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Bing’s New SERP: Reinvention of Social Search and Discovery

by Tarina Roberts ~ May 11th, 2012

The Sum of the Whole is Greater than its Parts

Microsoft has enhanced the results page on its Bing search engine to intertwine social and search listings in a way that brings to life how these two channels work together. It highlights the synergy that exists between social media and SEM.  The goal, according to Microsoft, is to “take search from finding to doing,” and as their Corporate VP of Search Program Management Derrick Connell stated at the Bing Search Summit where the announcement was made, to “surface people, not web pages.”  What we see, however, is a compelling advancement in the potential for social search and a subtle opportunity for advertisers to now exist in this network that didn’t before. 

In the biggest overhaul of the SERP since the launch of the engine three years ago, Bing’s search results page is the first of its kind where it shows paid search, organic search and social activity simultaneously – yet separate. While this seems to be somewhat of an oxymoron, Bing’s delineation of content is a statement of what’s relevant, but at the same time, the “all inclusive” content presence speaks to what’s important, especially as it relates to the decision making process. When packaged together, Bing has the potential to deliver a stronger social search experience than elsewhere in the industry – including within Google.

Bing’s New SERP

The page is separated into three parts:

1. Core web results (What the web knows) – Left column, organic and paid results, well-organized for a better experience.

2. Snapshot (What Bing knows) – Center column, structured data, helpful information and services related to the search query like reviews, hotels, restaurants, etc. Includes content from Yelp, OpenTable and other Bing partnerships.

3. Social side bar (What your friends know) – Right column, social content shared by friends and experts that is related to the search query. Users can sync the sidebar with multiple social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare and more.

The new delivery appears to be an efficient way of serving blended results that are relevant to what is being searched. It also elevates the Microsoft and Facebook relationship, among others, putting visible effort toward delivering the influence of friends from a user’s social graph when searching.  Bing users now have the opportunity to engage with a brand on several levels, creating the chance to satisfy the entire conversion process with one search query.  There are three key benefits we’d expect to see going forward:

  1. An increase in conversion rate
  2. A decrease in the time it takes for a user to convert
  3. The opportunity for brands to shape a more integrated social and search strategy, and capture data to further understand its impact

How does Bing fare with Google? 

Both engines present users with a variation of results that gel together holistically, yet are delivered in different ways.  In comparison, some may see Google’s results as a more hodge-podge approach versus Bing’s structured approach. Part of Bing’s foundation is a scientific approach to deliver an experience that compliments psychological behaviors and tendencies in human nature, which could play strongly in their favor here. But what truly gives Bing an edge now in the social search war is that this puts them in a position to be an agent of change. Because of the impact this new delivery of results could have on how users interact with the results and the actions they choose,  the sum of Bing’s results is greater than its three parts; thus increasing the value of existing in that space.

Could this be a game changer for Bing’s adCenter? If this new format positively impacts conversion rates and shortens the path to conversion, then increases in ad spend on Bing is likely. We should expect to see an evolution in brand opportunities and ad formats, similar to changes we’ve seen recently with Google’s social focus.  At present, Microsoft hasn’t committed to what this means for the ad inventory on Bing, however as stated at the Bing Search Summit, new ad formats and models will be explored that factor in the features now present on the three-column SERP. Continued changes in this direction could reshape the entire search space by creating a new, competitive environment that we rarely see anymore, one that puts new pressure on Google.

With Bing, Microsoft has made a smart move by creating an environment where search results aren’t just bits and pieces of information to guide you down a path to action.  Bing’s search results are now about engagement, discovery and decision making.  They have taken their motto of being the “decision engine” to new heights and upped the ante on the value of ad dollars spent in their network. Bing’s new social search environment shows a level of innovation and competitive movement that the digital space needs, and hopefully is a sign of momentum for both publishers and brands.

