Impact
of Search Engine Usage on Consumer Buying
Comscore research,
a global consumer research firm and consultancy that conducts polls and studies
of consumer behavior released a new report. It revealed that 25 percent
of consumer electronics searchers they studied ultimately purchased a product,
and that an estimated 92 percent of these purchases occurred offline.
The findings confirm
what many have already known, that most sales from search engine marketing occur
offline at physical store locations and that SEM is a powerful sales generator.
Comscore found
that only 15 percent of online purchases following a consumer electronics search
occurred in the same user session as the search itself, with 85 percent of conversions
occurring in a later Web visit. Additionally, nearly 40 percent of all purchases
within 5 to 12 weeks after the first search was done.
They study also revealed that generic search terms such as "plasma tv, pda,
cell phone were likely to produce a purchase. James Lamberti, vice president of
comScore Networks suggested that companies are losing out sales when they
only focus on branded search terms (brand name products).
The comScore research
also discovered that although 8 of 10 of searchers conduct additional CE/C searches
later in the shopping process, the most will use the same search term type (either
generic or branded) with which they began the search process. 84 percent of these
buyers searched using a generic term used earlier in the buying cycle.
The consumer's vocabulary
then doesn't seem to be affected by the "brand experience" and they
continue to search using generic terms.
This means that companies
that fail to optimize for generic terms will visit out on the vast majority of
consumers looking for products similar to theirs.
Diane Rinaldo, director
of strategic alliances at Overture added that “This research supports
the theory that all types of terms play an important role in influencing the consumer’s
purchase decision”
You may conclude from
this that web sites which are optimized for many different and related keyword
phrases may gain additional exposure to the consumer during their product research.
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Sempo
SEM Research
Sempo, an organization
of search engine marketing professionals announced results of a study which suggests
online marketers will be increasing the SEM budgets by 39%. This means a projected
budget of over 4 Billion dollars.
Sempo
board of directors member Kevin Lee, states that "The research
also suggests that marketers are using a mix of internal and external solutions
to deal with the high level of complexity of the search marketing space."
Brand
Awareness is Top Priority of Companies using SEM
Perhaps surprisingly,
the study also revealed that brand awareness was the primary objective
of most search marketing campaigns.
Given the sparse amount
of published information available about online branding, it is very strange to
hear this. Many experts doubt the efficacy of online branding since almost every
visual or written differentiation element can be copied by a competitor. The brand
experience is also very difficult to deliver online since people won't sit around
like they will with TV. Read more about online
branding.
More Comscore Research
Online retail spending
for the week ending Nov. 21 was up 21% to $1.79 billion from $1.47 billion compared
to the same time period one year ago.
Hot Products 2004
Comscore
reports that overall holiday shopping has grown about 25% compared to last year.
The hottest products are jewelry, watches, furniture, appliances, computer software,
flowers, miscellaneous gifts, and home and garden products.
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