Is Social Media Reducing The Cost Of Search Campaigns?

A recent research study recently carried out by GroupM Search and ComScore claims that a 50% improvement in click-through rates  may achievable when consumers have been exposed to a combination of social media and paid search.

“What’s compelling is how social media influences decisions and social media could move the needle on click-through rates and performance in paid search.” says Chris Copeland, chief executive officer of GroupM Search for the Americas.

The research study looks at how social media exposure and search behaviour impacted on conversion rates during a three month study across different vertical sectors, including automotive, consumer packaged goods and telecommunications.”

This research is supported in an article by Emily Steel of the Wall Street Journal who reports:

According to Steel, “Sprint Nextel, Volkswagen, Xerox and other major marketers are rebooting their strategy for buying Internet search ads, seeking more bang for their buck as they work with limited ad budgets.

Some of the new strategies include tweaking the types of search ads they buy, coordinating campaigns geographically and boosting promotions on social-networking sites. The shift comes as search-advertising matures and marketers realize that pouring more money into the medium doesn’t necessarily translate into more sales.”

An additional option would be to support social media marketing with organic search optimisation or seo.

SEO addresses “natural” search results that appear in the left column of the Google page, while pay-per-click relates to keywords it auctions to create the sponsored links ranked on the right-hand side and often shaded at the top. For a decade, these have been the moneymaking meat of the search industry.

“Big firms are looking more at SEO than pay per click because they realise that consumers are becoming aware the listings on the side and top of the page are paid for and that natural listings are in some cases more credible and more relevant,” said Rebecca Jennings, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

Her firm forecasts that spending on pay per click in America will increase between 2007 and 2012 by 125% to $10.1 billion (£5.1 billion), compared with SEO soaring 365% to $8.9 billion.

It is not easy to get a website to the top of the results thrown up by a search engine.

“There are 200 factors that determine a page’s relevance,” said Matthew Trewhella, of Google. “Imagine it as a big wall of dials with a bunch of people turning them slightly every day.”

Meghan Keane of econsultancy adds:

“Backing off of generic key words in favor of targeted social media could be a good move for some brands. Will enough brands use social media to promote and increase marketing effectiveness to take a chunk out of the paid search market in 2010?

It’s too early to tell, but it will be interesting to watch over the next few months.”

If you enjoyed reading this:

Get Regular News on Social Media Marketing and SEO Tips  by Email

Get Regular News on Social Media Marketing and  SEO Tips by RSS

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.