Your Ad Position Matters
When it comes to the search results page, anything in the top 3 positions encourages clicks, the ads in the side panel can have great click through too - as long as they’re above the fold. The ads that drop below, well, let’s hope your competitor’s ads are less targeted than yours.
When someone is browsing a blog, or shopping, does it make a difference to the CTR if the ad is at the top of the page, a skyscraper on the side or that big ol’ 300 x 250 rectangle right in the middle of the page? Yes. Yes it does.
According to Gord Hotchkiss of Enquiro, that top of the page placement can make a difference.
“There is brand lift that comes from dominating the top of page. The biggest question for our first study was, how valuable are those top-of-page slots? If you own the organic position, do you need to buy the top sponsored spot? Is there lift by owning both spots? The answer is yes, to both. The lift we saw in most metrics was well into double digits, significant for marketers. You gain a bigger share of mind when you own more top-of-page real estate.”
Owning the top spots in organic and paid search is great. I am a bit wary against the click cannibalism (do you want to pay for a click when you could get it for free?) But that’s another other discussion…
“You lose brand awareness when you’re not there. For generic keywords, even if you have a strong brand in a category, if you’re not in a result set and your competitors are, your position of dominance will start to erode. In fact, we’ve seen people looking for dominant brands in a result set when they weren’t present, and their confidence in both the quality of the search results and the brand position started to erode. Often, it’s the biggest and strongest brands that are the least concerned about their search visibility. This arrogance could wipe them from the consideration set of many prospective buyers.”
Don’t lose your mindshare. Yes, you may have become the generic name for a category, such as Kleenex, but if you’re not owning that top position people are going to notice and wonder why someone else is in your place. Maybe the other brand is better? The consumer doesn’t know, or really much care, but they do know that you’re not where they expected you to be and have now turned their attention to the brand who is.
“Competition on the results page is a good thing. If domination of a results page is good, total domination must be better, right? Well, no, actually. We found more engagement with the top-of-page results when there were a couple of well-known competitors, and engagement led to an overall lift in brand awareness for the test brand. The reason has to do with the intent of the user. If a user is launching a search looking for alternatives to consider in a purchase decision, a results set with only one brand isn’t a very good match to that intent. The user will spend less time considering it, because their confidence is lower. But a results set that brings back two or three well-known brands is a better match, resulting in more engagement. Of course, you’re now competing with those brands, so effective messaging, positioning and landing page strategies become more important. But you already knew that, right?”
Competition is fabulous. We all know this but like to believe that total domination will result in all clicks going to you. It’s possible, but chances are people will search harder to find your competition. Level the playing field and position yourself next to them, just make sure your marketing is on target.
Brand awareness and mindshare have always been a top priority for marketing; but make sure that you position yourself not only in the consumer’s mind, but on their screens as well. With everyone spending more and more time on the internet it is essential that your brand be online too. Improving your online visibility will only prove to be more beneficial as users become technologically savvy.
As people are searching it’s important that they can find you - on Google, Yahoo! or MSN, on blogs and Shopping Applications.
Elise
** Read the full article “Brands On Search: Connecting During Consideration” by Gord Hotchkiss at Search Insider
Tags: ad placement, advertising, Google, Gord Hotchkiss, MediaPost
