Posts from March 2010
St. Paddy’s Happy Hour at ZAAZ: RSVP
By Ryan Turner | Mar 15, 2010 10:48:08 AM
Join the ZAAZ Social Media Team for beer and snacks this Wednesday. Invitation / RSVP here: http://zbar.eventbrite.com/
Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!
Search Engines and Brand Lift, part 2
By Erik Koto | Mar 11, 2010 3:28:30 PM
As we discussed in our previous post, ZAAZ recently conducted research on whether and how the use of different search engines affected the perception of the actual brands searched. We discovered that the search experience on different search engines yielded different results, with some results being more relevant to the consumer than others.The research concentrated on loyal search users of Yahoo, Google, and Bing. We looked specifically at the correlation between brand awareness and search efficacy, and how search engines are changing consumer behavior. Researchers and analysts from ZAAZ, Compete, and BrandAsset Consulting collaborated on the research. Compete and BrandAsset provided behavioral and attitudinal datasets, respectively, and ZAAZ led the analysis portion of the study by combining attitudinal and behavioral data, to draw a more complete picture of consumer search behavior.
The findings indicate that if the results of a search query satisfy the needs of the consumer, then the search engine has greater appeal to that potential customer— and he or she will also have a deeper connection to the brand searched. In other words, the search engine can provide different degrees of “brand lift” to a destination site. The user’s experience on the destination site is shaped by the search engine that the user takes to get there, and that experience has an impact on the parent brand.
For example, while researching the wireless industry, we found that while Bing loyalists tended to have a higher visit rate to Sprint's site, Yahoo loyalists had a higher rate of conversion or purchase behavior on the Sprint site. So Sprint sees a higher rate of online purchases from people coming from Yahoo search compared with other search engines. In the retail category, Walmart.com saw the highest rate of online visitors, shoppers, and converters from Bing loyalists. Amazon.com, on the other hand, saw its highest rates in all three categories from Google users.
We also discovered varying profiles among different search engine loyalists. If you’re a Bing user, you’re far more likely to be an innovator or early adopter, compared with Yahoo or Google loyalists. The research also provided rich psychographic details about each loyalist group.
The attached deck (pdf, 850kb) goes into greater detail on the differences between the industries analyzed: wireless, retail, travel, and automotive.
Some potential implications for marketers from this research include:
Resource allocation models among search engines could change depending on the brand. In other words, brands devoting funds to search advertising must take into consideration which engines are going to do the best job for them behaviorally and provide the highest brand lift.
Advertisers’ sites could be optimized and targeted based on referring search engine. As marketers become more informed about what the referring search engine says about the visitor’s brand perceptions and likelihood to convert, dynamic targeting programs can be developed to speak to each audience and serve relevant actions that are most likely to increase value.
This study is a jumping-off point for deeper research and monetization modeling of how interactions across the digital channel affect brand perception and conversion. Search activity does not exist in a vacuum, and is influenced by a brand’s mix of bought, earned, and owned media. Using data from this study, in conjunction with social media listening, other bought media activity, and deeper site side analytics, will help marketers create more effective outreach and engagement strategies across the digital channel.
By Anders Rosenquist and Erik Koto
