When Google added a more brightly colored icon to the search ads of merchants that offer its Google Checkout payment service in February, the conversion rate on those ads for online auction site uBid.com went up 27%, says SendTec Inc., a search marketing firm that counts uBid.com among its clients. So SendTec partnered with Eyetools Inc., whose software tracks the eye movements of computer users, to see if the increase could be explained by the icon drawing more eyeballs to ads adorned with the icon.
The short answer is no.
A study with 100 individuals, whose eye movements were tracked with Eyetools’ technology, showed that they did not view the ads with the Google Checkout icon more often than ads without the icon. Yet SendTec knows from uBid.com’s experience that the icon did cause consumers to click on the ads more often. Besides driving more traffic to the site, that also reduced the price paid by the auction site for Google AdWords ads by 5%, because ads clicked on more often can command higher positions at lower prices than less relevant ads.
So what accounts for consumers clicking more often on ads with the icon? “We believe the uBid ad was clicked on more often not because the Google icon made the ad more noticeable (more seen), but instead because it gave the ad an element of distinction and implied endorsement (by Google) relative to the competitive ads surrounding it,” a SendTec spokeswoman says in an e-mail response to Internet Retailer.
The SendTec-Eyetools study did indicate that, as a general rule, consumers are more likely to click on ads in highly viewed areas of a page and that anything that increases an ad’s visibility, like an icon, figures to boost the results of search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns.
“Given the competitiveness of the search engine environment, it is increasingly important to understand the many driving factors that prompt a consumer to click on a certain ad and follow through on a call to action,” says SendTec president Eric Obeck. “Given the text only advertising that appears in a Google results page, the appearance of a graphic such as the Google Checkout icon begs for this kind of analysis. I am not sure if Google considered this when they launched the Checkout icon or what it means to businesses, but certainly the appearance of any sort of visual next to an advertiser’s text listing is something that SEM’s and advertisers should be considering.”
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