Retrospective: Search moves up a gear
March 2006: Marketing Week – Search Marketing
The great paradox of the digital world is that as more information comes online, it becomes harder to find what you are looking for. This makes search central to the continued success of the internet. Whether looking at which car to buy, comparing prices on digital cameras or researching healthy food for our kids, we all turn to search first – it’s central to our lives.
The global internet audience is now over one billion and growing fast – just like search advertising, which enables advertisers to create text-based ads to match against users’ queries. So at the exact moment that someone is actively looking for information about a pension plan, personal finance companies can actually provide it.
…we all turn to search first – it’s central to our lives.
But the market is changing rapidly. High-speed wi-fi and “smart phones” are just two trends that are changing the rules, and starting to break the computer’s iron grip on search. The old dilemma of “what to say?” is being quickly replaced with “where and when to say it?”.
While the internet delivers a global audience, effective search marketing is about targeting consumers one-to-one, locally, and at every stage of the information cycle. Data suggests that local search now accounts for up to 40% of search activity, according to the Mobile Marketing Association. Mobile search is no longer the poor cousin of the traditional Web – it”s a vibrant, growing market with its own needs. It also brings added meaning to the word “local”. Location-specific information, combined with “click-to-call” features, is the standard.
As search marketing evolves, it’s crucial we recognise users’ different requirements – searching from a computer is a totally different experience from searching “on the move”. Getting these right will take time, commitment and expertise.
The internet has broken down many of the barriers that traditionally existed between people and information. It’s made it much easier for all of us to find the content we are looking for – democratising, as it were, our access to information. This transparency can affect consumers’ brand perceptions, both positively and negatively, without companies even knowing.
This transparency can affect consumers’ brand perceptions, both positively and negatively, without companies even knowing.
All of us are being scrutinised by sophisticated consumers who question every thing we do. The increased adoption of shopping comparison sites enables customers to compare companies, not only on products and price, but also by independent consumer reviews and unedited blogs. The internet has also made partnerships easy – with the click of a button, business relationships and brand associations are made.
Increased choice, demographic shifts and evolved brand interaction has forced marketing from a one-dimensional approach to a complex mix of mediums. It has never been so important to understand how best to harness the latest technologies and integrate these to optimise marketing campaigns. While this is both exciting and daunting, if done well you’ll see your results rocket. We’ve had the initial adrenalin rush of search marketing, now is the time for the rethink.
Search may have moved up a gear, but it’s been overtaken by social media in the hearts and minds of consumers.
However, one thing about Kate’s article that’s just as true today as it was in 2006 is the growing importance of mobile and localised search. No longer simply Googling from your mobile, this area bridges the divide between social media and pure search, with the geo-location-based searching and social integration features of services like Foursquare being good examples.
