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Slide 1: Search Engine Marketing (SEM) 10/13/2006
Slide 2: Online Population is Searching Source: Jupiter/The NPD Group Inc., June 2003 • Search is the #2 activity on the web, behind email • 79% of web users use search to navigate the web
Slide 3: Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Definition Search Term Advertising Natural Search Results Art and Science of increasing a web site's visibility in search engines for a targeted list of keywords and phrases
Slide 4: Power of Top Results About 50% of web users review only the first page of search results! Source: iProspect, Brand Survey 2, November 2002
Slide 5: SEM Advantages • • • • • Non intrusive e-marketing strategy Being found & increase traffic (up to 40%) Appear above your competitors Very low acquisition cost New qualified visitors 365 days a year • Highly targeted traffic (highest conversion rate!) • Best weapon for Sales & Lead Generation! Source: Nielsen E-commerce Report, May 2003 (NB: Tiles = buttons)
Slide 6: How do customers find products to buy? SEARCH is #1
Slide 7: SEM is highly profitable! Source: U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, New Methods in Search Marketing, June 2004
Slide 8: Search Now the Largest Share of Online Ads % Online Advertising Revenue 100% 6% 8% Other Rich Media Sponsorships Classifieds Banners Growth of Search: Marketers are voting with their dollars • Search now the most dominant form of online advertising • Nearly 3x growth in since start of 2003 • 35 searches per user per month in U.S. • 73% search penetration 80% 9% 17% 60% 20% 40% 20% 40% Search 0% Type of Online Media Source: PWC/IAB USA Internet Advertising Revenue Report, September 2004
Slide 9: Search Engines Getting Bigger and Bigger... It becomes more and more tricky to appear on top of their results. Reported Size (indexed pages) 8,1 Billion 5,0 Billion 4,2 Billion (estimate) 2,5 Billion Search Engine Google MSN Yahoo! Ask Jeeves Source: SearchEngineWatch.com, November 2004
Slide 10: Google is #1 in search in Belgium Second largest site of Belgium 1.9 million unique users and a reach of 66,6% Source: ComScore Media Metrix, Dec 2004 Source: Media Metrix 2.0 Legend, June 2004
Slide 11: Where do surfers look at in Google results? Organic Ranking Visibility Rank 1 100% Rank 2 100% Rank 3 100% Rank 4 85% Rank 5 60% Rank 6 50% Rank 7 50% Rank 8 30% Rank 9 30% Rank 10 20% Source: Did-it, Enquiro and Eyetools, March 2005 Side Sponsored Ad Visibility Rank 1 50% Rank 2 40% Rank 3 30% Rank 4 20% Rank 5 10% Rank 6 10% Rank 7 10% Rank 8 10%
Slide 12: Most people use 2 word phrases! Of all the search phrases world wide, about 33% of the people use 2 word phrases in search engines. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 2 word phrases 3 word phrases 1 word phrase 4 word phrases 5 word phrases 32,58% 25,61% 19,02% 12,83% 5,64% Source: OneStat.com, February 2004
Slide 13: Extenseo is: • Pioneer (since 1998) • A Subsidiary of Belgacom Skynet (since 01/2006) • 100% focused on Search Engine Marketing: – Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Search Engine Advertising (SEA) – Conversion & ROI Analysis • A team of 12 Professional Consultants • ROI-Minded, focused on Sales & Lead Generation • Market Leader in terms of: – Turnover and Market Shares – Technology – Experience and Knowledge • Innovating and Reactive (strong "R&D" pole) • Some References:
Slide 14: Extenseo: an Active Company! • Active member of: International Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization • Partnerships, Labels & Certifications: eTic Company #154 2 Extenseo specialists have obtained the 'Google Advertising Professional' certification. Selected by MSN as privileged partner • Most Recent Publications: 'Search Engine Marketing' White Paper in collaboration with MSN and Best Of Publishing. May 2005 - 88 pages 'Search Engine Marketing' Code of Ethics October 2005 • Latest Speaking Opportunities: – – – – – The Reference (Ghent): 'Search and Measure' Seminar (04/2005) Solvay Business School (Brussels): Training (05/2005) ‘Web Analytics Day’ Seminar (Brussels) (10/2005) Jupiter ’Search Engine Strategies' Seminar (Paris) (11/2005) FeWeb Congres (Antwerpen) (12/2005)
