmarked your Search cost per new customer against your TV ROI (if indeed you can measure such a tangible return)?

MYTH: High, natural rankings can be guaranteed if you know what you’re doing in SEO

FALSE: Even if you have great SEO expertise to hand, success cannot be guaranteed. There are too many external factors involved, not to mention the fact that very few people on this planet know Google’s (and MSN, Yahoo! and the other algorythic engines) recipe for ranking, which is, in any case, in constant flux. Advertisers should be wary of any SEO or SEM firm that guarantees high rankings (for “guaranteed” read “underhand SEO techniques” or “paid placement”). As with any supplier or agency, ensure you understand their methodology and are reassured that their approach is ethical. Even when you’re in safe, expert hands, SEO is a two-way street and the best results are achieved when SEO is integrated into a website’s ongoing development strategy. Ensure you therefore allocate the necessary resource to SEO, and you’ll be on your way to success in no time.

MYTH: Google is by far and away the most important search engine, delivering the volume that I need

That may well be – today. But if we look to the US market we’ve seen Google’s market share decline, as Yahoo!, MSN and Ask Jeeves, to name only the top tier engines, have invested heavily in their products. Not just from a usage perspective but from an advertiser one, 2006 will bring more buying points into the Search market. It’s the old addage: don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Plus, there’s no such thing in business as achieving the volume that you need. Don’t you want more customers?!

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About the Author
© of Amanda Jones, Head Of Search, i-level, a £10m business handling the full range of Paid-for and Natural Visibility disciplines in one place. Amanda's online life began in 1998 (when Google’s was born) at 24/7 Europe, global digital advertising sales network and technology provider. Working in London and then at their European headquarters in Amsterdam, Amanda was responsible for the coordination and implementation of pan-European advertising campaigns on client websites. Before joining i-level, Amanda was Head of Search at digital marketing agency Outrider, one of the pioneers of Search Engine Marketing services since 1995. At i-level her current client portfolio includes: Orange, Yell.com, Interflora, COI Communications, Specsavers, Starwood and Gillette.

EVENT: New Directions In Search - 8 September 2005
Amanda is speaking on trends and developments in UK search at the NMK event New Directions In Search