Using Search Engines to Market your Consultancy

What are Search Engines?

“The search engine is the focal point of the online experience for Internet users across the spectrum”

Why Search is so important 1 trillion 1 trillion documents on the world wide web 250 million 250 million searches per day Over half of all online purchases Over half of all online purchases start at a search engine 28% of all searchesfor product names 28% of all searches on Google are for product names 35% of all searches are commercial 73%end in a purchase 73% of searches end in a purchase

Market Forecasts % Growth of SEM in UK SEM as % of Internet Ad Spend UK Search market will continue to grow in size, reaching £802m in will see a 57% growth rate but growth will slow down dramatically from 2006 as market reaches maturity SEM as a % of overall online ad spend will peak in 2006 (at 67%), tailing off to 49% by 2010

Search Engine Marketing

Jargon Busting Marketer Consumer = Search = Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Pay-for Placement (PFP) Paid Inclusion (PI) Per URL (site submit)Trusted Feeds Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) On the page (website)Off the page Solution Organic Results Paid-for Results Natural Visibility Paid-for Visibility Strategy

Natural visibility Crawler-based automated technology Spiders are launched by the search engines to crawl the internet Results returned to the engine and ranked on relevancy Can take weeks to be found Relevancy is determined by: Quality and quantity of website content Website build and architecture Speed of page download Link popularity

Natural Search 25 million competing pages

Natural Search 17 million competing pages

Benefits of Natural Visibility Cost Efficiency Traffic Increase Easier site navigation Accountability 60

Pay-for-Performance Listings Real-time auction of keywords Overture, MIVA, Mirago Google – (slightly different to real-time auction model) Paid for on Cost per Click basis Price driven by the market The higher you bid the higher up you appear Prone to bidding wars Copy (titles and descriptions) optimised / changed regularly

Pay-for-Placement Opportunities

Awareness of Paid Listings What do you think the listings circled in the above search results pages are? 83% of the sample went on to say they would use paid search listings

Instant and Guaranteed Traffic Paid Search A Paid Search Campaign can go live in days Low risk – only pay when a user clicks Qualified traffic – users are actively searching for content relevant to your site Tactical

Understanding Demand In 2005 there were: 102,000 searches for “Management Training” 28,000 searches for “Management Consultant”

Search Volume and Seasonality 2003 record: 10,753 searches on Tuesday 11 th February 2004 record: 16,389 searches on Tuesday 16 th March; almost as many on Thursday 18 th March

Managing Paid Search Advertisers can also use 3 rd party tracking tools e.g. Dart Search / Atlas Search allow: CPA targeting Bid updates of 12 times per day Rule groups to avoid bidding wars

Managing Search

Developing Search strategies ROI or visibility? Do we need to be ranked #1? Is your brand strong enough not to be top of listings? A tactical or long-term vehicle? Ongoing lead generation Targeting new audiences Promoting new products Purely direct response? Search is increasingly used as a branding tool “the majority of consumers expect leading brands to hold top search listings, with 33% believing that those found in top spots ARE the big brands” (iProspect)

Example Search Strategy Cost Effective Visibility Now Time Traffic SEO – focusing on Primary Terms Directories – for homepage & single product pages Pay for Performance Tactical or Campaign Specific Generating Additional Volume Long Term Presence Trusted Feed

Management In-house: SEO – internal technical resource required PFP – credit card and direct search engine relationship Dependent on campaign size Agency: SEO – consultancy or implementation PFP – access to auto bid management Specialists: e.g. Understand how people search Can assist with copy writing (knowing what works well) Dynamic market forces Agency discount

Integration

Putting Search at the heart of the Communications Mix Search Customer Experience Retail Advertising Website Search has a significant impact on other channels – and vice versa Align Search with client’s other marketing & advertising channels Dovetail web development, usability & accessibility for a complete understanding of your customer’s online needs Maximising ROI for multiple marketing & business units (Retail, Brand, Direct)

Leveraging offline advertising Oct-0304-Oct-0307-Oct-0310-Oct-0313-Oct-0316-Oct-0319-Oct-0322-Oct-0325-Oct-0328-Oct-0331-Oct Nov-0306-Nov-0309-Nov-0312-Nov-0315-Nov-0318-Nov-0321-Nov-0324-Nov-0327-Nov-0330-Nov Dec-0306-Dec-0309-Dec-0312-Dec-0315-Dec-0318-Dec-0321-Dec-0324-Dec-0327-Dec-03 Searches for product x Volume Daily Searches TV Activity Press Activity

The Future of Search Market proliferation and sophistication Launch of MSN Paid Search Increased targeting options Another buying point Local Search Pay-Per-Call and Pay-Per-Text MIVA first to launch in UK Mobile Search

Golden Rule of Search Marketing Understand your audience and how they look for your product or relevant information online Don’t restrict efforts to keyword buying Embrace Search as a marketing medium Develop a strategy that capitalises on other advertising & marketing Be in control of your Brand Understand latent and indirect response