Danny Sullivan is the moderator for this brand spanking new panel. As we wait for him to arrive, we have the panelists Cam Balzer, Rand Fishki, Jonathan Mendez, Jessica Koster and Ron Belanger (Yahoo Search Marketing for Q&A). No music is playing, which is the norm during a wait period. Now we hear the panelist chatter on the speakers and Danny tell them what the big red flashing light means.
Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz is up first.
Goals of Branding - Improve visibility - Create Associations - Position - Build Buzz
Branding Supporting Search - Visible brands achieve top rankings - Branding must reach the online marketplace
Search Supporting Branding - Visibility in Search Builds Recognition - Messages in Search Can Be Tailored and Easily Refined
Push Marketing - Driving Visitors to the SERPs - Website mentioned in ads, press releases, etc.
Leveraging Visibility to Push Online Content - Offering promotions, discounts on the Web - Website content gets instant credibility/visbility
Great Content Achieves Instant Visibility - Links flow naturally to well known brand news - Controversy, Opinions, Link-bait
Leveraging a built in audience - Blogging, email newsletters, feeds to exploit - Getting feedback and participation
Top Search Positions = High Visibility - Target both the long tail and majors to maximize - Broaden content to target an entire niche
Exploit High Rankings for brands - Maintain a solid look and feel - Use catch titles snippets, and domain names - Appeal to searchers' needs
Crafting a Sites Message - What should a site say vs. an ad/marketing campaign? - Using a real voice
Case Study of Himself (featured in Newsweek)
- Branding supports search and brands push content to an audience - Search supports branding, search promotes visibility via listings in SERPs - Application of either requires proper targeting, leverage strengths in each area to improve performance in the other.
Jessica Koster from Danskin - They sell girly clothing for dance and yoga since 1882 :)
Brand Importance at Danskin -- 124 years developing the excellence and nostalgia of the brand -- Web site as home base and authority of our products -- Approx, 30% of orders come from brand terms
Definition of a Brand - look it up at wikipedia
Basic Concept - Search as a temperature for the brand -- Helps determine internal priorities such as how and where you sell your product -- Shows how other marketing is resonating
Defining Goals and Strategies - Preventing the I on Google and I see X... factor - Who can bid/rank for your terms? -- Retailers -- Affiliates -- Competitors - How do customers find you? -- Danceskin or Danceskins - Partner with Legal - PPC tools can help
Brand Perception versus Reality - Perception - what marketers/CEOs think is different -
Search Customer Satisfaction - Research conducted 07/05 - 01/06 - Key Differences -- Less satisfied with product browsing and navigation -- More like to purchase in 30 days -- Less loyal to Danskin
Email Campaign Effect - Reviewed 48 hour period around house list email campaign drops versus average days: --Click volume increase 25% -- Average order increased by $5 or so -- Conversion increased 43% -- Return on Spend improved by $1
The Ultimate Goal - Customer expectations need to be in line with internal priorities
30% off NYSES through 3/15 at Danskin
Jonathan Mendez from DigitalGrit - Why branding is search is unique -- 54% of teen "fashionistas" learn about brands from search -- Search = Action then Reaction --- Search is not passive --- Every searcher has a goal --- Align brand message with search
- Kairos is the greek god of search merketing -- Son of Zeus -- One of Aristotle's Three Pillars of Rhetoric -- Mode of Persuasion
- Pathway Analysis of Searcher Goals -- He shows a chart to bucket every goal possible when someone sits down and does a query. -- Cool slide
Case Study - Sony Vaio Notebook -- Consistent Creative Messaging Across Channels -- Same landing page slows us to run comparative analysis -- The landing page was a product overview page, no heavy promotion, very information, no calls to action to purchase - Goals and Metrics -- Increase awareness -- Create Buzz about product - Media Buys -- WSJ, CNN< CNET, MSN -- Keyword buys -- Messaging across channels, both banners and search ads - Results -- Spend 83% in Media, 17% in search -- Impressions; Media 86%, Search 14% -- Clicks; Media 46% and Search 54% -- Orders; Media 12%, Search 88% -- CPO Media: 35%x CPO (cost per media) for Search
What Did We Learn? - Brand message in search can resonate unlike any other medium - Missed opportunity - what better way to create buzz than selling your product - Improve business results by putting more branding dollars into search
What about the cross over impact of brand? - Consistent creative messaging across channels - Same landing pages for all channels - Media buy similar - Keywords - all product model specific (dscr1)
Shows the Creatives - Search and Banners
Shows Landing Page
How Did online media buy effect search? - The impact on search doubled the number of searches - Click rate remained consistent
What does this all mean? - Paid search has a real and necessary place in all forms of branding ans buzz marketing - The impact of brand marketing in channel and outside channel are measurable in search - Ensure you have proper budget allocation for incriminate in increases in search
Cam Balzer from Performics - Consumers are rapidly becoming "search enabled" -- Search is closing on email as the most frequently used online activity (he gave some figures) - Marketers can reach these consumers via search throughout the consideration process -- Numerous studies have shown that consumers use search to build category, brand and product awareness -- Successful campaigns with multiple national branded advertisers have shown Performics that increasing visibility on category keywords --- Generates significant number of high impact impressions --- Increases brand awareness --- Creates follow-on branded searches
Cast Study - Question: Cost benefit of increasing brand visibility on high volume category keywords? - Test -- Test in 4 products cats with a 5th cat as a control group -- 10 - 20 high volume generic keywords in each test cat -- Bid strategy maintain rankings >1.5 -- BRand positioning copy was developed -- Landing pages were picked to meet consumers at a broad awareness stage of engagement - Metrics -- Keyword and campaign ROAS -- Sales products in each cat coming from brand keywords - Execution -- Test keywords drove 40%.......
Results - Direct ROAS on cat keywords was just less then 1:1 but -- Total search sales increased by 84% YoY (year over year) -- Brand keywords sales increased by 100% YoY\ -- Overall program ROAS was well within goals - Sales of products in each cat originating from brand keywords increased dramatically in all cats except the control -- Control category D increased 34% -- Average increase for other categories of 103% with one category up 200%
Generic visibility increases brand conversion rate - Test -- Periodic testing of high volume generic keywords for a branded specialty apparel retailer - Results -- Correlation between non-brand impressions and brand term conversion rate -- 10,000 bon brand impressions increases brand conversion rate slightly
Increased Brand Affinity Through Generic Visibility - Search enabled consumers associated brands more strongly with a category after seeing search ads on generic keywords -- Multiple tests with a multi-channel mass retailer have shown this - Test: hold top position for word kitchenaid for 4 weeks leading into peak holiday shopping days - Execution generated 500k impressions and 17k clicks (3.5% CTR) - Results: Second strongest increase .... missed it
Tactics for testing Brand Building through Search - Max likelihood of success by running campaigns during each keyword's specific seasonal peaks - Flight your campaigns with seasonal promos and ads in other channels - Leverage a full range of metrics -- eCPM -- Offline sales -- Overall lift in sales -- Natural search impact also
Broadening Perception of the Value of Search - Look at: latent activity online and offline and directly tracked online sales
Wow - that was a ton of information, I think my keyboard almost caught on fire from typing incredibly fast on that last presentation.
Ron Belanger from YSM said a quick comment. They are trying to converge the banner ad people and search as people. They change the banner ad name from brand ads to display ads. As you buy more display ads, you see an increased in search demand. This is how Yahoo can create more search inventory. Also through TV, radio and print - they can create more search demand. They are making tools to allow advertisers to increase search demand for their branded keywords and keywords.
SES NYC Tag: sesny2006