Slide 15: SEM Strategies 1. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) 2. SEARCH ENGINE ADVERTISING (SEA) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Lowest acquisition cost Advantages - Long Term Strategy - Perfect for search terms composed of 2 or 3 words - Reach a lot of search engines Disadvantages - Takes 2-3 months to go live - Limited when too much competition Search Engine Advertising (SEA) - Quick Setup - Perfect for Generic Keywords - Perfect for Punctual/Promo Actions - Some keywords might be expensive - Time consuming - Might capture less traffic than SEO
Slide 16: SEO recognized as more profitable than SEA Source: JupiterResearch Executive Survey, August 2005 (US Search Marketers only)
Slide 17: SEA (mini-)Case Study: Coradirect.be 10/13/2006
Slide 18: Situation During the 2nd Quarter of 2006, Cora planned to launch ‘Coradirect.be’, a web site aiming to sell top-of-the-range electro-domestic products. This e-commerce site has a particular way of working: • The client selects one of the special promotion products and requests Coradirect’s best price offer. • His/her Cora retailer informs him/her of the unbeatable price, product availability and the delivery period of the selection. • The client has then to confirm his/her reservation and makes an appointment to pickup the order at the Cora store of his/her choice. Emakina, their web agency, contacted Extenseo (Emakina SEM partner) to see how to best promote this atypical website and quickly generate sales.
Slide 19: Challenges Coradirect.be was looking for immediate results as soon as the website would be launched. Available resources (time and budget) were very limited... The e-shop would only allow in the test phase to book and pickup products in the Cora store of Woluwe (Brussels).
Slide 20: Solution • Search Engine Advertising (SEA) has directly be selected as this strategy is perfect for: – quick campaign launch – low involvement from the client – easy budget control • Google AdWords has of course been chosen as advertising network as it: – covers 90-95% of the search engine traffic in Belgium – allows Geotargeting on a regional level
Slide 21: Results, ROI & Findings Month May 2006 Jun 2006 Jul 2006 Aug 2006 Sep 2006 Totals Impressions 169.688 183.660 162.043 168.099 163.113 846.603 Clicks 4.593 5.210 4.757 4.700 4.021 23.281 CTR 2,70% 2,80% 2,90% 2,80% 2,50% 2,70% Avg. CPC Cost Avg. Position 4,5 5,1 5,1 5,2 5,5 5,1 Transactions 65 68 44 70 27 274 Conversion Cost / Rate Transaction 1,42% 1,31% 0,92% 1,49% 0,67% 1,18% €5,10 €3,09 €4,48 €2,69 €6,17 €3,99 €0,07 €331,55 €0,04 €210,22 €0,04 €197,07 €0,04 €188,50 €0,04 €166,64 €0,05 €1.093,98 • Even with a maximum cost-per-click of 0,05 EUR in a highly competitive sector: – the position was ‘good’ (avg. position 5,1) – the click-through (2,7%) can be considered as ‘very good’ (for such positions). For a media budget of 1.093,98 EUR spent on Google AdWords, the 5-months campaign generated: – 23.281 qualified visitors (= 0,05 EUR per visitor) – 274 highly qualified leads (= 3,99 EUR per lead) • Which other strategy can generate such results for about 1.000 EUR media budget?!?
Slide 22: SEM (SEO+SEA) Case Study: Ethias.be 10/13/2006
Slide 23: Situation Ethias Bank & Insurance is the 2nd insurer in Belgium, with more than 1.000.000 customers. In 2005, more than 1.000.000 quotes have been calculated on Ethias.be, leading to 39.000 new contracts through the web. Although they launched their first website in 1996 and won the “Inside Internet e-commerce Awards” in 2003, Ethias hadn’t any experience yet in Search Engine Marketing. Looking to complete their e-marketing strategy, Ethias selected in June 2003 Extenseo as their SEM agency, based on Extenseo’s reputation and its experience in the insurance sector.
