I was shopping in Sainsbury's the other evening, when I encountered a young man looking for Water Biscuits. He was in the middle of asking an appropriately orange uniformed and rather spotty youth where he could locate them. The spotty youth was equally perplexed and was considering reinforcements prior to my intervention.
This incident, however, did get me thinking of one of the main issues I find myself discussing with clients. Just like the young man and the spotty Sainsbury's employee, we are conditioned into categorising items, products or services. Lumping a group of similar things together to make it easier to locate them. Fine for most but when you don't actually know that a water biscuit is a savoury cracker usually eaten with cheese, it can be problematic.
Categorisation Conditioning
Similarly, most advertisers are used to categorisation, particularly in relation to directories, which has been principle advertising medium for many years. The Water Biscuit Manufacturer would thus seek to get to the top of the directory listings for crackers or savoury biscuits or at least make his advertisement the biggest and boldest.
User Defined Categorisation
The fundamental difference with search engines and one reason why they are so popular, is that the listings are not pre-categorised, the user invents their own categorisation each time they search.
In fact, if they tried to search by categorisation they would be so swamped by responses they would naturally refine their search. Thus if our water biscuit searcher typed in crackers he would find entries for Christmas crackers, Chinese crackers, animal crackers, nut crackers, mental illness, psychological detective series, ballet performances and so on.
This incident, however, did get me thinking of one of the main issues I find myself discussing with clients. Just like the young man and the spotty Sainsbury's employee, we are conditioned into categorising items, products or services. Lumping a group of similar things together to make it easier to locate them. Fine for most but when you don't actually know that a water biscuit is a savoury cracker usually eaten with cheese, it can be problematic.
Categorisation Conditioning
Similarly, most advertisers are used to categorisation, particularly in relation to directories, which has been principle advertising medium for many years. The Water Biscuit Manufacturer would thus seek to get to the top of the directory listings for crackers or savoury biscuits or at least make his advertisement the biggest and boldest.
User Defined Categorisation
The fundamental difference with search engines and one reason why they are so popular, is that the listings are not pre-categorised, the user invents their own categorisation each time they search.
In fact, if they tried to search by categorisation they would be so swamped by responses they would naturally refine their search. Thus if our water biscuit searcher typed in crackers he would find entries for Christmas crackers, Chinese crackers, animal crackers, nut crackers, mental illness, psychological detective series, ballet performances and so on.
Power to the Searcher
Search engines should allow the perplexed man to be able to find exactly what he wants, however he describes it, whether it be water biscuits, posh biscuits for cheese, small round thin crackers, table biscuits or whatever. The challenge for the search marketer therefore, is to understand all the words and thought processes that the prospective buyer or user may employ, match the response to those and ensure their entry is significantly placed, though not necessarily, top of those particular listings (see How Important is Search Engine Ranking?)
Search engines should allow the perplexed man to be able to find exactly what he wants, however he describes it, whether it be water biscuits, posh biscuits for cheese, small round thin crackers, table biscuits or whatever. The challenge for the search marketer therefore, is to understand all the words and thought processes that the prospective buyer or user may employ, match the response to those and ensure their entry is significantly placed, though not necessarily, top of those particular listings (see How Important is Search Engine Ranking?)
The Refinement of Search into Deep Keyword Phrases
It is the advancement of the user search, the refining and refining of terms until they describe exactly what they want, that makes search engine marketing so efficient. The proficient searcher will refine their terms increasingly until they have found a set of words which describes their requirements. They may use terms like "calorific content of water biscuits", "how much salt is in water biscuits","buy cheapest water biscuits online", "water biscuits for next day delivery" and so on. Each of these distinct phrases ("Long tail phrases" or "deep keywords" to use the terminology), describes a precise requirement for that particular person. The volume of searches on all of these will be considerably less than a general term like "crackers" but are they more valuable? Almost certainly, yes. Furthermore, because you are not competing with as many people for those terms, the price you will have to bid for these phrases will normally be significantly less. In addition, because there are less competing sites in that particular space, the chances of your ad being seen and clicked through to are much higher. Moreover, and most importantly, provided your landing page accurately meets the need of the search requirement that was stated, your conversion rate, the likelihood that the visitor will actually buy your proposition, is much, much higher.
Does Broad Matching Allow You To Cheat?
Now, the broad search term "water biscuits" would potentially pick up all these searches but is the marketeer looking for all of these enquiries? Whatsmore the term will also pick up queries like "allergic reaction to water biscuits", "competition in the water biscuits market", "water biscuits flood"," dunking water biscuits" and so on. Are these target enquiries? Even if they were, would one advert and landing page suit all of these particular requirements?
The Significance of Ad Copy
Which leads us to the importance of ad copy. This is the creative bit that is sorely neglected by many. Admittedly there are limitations to potential creativity with less than 100 characters (including spaces!), that's about 20 words max, however your copy still needs to impress. Conversely it needs to be descriptive and informational and succinctly tell the user exactly why they need to visit your site and what they can expect. It also needs to filter non-target traffic and discourage visitors who will not convert, so there are limits to the creativity that can be used. Suffice to say there is a lot to do in those 100 characters and a particular style that works and a great many that don't.
