eSearchVision Official US blog

In the retail world there are two seasons: holiday and the rest of the year. Companies will host a few other sales that bring in significant revenue, but everyone knows the big money comes in during Q4. With the influx of search opportunity, competition, and new technology during the holiday season, when we talk about the future of search, it’s applicable to look at both the short term [holiday 09] and the longer term [2010 and beyond].

As we witnessed during the 2008 holiday season, consumers are shopping for a deal – even more so in times of recession. What’s changed since the last time around? Those big ticket items from last year are turning into the biggest marketing opportunities for 2009, namely smartphones (and other internet enabled portable devices such as iPod Touch). For SEM purposes, the biggest difference between a smartphone and a WAP enabled phone is a true (HTML based) web browser – as HTML mobile browsers can support standard ad copy. With the introduction of device targeting within Google AdWords, advertisers can isolate smartphones into a unique campaign and take full advantage of opportunities like geo-targeting and one-click purchasing. Imagine seeing an ad targeted to your zip code for the exact product you’re searching for at a store nearby, and instantly making a purchase with one click. 

As mobile phones close in on saturation and more and more phones are web enabled, Google has released case studies documenting and projecting the rise of mobile search with no signs of slowing down; mobile search is projected to equal computer search in 2012. If consumers are searching on-the-go, any advertiser that isn’t reaching out to them is missing an opportunity.

The immediate question is: how do we take advantage of this opportunity? AdWords automatically opts all advertisers into mobile search by default, so there’s nothing that needs to be done, right? Wrong. Just like any search medium, mobile search is its own beast and requires a savvy marketing team to capitalize on the opportunity with a unique strategy. Google only shows one ad (assuming Quality Score is high) above the search results on a mobile SERP, and one or two below the results (both below the results if Quality Score is not high enough to qualify for premium positioning):

This means that in order for mobile search to be effective, ads must have an average rank between 1-3 or impression share will be lost. Furthermore, an advertiser’s website needs to be relatively optimized for mobile browsers, making it possible for a consumer to easily purchase from a mobile device. As the purpose of this mobile strategy is to drive sales or at least drive customers to brick and mortar stores, rather than increase brand awareness, keyword and ad copy strategies will need to adapt to this.  Keywords should be lower funnel terms – or transaction related terms – to control CPA/CoS, while ad copy for these terms should be hyper-targeted (geographically and/or demographically) to further qualify clicks and limit cost.

After the latest iPhone release (with a reported 1,000,000 sales in the first weeks) and the constant stream of competitors growing every month, smartphones have become readily available to consumers and are no longer limited to corporate BlackBerrys. Given this rapid growth, it’s safe to say that the next step in search evolution is upon us and will be realized during holiday 2009. With that in mind, it’s critical to develop a mobile-specific plan leading into holiday to ensure that Quality Score and strategies are in place when it really counts.

Benny Blum

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Mobile Ads, SEM, Trends, paid search, search engine marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.