In this article from AdNews print, AdNews investigates the human side of search and how this mainstay of marketing is shifting to voice. Subscribe here to read it hot off the press.
Search is getting some soul. It is a US$29bn industry globally and it’s growing, according to eMarketer, but for those working in the industry it isn’t about the dollars and cents that are being spent on the channel that makes it so exciting. It’s the human insights that get search marketers fired up in the morning.
It sounds a bit cliché, especially when every brand and every marketer says the number one goal is to truly understand consumers. However, search and those who work in the space, may have cottoned on to the best way to really understand and capitalise on consumer insights. The recent web habits of Britons post-Brexit may be the perfect case in point for the new era of search: human behaviour.
The Brexit vote shocked many but what was possibly more shocking was what search behemoth Google revealed just hours after the result was announced.
Google, through its trends offering, showed many Brits were Googling “what happens if we leave the EU?”, with this search jumping 250% from what was seen during the week prior to the vote. This spike led many media organisations to infer that some Brits who chose to vote in the election may not have been exactly clear about what they were casting their vote for.
Search isn’t just able to give insights into how confusing and convoluted political campaigns are, search data is also being used to predict if certain movies will flop at the box office and when people are most likely to buy vodka. For the managing director of IPG’s search unit Reprise, Ale Vendramin, it’s in what it can reveal about behaviour that the value of search marketing really lies.
“[Search provides] real consumer behaviour at scale. What this understanding can do for a marketing budget is tremendous and the smartest CMOs that I know use this to their advantage to create their brand plans and marketing plans,” he said.
“I’m not saying that search is the holy grail and the only piece of data that you should look at, but it’s one incredibly important insight that’s actually going to help brands deliver the right results and marketers who do that create amazing results.”
General manager of Dentsu Aegis’ search business Columbus Victoria and WA, Graham Wilkinson, agreed with Vendramin. Over the past two years, marketers have started to use search data more in this way than they ever have before.
“It is odd that nobody has really tapped into that until this point,” he said.
“That’s one of the really exciting things that’s happening now in search, that data is starting to become more meaningful.”
Say it loud
Until now, search has largely been text–based but it is fast becoming a voice platform. Digital guru, Mary Meeker, predicted earlier this year in her annual trends forecast that 50% of searches will be audio and visual by 2020. Some predict it will happen sooner.
Google told AdNews its mobile voice searches have tripled in the past two years, with its accuracy also improving. The search giant noted that the “word error rate” on its app has been cut dramatically; it’s now 8%, making it 92% accurate, down from a 25% error rate just two years ago.
By upping its use of audio search, Google is not only increasing its utility and opportunities for use, its upping its search inventory.
“What audio and visual search does is it unlocks extra inventory, because in theory it allows people to search at times when their hands may otherwise have been occupied,” Wilkinson said.
“So, the time when you’re in the car, when you can’t be entering keywords, you can now speak them.”
He added that while he believes this increase in inventory will mean search will continue to grow, he thinks growth will slow down.
Despite that, search is still tipped to grow by some US$3 billion this year, according to eMarketer, and while search is getting a seat at the table Vendramin said it is still “absolutely undervalued”.
"Search is the ultimate personal assistant and it’s only going to get better moving forward,” he said.
“Whether it’s voice, phone, desktop or images, search is the only channel that will deliver users what they want in milliseconds, with incredible levels of accuracy. Nothing else does that.”
Search counters adblocking
Much has been written about the challenges being faced by the digital ad landscape, with the rise of adblocking giving adland what appears to be a never–ending headache. But, can search marketing, a channel which by definition is optin, give brands and agencies a solution to this billion dollar problem?
Vendramin believes so. He said now could be the time for brands to think more about search because other digital channels at present are challenged.
“The beauty of search is that it’s not intrusive. People are asking you for something and you’re replying to that question and you’re not pushing anything,” he said.
“That has always been the case and it always will be the case; there’s no adblocking there because people are asking for it.
“So, if other pieces of digital marketing are going to be handicapped, then search is going to be critical.”
