Searching for Sales

1
Searching for Sales

• MSN Strategic Account Summit 2003
• Breakout session Retail

2
Discussion Outline

• State of Search Marketing
• Elements of Effective Search Marketing
• Realizing the Power of Search Marketing
• The Future of Search Marketing

3
The Emergence of Search Marketing

• A doorway to valuable, motivated customers, ready
  to act and looking to buy
• Search engines help marketers target valuable,
  motivated, and ready-to-act customerscustomers
  who are actively seeking product or service
  information Forrester Research 02
• Major marketers should integrate paid search into
  their overall media plan to capitalize on its
  inherent efficiencies.
• The rise of paid search is driven by its low
  cost, low risk and high efficiency
• 80 of online shoppers go online with a product
  in mind
• Jupiter Research 02
• 48 of users go no further than the first page of
  results
• emarketer.com

4
The Evolution of Search
Search strategy used to be a tech initiative, now
its a critical, cost-effective and highly
productive component of the media budget
5
Elements of Effective Search Marketing

• Premium Media Buys
• Keyword advertising
• Optimize portal buy with keywords
• Bid for Placement
• Direct buys with search engines directories
• Paid Inclusion
• Data feeds of text links, product data and
  content
• Data feeds to shopping comparison engines
• Optimization
• Make sure site is fully optimized
• Attractive to search engines

6
Continued .
7
5 Tips to Realize the Power of Search
8
Tips to Realizing the Power of Search

• Measure More than Clicks
• Track conversions and manage ROI
• ROI by product and by keyword
• Dont focus on traffic alone
• Some keywords drive traffic, some drive sales
• Focus on productive keywords and eliminate
  negative ROI

?
9
Tips to Realizing the Power of Search

• Measure More than Clicks
• Illustration
• Situation Keyword phrase running shoes
• Opportunity Track keyword conversions and see
  that 90 of sales are new style XYZ
• Result running shoes continues to drive
  traffic, adding XYZ to description increases
  conversion rate by 63

?
10
Tips to Realizing the Power of Search

• Dig Deep
• Uncover results to improve conversion rates
• Identify traffic and monitor activity
• Use tracking and tools to measure results and
  identify trends
• Act on available data to drive conversions

?
11
Tips to Realizing the Power of Search

• Dig Deep
• Illustration
• Situation Identified a lot of overseas traffic,
  beyond target market and the retailer didnt ship
  overseas
• Opportunity Change bids by the hour and let
  placement fall overnight
• Result Fewer overseas click-throughs, traffic
  falls, conversion rates climb and ROI skyrockets

?
12
Tips to Realizing the Power of Search

• Smooth Landings
• Control your customers experience
• Take them to what they are searching for
• Optimize landing pages according to search terms
  and products sold
• Up-sell and cross-sell
• Incorporate promotions

?
13
Tips to Realizing the Power of Search

• Smooth Landings
• Illustration
• Situation Retailer sent khaki pants searchers
  to a page with mens and womens khaki pants but
  conversion tracking showed that 84 of sales were
  mens
• Opportunity Redirect landing page to mens khaki
  pants
• Result Conversion rates climbed and ROI
  skyrocketed

?
14
Tips to Realizing the Power of Search

• Control Your Brand
• The power of your brand the volume of traffic
• Manage brand-related keywords
• Conversions are high
• Control your future customers experience
• Measure new-to-file customers
• If you dont control your brand, others will!

?
15
Tips to Realizing the Power of Search

• Control Your Brand
• Illustration
• Situation Affiliates controlled the top listings
  in bid for placement engines
• Opportunity Stop affiliates from bidding on brand
  name, police actively, protect the customer
  experience
• Result Bid prices settled, ROI improved and sales
  increased

?
16
Tips to Realizing the Power of Search

• Let it Breathe
• Living breathing programs improve with age
• Let programs run and measure results
• Rotate copy and experiment with categories
• Consider seasonality
• Dont play the flavor-of-the-month game

?
17
Tips to Realizing the Power of Search

• Let it Breathe
• Illustration
• Situation Retailer sets annual budget based on
  30-day test, spend is stable but ROI is volatile
• Opportunity Expand test, set an annual
  expectation and a variable budget and adjust
  monthly, managing to ROI
• Result Sales increase and ROI predictable and
  stable

?
18
Whats Next?
Search marketing matures

• Increasingly competitive
• Costs increasing
• More advertisers
• Increasingly sophisticated
• Engines improve technology
• Tools drive scale

• Landscape
• Dynamic environment
• New products
• Opportunities for improvement
• Sophisticated landing pages
• Integrate customer data