Slip boundary condition

In the past two columns, I’ve featured the interviews (Part 1, Part II) of where search might go in the next three years. The two themes consistently mentioned as the most important for the future have been personalization and blended search results. Being a user-centric type of person, my first question was, “how will that impact the search user?” So, at Enquiro, we tried to shed some light on that question. We conducted an eye tracking study looking at interactions with Google’s Universal search results and we also created a mock up of what a personalized search page would look like. Today, I’d like to share a few of the findings with you. The full report, along with the interviews, is available in a whitepaper (PDF). Chunking of page rather than F shaped scan patterns There was one fairly obvious difference we saw as soon as we compared a heat map from a typical blended result against the heat maps from a previous, pre-blended results. Our believe was … [Read more...] about Eye Tracking On Universal And Personalized Search

RKG has long been interested in the question of online to offline spillover. We’ve also long been critical of the sloppy, ill-conceived tests that have misled many advertisers on this spillover in the past. We’ve recently participated with a few of our retail-chain clients on more carefully designed studies to get a more responsible answer to this question. The Conventional Wisdom You hear numbers thrown around all the time about the online to offline spillover factor. I’ve heard that for every order tracked online there are 4, 6, 7 — I even heard 10 once — offline orders driven. All of these numbers are misleading and often are cited by people who have a vested interest in leading people to believe online advertising is even more valuable than it is. It’s not that the numbers are made up — they just don’t mean what some folks imply that they mean. For instance, let’s say you’ve based your spillover estimates on customer … [Read more...] about Paid Search Drives Store Revenue… But How Much?

Ever since Microsoft Excel beat Lotus 1-2-3’s butt to become the world’s preferred spreadsheet solution, it has never looked back. It’s hard for any search marketer to think of a world without Excel. I tell rookies new to the industry to move themselves a tiny bed into cell A1 because they’re going to be practically living in Excel for the rest of their careers. Seriously though, search marketers who can master the ins and outs of this “simple on the outside, sophisticated on the inside” tool, will certainly have a leg up on their peers. I would hope that most of you have been exposed to a majority of the following Excel tips for SEM pros, so this list is mainly for the more junior members of your team. However, I’m hoping there will be a couple nuggets included for even the most experienced search engine marketers. NOTE – all tips contain MS Excel 2007 directions, however, most of these features are still available in earlier versions. … [Read more...] about Excel at Excel for SEM Applications, Part 1

Today, every small and large e-Commerce brand has brand ambassadors in one form or another. Why? Marketers know that fifty-eight percent of shoppers spend more when they can relate to the brand ambassadors and associate themselves with the brand advocates. Every day, however, we find the same models advertising brands as well as the same body shapes, skin colors, and perfect condition of the skin. The world is much wider than this, though, and brands selling clothes only for slim white European women in their 20s may miss a huge market they never mention when addressing their audience. Let’s take a look at seven principles of choosing the brand ambassadors differently: 1. Heroes Similar To the Target Audience Bonobos introduces its “heroes” as people just like you and me, incredibly courageous in their actions and achieving the great success in their professional spheres. Heroes are different, but they correlate with Bonobos’ customer profiles—from … [Read more...] about 7 Ways to Diversify Your Brand Ambassadors Strategy

In politics, the act of drawing, reviewing and re-structuring district lines for voting purposes to ensure that like demographics are aligned is a common practice. These lines appear bizarre when viewed on a map due to the non-uniform nature of redistricting. Why don’t politicians just use ZIP codes?  Politicians learned many years ago that zip codes are not demographically sensitive. While it is fair to assume that there are some similarities with you and your immediate neighbors, within a few short blocks there are often stark contradictions across virtually every demographic data point. ZIP codes are not even real areas. They are, in fact, a series of delivery points. Even when treated as areas, they don’t have the density to relate to urban communities. Somewhere along the evolution of display advertising the “ZIP code” in its assorted repackaging forms became the standard for location and demographic based targeting. Geo targeting is one of the most … [Read more...] about What Display Advertising Can Learn From Politicians