Spur Interactive

There is a major buzz in the SEM community about Stephen Wolfram’s new creation, Wolfram Alpha and the future of Search Engines.  The major difference between your normal Search Engine and the Wolfram Alpha is its SERPs.  Unlike Google and all other search engines, Wolfram Alpha will give you an answer to your search based on the question you ask, one answer which removes the extra (and most painful step in research) of finding the answer.  Now there is no debate that if it works as planned, Wolfram Alpha could change search however I feel strongly that this will not effect SEM and could in fact improve it.  The reason…people want choices and the ability to research/compare products and services.

Imagine going to Wolfram Alpha and asking, “What is the best pizza in Houston?” and given no choices to choose from, just one single result.  From a user experience perspective, my choice has been taken and thereby it is a poor engine for finding services/products.  However, if you are researching a particular subject or needing an answer to a question that has been burning at your brain, Wolfram Alpha will be the answer…literally.  Understanding the ability to choose v. looking for an answer is what will allow Wolfram Alpha to drastically change search and SEM performance for the better.  From a PPC perspective, especially when there is a thin red line between a qualified and unqualified traffic.  An example can be seen in the health industry, where a term like “cancer treatment” can bring in two types of visitors:

1.    a potential patient looking the best place to get cancer care
2.    a student/curious person looking for information on cancer treatment

The same term could currently be spending a good portion of budget on traffic that isn’t interested in your product, but rather just looking for information.  Its tough to weed out this traffic they are using the same keyword to trigger your ads.  You can use negatives to a certain extent, however this isn’t 100% guaranteed.  Now imagine if Wolfram Alpha starts to become the “fact engine” that can provide answers, not results to your questions and it takes this traffic away from major search engines.  That’s correct, you have better qualified traffic that are using the right engine for their needs.  I need a service or product, my best bet is using Google because I will have choices to make the best economical decision.  I have a question, need an answer I will use Wolfram Alpha.  The point, if Wolfram Alpha is all it is cracked up to be, it will make SEM on Google much more effective by removing all of those pesky visitors that click with no intention to buy…

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One of the most common mistakes that can be made to any search campaign is shutting down keywords without understanding the role it plays in your overall Search Campaign.  Imagine it’s Game 7 of the NBA Finals and Jerry Sloan sits John Stockton because he isn’t one of the top scorers.  Overall production for the team would fall because you are losing 10.5 assists a game.

This same scenario is what occurs in many PPC Campaigns during the Optimization process where advertisers pause terms that are simply not converting.  A common mistake is the lack of research into the engagement metrics and mapping of your conversion cycle. To understand the role that your keywords play, you must first understand the conversion process for search. The very basic search conversion funnel has three phases:

•    Browsing
•    Shopping/Researching
•    Buying/ Decision Making

Each phase will have a different set of keyword and ad copy strategy to help maximize your efforts from search.  By cutting off traffic from a portion of this cycle, you run the risk of cutting off your keyword conversion funnel.  An example of this, would be the following scenario:

1st search: cosmetics (browsing)
2nd search:  mascara (browsing)
3rd search: waterproof mascara (shopping)
4th search: Blinc brown mascara (Buying) * Converting Term

Reviewing the search funnel above, you see the branded term is what gets credit for the conversion, however the assist terms all played a major role in “assisting” the conversion process.  Many advertisers fail to take the assist terms into consideration when optimizing their account performance and see the end result, overall conversion falling.  In the 2008 Marketing Sherpa Shared Knowledge report it was stated that:

By tracking assist conversions, we determined that customers take about 2 days from the first time they click on a paid ad to the time they convert….many of our conversions consist of customers that have searched using 2 to 7 different keywords.  Customers are doing their research!

So in keeping with the metaphor being used, understanding each role of your keyword list (players) and using them for the greater good of your account (team) will allow you to maximize your returns (win the championship).  If not, you will be stuck with a team full of overpaid and underachieving Prim Donnas, just look at the NY Knicks under Isaiah Thomas…..

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