Slide 24: Challenges • Ethias Bank & Insurance has a lot of products to promote, leading to hundreds of keywords to manage. • The Ethias.be domain name had not that much external links since the brand change (OMOB/SMAP -> Ethias) in December 2003. • A new site had to be launched end 2005, involving multiple teams: – Marketing (Ethias) – Design & IT (NRB) – SEM agency (Extenseo)
Slide 25: Solution • Chosen to: – continue with SEO (good results achieved in the past), – start with SEA (still unknown to Ethias). • SEO approach for the new site: – optimize the new site structure since the beginning – optimize every (relevant) internal page of the new site (HTML Templates, Copywriting, Internal Links, etc.) in collaboration with the different teams, mainly by giving Training’s & Consulting, and a strict follow-up on the project. • SEA: – Test with a time-limited (2 months) Google AdWords campaign.
Slide 26: Results > SEO Positions in Google.be • On the 160 strategic keywords/pages, more than 100 keywords are now ranked on the 1st page, with most of them in the top 3 results! September 13, 2006
Slide 27: Results > Global Traffic • Since the collaboration with Extenseo, the search engine traffic evolved from 1-4% to 13%-17% of the global traffic. Ethias.be: Traffic (Global & Search Engines) 400.000 350.000 300.000 250.000 Visitors 200.000 150.000 100.000 50.000 0 Total Visitors SEO+SEA Visitors 05 /0 4 07 /0 4 09 /0 4 11 /0 4 01 /0 5 03 /0 5 05 /0 5 07 /0 5 09 /0 5 11 /0 5 01 /0 6 03 /0 6 05 /0 6 07 /0 6
Slide 28: Results > Search Engine Traffic • In addition to SEO, the SEA campaigns: – allow to get visibility on competitive terms, – reinforce the brand visibility on well ranked SEO keywords. Ethias.be: Search Engine Traffic (Split SEO/SEA) 60.000 50.000 40.000 Visitors 30.000 20.000 10.000 SEA Visitors SEO Visitors 0 05 /0 4 07 /0 4 09 /0 4 11 /0 4 01 /0 5 03 /0 5 05 /0 5 07 /0 5 09 /0 5 11 /0 5 01 /0 6 03 /0 6 05 /0 6 07 /0 6
Slide 29: Results > SEO Traffic • Depending on the life of the site and the level of optimization, the SEO traffic can quickly evolve. Ethias.be: SEO Traffic 45.000 40.000 35.000 30.000 Visitors 25.000 20.000 15.000 10.000 5.000 0 05 /0 6 01 /0 6 11 /0 4 01 /0 5 03 /0 5 07 /0 5 05 /0 4 09 /0 4 05 /0 5 07 /0 4 09 /0 5 11 /0 5 03 /0 6 07 /0 6 Results of the in-depth optimization of the new site. Results of a major re-optimization Results of the 1st optimization New site launched
Slide 30: Results > SEA Traffic • Q2/2005: launch of the 1st Google AdWords campaign (2 months period) • Q2/2006: launch of a permanent & global Google AdWords campaign Ethias.be: SEA Traffic 16.000 14.000 12.000 10.000 Visitors 8.000 6.000 4.000 2.000 0 05 /0 5 06 /0 5 07 /0 5 08 /0 5 09 /0 5 10 /0 5 11 /0 5 12 /0 5 01 /0 6 02 /0 6 03 /0 6 04 /0 6 05 /0 6 06 /0 6 07 /0 6 08 /0 6
Slide 31: Results > ROI The power of search engines was initially underestimated by some persons at Ethias… but results are in fact impressive. • 5% of the Ethias e-marketing budget are dedicated to SEM (SEO+SEA). • More than 100 strategic keywords are ranked on the 1st page. • Search engines generate 13-17% of the Ethias.be global traffic. • 300% increase of the search engine traffic in 1 year, 500% in 2 years. • More than 40% of the SEA visitors request an online quote. • SEO & SEA have: – the lowest acquisition cost – & the highest conversion rates among the different e-marketing techniques used by Ethias.
Slide 32: Findings & Conclusion • Google generates 94% of the Ethias.be search engine traffic. • Search engines generate today 13-17% of the global traffic, with SEO generating 3 times more traffic than SEA. • SEO and SEA are 100% complementary. • SEO is at least 2 times more profitable than SEA. • SEO Link building takes time, but is really worth it! • Due to the very good results, Ethias will continue to invest time & budgets in the coming months on its SEM Strategy.