Pay attention, consultant urges: Not all search marketing is created equal
As search engine marketing becomes more sophisticated, distinctions grow among the different components of such marketing and retailers need to understand the differences if they are to have successful marketing programs, says Shari Thurow, marketing director at design and consulting company Grantastic Designs Inc.
"Because search marketing is a hot thing right now, people constantly confuse the terms `search engine marketing` and `search engine advertising,`" Thurow says. Search engine advertising is a subset of search marketing, Thurow points out. “But it is not search marketing as a whole," she says.
Search engine advertising specifically involves pay-per-click placements, she notes. With pay-per-click search advertising, sites are guaranteed top placement in the search engine and in its distribution network. “MSN Search, which uses Overture, and Google AdWords add the extra punch of giving higher priority to ads that are frequently clicked on, deeming them more relevant,” she says.
Another form of search advertising are the contextual ads that both Overture and Google offer, called Content Match by Overture and AdSense by Google. “With contextual ads, when a user is looking at a web page, the ads showing on that page are going to be very targeted and, from the advertiser`s standpoint, very relevant to what the user is looking for,” Thurow says. “The ads are text-based and not intrusive.”
Results from contextual-based advertising are mixed, she says. “Some search engine marketers find that the click-through rates on contextual ads are no better than click-through rates on banner ads,” she says, “while other marketers find that the targeted ads deliver better ROI precisely because they are so targeted.”
Thurow urges retailers to balance their needs when considering search advertising and search engine optimization. “With search advertising, when you run out of money, you lose your position,” she says. “But if you optimize correctly the benefit can last for years.” The drawback to optimization, however, is that there it can take a long time to show up in results and there’s no guarantee as to where a retailer’s site will place in results.
But retailers who have seasonal products should opt for search advertising, as should retailers who want to promote themselves at certain times of the day. “Retailers can target by time of day,” she says. “A lot of shopping takes place at work so they might want to pay for clicks around the noon hour, but not at other times of day.”
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