Seeing Between the Lines…of the Search and the ClickWhat you will gain from this report

Search marketing is an intense and competitive battlefield, and for those of us in the trenches it can feel like being dropped in an unknown location without a map or GPS to guide us.

To date, the ability to track actual consumer behavior from a search to a click has been virtually non-existent. Because search engine results pages (SERPs) are different for every consumer based on past search behavior, location and social connections, capturing competitive intelligence is increasingly difficult. For search marketers, this means little to no visibility into what is happening on the SERP such as who is listed first or what words were used to perform the search.

Using Compete Search Engine Results Page Analyzer (SERPA) data, this report provides insight into the potential impact of increasing search marketing ROI by analyzing real, consumer engagement by exploring paid vs organic listings, illustrating the importance of position on the page, and understanding the importance of ranking first.

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The basics…Search marketers have two approaches they can take in order to help drive traffic to their site: (1) optimize their site for search through a combination of relevant content, tags, and links to and from their site to leading sites in the industry (Search Engine Optimization, or SEO), and (2) pay for ads on search engines by bidding on search terms (Search Engine Marketing, or SEM).

One downside of SEO is that your site is at the mercy of search engines to define how relevant your site is to a particular search term as defined by a ‘quality score’. Your quality score could be made better or worse based on the variables the search engine is using in its algorithm, and unfortunately, marketers have limited control over where their site appears in the results.

Through SEM, search marketers manage a portfolio of terms, both branded and non-branded, in order to help drive leads through search. Because most bidding is blind, marketers have little visibility into who their competitors are and how they stack up.

The traditional approaches to measuring your brand’s search marketing effectiveness has been through collecting information about the referrals to your site through internal tools, and if one wanted secondary research, to purchase data collected through ‘spidering’.

Spidering attempts to mimic real search activity by having a computer scrape the text of SERPs based on a pre-loaded list of search terms. The shortcomings with this approach are that it is limited to the quality of the inputs (i.e., search terms) that were pre-populated into the computer by the programmer and does not reflect actual search behavior performed by the internet browsing population.

Compete’s approach to understanding consumer behavior in the search space leverages the actual search behavior of its panel of consumers in order to capture the full breadth of terms people use when searching. This report answers questions such as:

• WhatshareofSERPshaveads?

• Whatshareoflistingsareorganic?

• WheredothemajorityofpeopleclickontheSERP?

SERPs with no adsSERPs with at least 1 ad

55%45%

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More than half of all SERPs have at least one ad Compete analyzed 10s of millions of search engine results pages generated by actual consumers in our U.S. panel in Q4 2011. We found that more than half of all search engine result pages contained at least one paid ad somewhere on the SERP.

The takeaway is that most searches performed by people online are an opportunity for you or a competing brand to influence consumer behavior. Search is a highly competitive market and if your brand is not aware of its standing in the market, you may be missing out on thousands of potential new customers to the competition.

Share of SERPs With and Without Ads

85%organic

15% paid 15%

6%

9%

4%5

4

3

2

1

Share of Listings by Type Share of Organic Clicks by Rank

53%first link

33

Organic is a fiercely competitive place to playLooking at all of the listings displayed with the 10s of millions of SERPs generated by Compete’s panel we found the overwhelming majority of listings are organic (85%). The remaining 15% constituted paid listings. If your brand is competing within organic listings alone, you are going to be in fierce competition with the competing firms, publishers, blogs, and the long tail of web content. Since the vast majority of listings on a SERP are organic, and the majority of clicks are on the first listing, it’s imperative that brands strategy including constantly monitoring results due to the ongoing evolution of search engine algorithms.

A good organic search strategy should:

• involvegoodon-pageSEOsosearchenginescanfindyou

• includeablogthatisupdatedoftenwithinsightspertinenttoyourindustry(inordertoincreaseinboundlinksandthenumberofpagescrawledbysearchengines)

• utilizesitelinksandmicro-sitestowinmorerealestateonSERPs

A better strategy will use paid to complement organic to ensure coverage on the SERP and to improve opportunities for clicks.

