Multichannel Metrics

Search Engine StrategiesAugust 7, 2006

LeeAnn PrescottDirector of ResearchHitwise USA

Hitwise: Who We Are

Online Competitive Intelligence Service

Monitor the largest worldwide sample of Internet users

25+ million worldwide, 10 million US

Report on the most online businesses 500,000+ businesses 165 industry categories

Founded in 1997 with profitable operations in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore

1200+ Clients Worldwide

Methodology and data audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers

Search And Multichannel Activity

Search is an indicator of consumer interest:

Trends in search volume What sites are visited as a result of search What search terms are being used

Examples of how to use search to complement and monitor:

Advertising Direct Mail Public Relations Consumer Generated Media

Advertising - Dove

SuperBowl – Campaign for Real Beauty ad successful at driving visits

Dove Calming Night New product launch Television and online

advertising

Super Bowl

Launch of Dove Calming Night

Searches for ‘dove’

While searches for individual Dove products are low in volume, searches for ‘dove’ correlate with marketing activity

Indicates opportunity to reinforce marketing messages on SERP

Super Bowl

Launch of Dove Calming Night

SERP as advertising medium

Opportunity to reinforce brand message

offer samples?

Promote new products?

Text should reinforce marketing message

Direct Mail – Pottery Barn

Catalog drop in April 2006 with quilts on the cover

Pottery Barn became #6 website receiving traffic from ‘quilts’, up from #38

Lasting Influence of Catalog Cover

Increased volume of traffic from ‘quilts’ over time to Pottery Barn

‘quilts’ became 2nd most popular generic term for Pottery Barn

Greater brand association with bedding

Public Relations - Ford

Ford just announced recall of 1.2 million vehicles due to faulty cruise control switch

Notifying vehicle owners

First organic Google result – good SEO

Lessons from past events

Last September – recall of 3.8 million vehicles

Where did searchers on recall go?

34% to Ford’s site 15% to legal sites 15% to news sites

Is SEO enough - should Ford bid on appropriate keywords to direct traffic?

How do people search for recall info?

How does Ford recall compare in volume to other current recalls?

Larger volume than Toyota and GM

What other phrases are searchers using to find info?

Model names, misspellings

Are they finding what they need?

Low success rate for specific terms

Search Term Suggestion Report for ‘recall’ September 2005

User Generated Content

Combining Diet Coke and Mentos creates an explosion

People taking videos of experiments and posting online

Two men create video of Bellagio-like display, posted on personal website, EepyBird.com

Site shot up to rank of 24 in Multimedia category

Lots of publicity, article in Wall Street Journal

PR valued at $10 million

Online effects

Searches for both products skyrocket

Mentos embraces Eepybird, posts video on website

Coca-cola says not appropriate for brand

Search term suggestion shows people are searching for ‘pepsi and mentos’

Website Visits

Visits to Eepybird.com far eclipsed Diet Coke site and Mentos site

Mentos site received lift, none for DietCoke.com

Have sales of 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke increased?

Summary

Advertising Offline advertising can drive searches SERP as channel to display brand marketing and new product messages

Direct Mail Search can help monitor impact of direct mail, affect brand association

Public Relations Search term analysis indicator of type of interest Use search to manage negative publicity Consider using both paid and organic search in PR crisis

Consumer generated content Measure impact of content and word of mouth through search and site visits

Now you know…

LeeAnn PrescottDirector of ResearchHitwise USA

E-mail: leeann.prescott@hitwise.comBlog: weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/Internet: www.hitwise.com