General manager of iProspect for NSW, Andrea Atzori, said as search gets more advanced and incorporates customer matching and audience segmentation technology the types of ads that consumers are seeing are only getting more relevant, meaning the channel is moving away from mass targeting to more one-to-one messaging. This in itself is one known remedy for adblocking, however Atzori explained that he sees adblocking as an opportunity, not a challenge.
“Adblocking isn’t a bad thing. It’s making us better at what we do, which is providing useful content to users,” he said.
“We all want to see content that is relevant. Where adblockers come into play they are stopping people from being bombarded by clutter. They are a good thing for our industry, eventually they will push us to do a better job.”
Search as a brand builder
Search has long been known as a way to drive click–throughs and website visits, however many in the space are now viewing it as a brand building tool, with the rise of YouTube and video meaning search can be comparable to TV as a brand driver.
YouTube is Australia’s, and the world’s, second largest search engine and it’s second only to its owner, Google.
Columbus conducted a study with Google that found impressions on a search engine could result in an 8–9% lift in brand recall — and that’s without a click. He said this opens up the conversation for search to branding.
“Search can be talked about in the same conversation as television, whereby you can start to stack search impressions on the top of tarps and use it as a general awareness tool because it has become more accessible,” he said.
Vendramin agreed saying that for most campaigns his agency runs it sees a lift in metrics such as sign–ups and sales leads, but what most people don’t discuss is the fact that brands often see an uplift in their positioning and a change in brand metrics.
Reprise client, Bunnings, is taking advantage of this. He said Bunnings is not only the king of DIY, but also king of search, outlining that it is very progressive when it comes to search and YouTube. He adds that it’s paying off for the business from a brand metric perspective.
“People need to move beyond thinking of search as words, but also thinking of video as TV — YouTube is one of the best places for advertising we have today,” Vendramin said.
“If you’re not interested, you skip it. This is good for the user, but it’s also good for the brand because you’re not annoying them [consumers] and if your brand is really useful then it’s helping the consumer and they’ll continue to engage with a brand’s site.”
The content connection
Search and content go hand-in-hand because brands need information to provide for search–hungry consumers. So, many in the industry agree that the rise of the ‘brands as publishers’ trend lends itself well to brands spending more on search.
SEO account director for Web Profits, Catherine Dix, explained that consumers have become excellent researchers, however brands need to understand that not only do they need to pay to seed their content, they also need to take a multichannel approach.
“Where Australian marketing needs to move to is that it’s got to take a much more multichannel approach,” she said.
“Brands need to be in organic search results, they need to have good paid advertising, they should also have content to serve users, whether it is on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or via their blog, and email that starts educating users about their brand.
“So when users can start to do some research about your brand and begin to educate themselves about your brand, you’ve made sure you’ve got an ad that’s there and that you’ve also got an organic listing.”
Dix highlighted that while search marketing and content marketing do go hand-in-hand, brands and marketers need to be aware they also need to pay to distribute content in order to make the most of it.
Presto on search
Online streaming player Presto is being creative in how it uses search to get people to notice its paid ads. Presto recently launched a search campaign to capitalise on the attention that its rival, Hayu, would be receiving on the day of its launch. The brand ran paid ads that came up every time someone googled Hayu. The ads said “Did you mean Presto?” So they mimicked Google language to try and grab consumers’ attention.
Presto’s director of marketing, Sally Kiernan, spoke with AdNews about the channel and while she wouldn’t be led on the exact dollars that Presto’s putting into search, she outlined that the brand invests heavily in digital, being a digital player, and SEM is where the bulk of its digital dollars go.
Why did Presto want to use search on the day that Hayu launched?
Sally Kiernan: Presto is a young, digital, challenger brand operating in a new and fast growing category. Our approach needs to be nimble and we adopt a test and learn methodology to all our digital marketing. SEM is no exception and the Hayu ad is just one example of this.
What benefits does Presto see from using search marketing?
SK: Search is a key element in our digital advertising mix. It plays many roles, from being the front door to our service, to driving consideration and challenging perceptions, but ultimately it’s about driving traffic to our website and we are pleased that it has been extremely successful [in driving subscribers] in achieving that.
What makes successful search activity?
SK: We are constantly striving to improve on our best results to date. There is always a way we can optimise, tweak or adjust to drive incremental improvement. The campaign is “always on” and so are we.
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