Share of Listing Types and Share of Clicks

24%

15%

61%right

top

Where Advertisers Appear Where Consumers Click

Share of paid listings Share of paid clicks

bottom

85%

2%

13%right

top

bottom

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When it comes to paid...you want to be on topHow important is paid position (either Top, Right, or Bottom) for capturing clicks? The right hand side of the SERP is where the majority of paid listings are served (61%) versus approximately 1 in 4 paid listings on the top of the page. However, despite the right side owning the majority of paid listings, it is the top of the page that wins on clicks.

The overwhelming majority of paid clicks occur on top paid listings (85%) versus only 13% of paid clicks occurring on the right hand side. The majority of marketers are conceding the top spot through less aggressive bidding and ad relevancy, but should be aware they are losing out on the most valuable SERP position (5x more clicks than the right and bottom combined).

Distribution of Paid Listings vs Paid Clicks

15%9%

4%

3%2%

1%

1%1%

59%first link

Distribution of Paid Clicks by Position and Rank

Top

Right

Bottom

1

2

3

1

2

1

2

3

4

Position and Rank Click Distribution

55

Being first matters tooWhile being in the top position is vital for receiving clicks, it’s also important to be ranked first regardless of position on the page. Of all paid clicks, 59% occur on the first listing on the top of the page while only

15% are on the second listing on the top. While it’s better to appear first on the right (4% of all paid clicks) versus second on the right (3%), the third listing in the top position is better than any on the right (9%).

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Looking ahead

There is a strategic battle going on in SERPs and every decision has a dramatic impact on results. Most, if not all, search marketing efforts need to prove a ROI as there is a very definite spend, whether it is SEO or SEM. Compete’s new Search Engine Page Results Analyzer (SERPA) allows an advertiser to better understand who they are competing against and gives them a better idea of what their potential ROI would be on upping their bids. This allows search marketers to come to the table with better competitive information and in turn make better decisions and tactical changes to their search strategies on an ongoing basis. You don’t have to wonder whether your competitor is outperforming you, you’ll know. By capturing millions of individual search listings per day including natural and paid listings across the major search engines to accurately represent consumer search behavior, SERPA can help answer questions like:

Competitive Intelligence:

• MeasurewhichadvertisersownthegreatestamountofSERPrealestate

• Understandwhichkeywordsyourcompetitorsarefocusedon

• UnderstandwhetheryourcompetitorisstronginSEM,SEO,orboth

• Compareadcopiestoseewhatdifferentiatesyourcampaignsfromothersandtheresultscompetitorsaregettingfromtheircampaigns

• Quantifytheimpacttoyourorganizationwhenyouarenotrunningapaidcampaignordonotserveapaidadonakeywordsetandyourcompetitorsare

Benchmark Performance:

• ViewpaidandnaturalperformanceandgaininsightintotheeffectivenessofSEMandSEO

• Analyzeshareofclick-throughsacrossallSERPpages

• Understandhow%ofSERPlistingsand#oflistingsaffectclickthroughrate(CTR)

• BenchmarkyourCTRvs.competitors

• ContrastperformanceonGooglevs.othersearchengines

• Evaluate consumer engagement

Trend Performance:

• Abilitytoseehowperformanceacrosskeysearchperformanceindicatorstrendsthroughseasonalhighandlowpoints,aswellaswhatcompetitorsmaybedoingtoimproveperformancethroughtroughsandcapitalizeonpeaksinsearchactivity

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About Kantar Media CompeteKantar Media Compete is passionate about understanding consumers to inspire great marketing. Kantar Media Compete helps the world’s top brands improve their marketing based on the online behavior of millions of consumers. Leading advertisers, agencies and publishers rely on Kantar Media Compete’s products and services to create engaging online experiences and highly profitable advertising campaigns. Kantar Media Compete’s online panel-the largest in the industry-makes the web as ingrained in marketing as it is in people’s lives. Kantar Media Compete is located in Boston, MA, with offices across the US, UK and France. For more information, please visit http://www.compete.com/.

Learn moreFor more information about Compete’s role in advancing the online marketing effectiveness in online services, please contact:

Ranjan (RJ) Butaney

Senior Director of Business Development,

Agency & Publisher Solutions

rbutaney@compete.com

617.933.5620

Matt Redmond

Client Services Director, Agency & Publisher Solutions

mredmond@compete.com

617.933.5675

David Weigner-Lodahl

Senior Associate, Agency & Publisher Solutions

dweigner@compete.com

617.933.5750

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