The Landing Page
This then leads us to the most important bit. Having got the visitor to describe what they are looking for, described your offer in a distilled 20 word piece and taken them to your website, you then have to tell them in greater (but precise) detail your exact offer, how what you have particularly serves the wants and needs of your visitor and then tell them exactly and simply what to do next. Why is it the most important bit? Well, it's arguable really but, having paid to get your prospective customer this far and knowing that every visitor costs you money, its vital you convert them from casual browsers, or worse, disinterested or disenfranchised visitors, to paying customers or hot leads.
Should You Still Bid on Generic or Category Terms?
Another chief discussion I have with many clients is whether they should still advertise within broad categories. Should a water biscuit manufacturer bid on the term "crackers" or a manufacturer of speciality ultra lightweight high tensile IM42 carbon blank fishing rods advertise under the term "fishing rod"? The short answer is it depends.
It depends upon the market, the research cycle, buying cycle, the lead time from research to buying decision, the target customer, the purchase price, the financing options, the relative bid prices of the terms, the vanity of the advertiser and so on. In many cases it is important simply as a brand awareness exercise, though I'm not convinced that search is the best medium for raising brand awareness. In my experience, however (and key to me) conversion rates for categorised terms are dramatically lower than precise "deep" phrases.
Conclusion
Search is about giving control back to the user (albeit Google & Yahoo have a significant say). It is allowing the user to define exactly what they want rather than Yellow Pages telling them what they should be looking for. This creates tremendous opportunities for people to market specific products to specific users without incurring tremendous advertising costs, as well as allowing the large volume marketing of mass market items cost effectively by only marketing directly to those people who wish to buy them.
It is the advancement of the user search, the refining and refining of terms until they describe exactly what they want, that makes search engine marketing so efficient. The proficient searcher will refine their terms increasingly until they have found a set of words which describes their requirements. They may use terms like "calorific content of water biscuits", "how much salt is in water biscuits","buy cheapest water biscuits online", "water biscuits for next day delivery" and so on. Each of these distinct phrases ("Long tail phrases" or "deep keywords" to use the terminology), describes a precise requirement for that particular person. The volume of searches on all of these will be considerably less than a general term like "crackers" but are they more valuable? Almost certainly, yes. Furthermore, because you are not competing with as many people for those terms, the price you will have to bid for these phrases will normally be significantly less. In addition, because there are less competing sites in that particular space, the chances of your ad being seen and clicked through to are much higher. Moreover, and most importantly, provided your landing page accurately meets the need of the search requirement that was stated, your conversion rate, the likelihood that the visitor will actually buy your proposition, is much, much higher.
Does Broad Matching Allow You To Cheat?
Now, the broad search term "water biscuits" would potentially pick up all these searches but is the marketeer looking for all of these enquiries? Whatsmore the term will also pick up queries like "allergic reaction to water biscuits", "competition in the water biscuits market", "water biscuits flood"," dunking water biscuits" and so on. Are these target enquiries? Even if they were, would one advert and landing page suit all of these particular requirements?
The Significance of Ad Copy
Which leads us to the importance of ad copy. This is the creative bit that is sorely neglected by many. Admittedly there are limitations to potential creativity with less than 100 characters (including spaces!), that's about 20 words max, however your copy still needs to impress. Conversely it needs to be descriptive and informational and succinctly tell the user exactly why they need to visit your site and what they can expect. It also needs to filter non-target traffic and discourage visitors who will not convert, so there are limits to the creativity that can be used. Suffice to say there is a lot to do in those 100 characters and a particular style that works and a great many that don't.
The Landing Page
This then leads us to the most important bit. Having got the visitor to describe what they are looking for, described your offer in a distilled 20 word piece and taken them to your website, you then have to tell them in greater (but precise) detail your exact offer, how what you have particularly serves the wants and needs of your visitor and then tell them exactly and simply what to do next. Why is it the most important bit? Well, it's arguable really but, having paid to get your prospective customer this far and knowing that every visitor costs you money, its vital you convert them from casual browsers, or worse, disinterested or disenfranchised visitors, to paying customers or hot leads.
Should You Still Bid on Generic or Category Terms?
Another chief discussion I have with many clients is whether they should still advertise within broad categories. Should a water biscuit manufacturer bid on the term "crackers" or a manufacturer of speciality ultra lightweight high tensile IM42 carbon blank fishing rods advertise under the term "fishing rod"? The short answer is it depends.
It depends upon the market, the research cycle, buying cycle, the lead time from research to buying decision, the target customer, the purchase price, the financing options, the relative bid prices of the terms, the vanity of the advertiser and so on. In many cases it is important simply as a brand awareness exercise, though I'm not convinced that search is the best medium for raising brand awareness. In my experience, however (and key to me) conversion rates for categorised terms are dramatically lower than precise "deep" phrases.
Conclusion
Search is about giving control back to the user (albeit Google & Yahoo have a significant say). It is allowing the user to define exactly what they want rather than Yellow Pages telling them what they should be looking for. This creates tremendous opportunities for people to market specific products to specific users without incurring tremendous advertising costs, as well as allowing the large volume marketing of mass market items cost effectively by only marketing directly to those people who wish to buy them.
To do this effectively requires a lot of effort, however, and understanding of your customers, target customers, offering, proposition, competitors and so on. You then have to use that understanding to communicate your precise offer, to your precise customers with pin point precision!
For help on how to use search marketing most effectively to develop your business optimally and profitably visit Specialist Online Marketing now.
Peter van Zelst is the Principle of SpecialistOnlineMarketing.com , a practical online marketing company. If you want practical help to make your business or e-commerce venture fly visit http://www.specialistonlinemarketing.com/