Links to what’s being said in the press:

Mashable:         Bing Reinvents Social Search and Discovery

Adweek:            Microsoft Revamps Bing With Social Sidebar

 

Filed under: Digital Advertising, Emerging Trends & Tech, Organic Search, Paid Search, Social Media | No Comments >>

Networks to Take Your Social Strategy Beyond Facebook and Twitter

by Lauren Pesko ~ May 2nd, 2012

When someone mentions social media marketing, more than likely images of Facebook and Twitter come to mind. While many organizations have limited their social behavior and culture to these social networks, there are a growing number of brands that have looked beyond these ‘usual suspects’ and have begun to experiment with a few lesser known social platforms.

“Many internet users are turning…to social networks that offer a more focused experience than Facebook, even as that site positions itself as the social destination for sharing, curation and consumption of content,” said eMarketer’s Kimberly Maul, author of the new report, “Beyond Facebook and Twitter: Visually Focused Social Sites See Growing Interest.”

Social is not a digital popularity contest measured by the number of ‘likes’ or ‘retweets’ As with any type of marketing, success in the social space is measured by quality rather than quantity. While there is no question that Facebook and Twitter offer excellent marketing opportunities, brands would be well-served not to restrict their social practices before performing the research needed to discover where their target audience is “hanging out” online and what other social sites have to offer.

Listed below are four social networks that, while not the most buzzed about sites, are rapidly gaining popularity among consumers and marketers.

 

Quora – Founded by two former Facebook employees in 2009, Quora is a Q&A site that relies on its users to ask and answer questions on a given topic. While brands cannot currently create their own profiles, many have used the platform to their advantage by letting their organization’s representatives create personal profiles on the platform to conduct market research, provide customer service, enhance online visibility and even generate leads.

Mint.com on Quora

One company making a splash on Quora is Mint.com. The web-based, personal financial management service has used the platform to step out from behind their logo and let individuals from the company ask and answer questions pertaining to their service and their industry.

Brands including eBay or Bank of America that have online-based businesses that require attentive customer service, or the ability to field complex industry questions, may find Quora to be a useful tool.

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The Importance of Standing for Something in Your Digital Investing

by Chris Copeland ~ April 30th, 2012

If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.” – Malcolm X

Every day, digital buyers participate in millions and millions of online auctions. Sometimes they do it manually, but oftentimes technology is an enabling part of the process that allows the willing allocation of marketing spend into the ecosystem. While auction types and the specifics of what are actually bought vary dramatically, there is a finite outcome to every single auction. There is a winner and there are losers. Sometimes it’s difficult to determine which is which. Sometimes winners overpay for the right to be present at that moment of consumer opportunity, while losers win by being spared the cost associated with that opportunity that may have never held the real value originally perceived.

In studying a wide array of auctions, what also becomes apparent is that there is a glut of would-be buyers who are simply not operating with a sound business strategy. Whether because of business size and lack of data, or emotional influence that dictates a buying strategy that supersedes sound business investment, there are too many companies guessing what the real worth of the auction should be. In each of these cases, what you ultimately find are buyers setting bids with uncertainty and, even worse, inconsistency.

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Vertical Highlights from GroupM Next

by Tarina Roberts and Brian Getz ~ April 27th, 2012

 External Environment Influences Search in Automotive Vertical

The automotive vertical is almost analogous to a chameleon.  It has the tendency to change based on its environment.  Over the last several years, we’ve seen shifts in consumer search behavior stemming from changes in the economy, environmental concerns, and even celebrity endorsements (yes, Cameron Diaz made the Prius famous and Kevin Hart is breathing new life into the Ford Explorer).  In taking a look at more recent trends, we can still see how the auto vertical’s search volume growth decline or stability is tied to how consumers react to external factors. Highlights from our GroupM Next Q1 2012 Automotive Vertical Report give a deeper dive into trends that automotive manufacturers should keep an eye on, especially as it relates to search marketing strategies.

                                                                      Automotive Trends to Watch

Fuel efficiency is probably the biggest driving force that is influencing consumer purchasing decisions. As gas prices average almost $4/gallon in the U.S., there is an established need and desire for smaller and more fuel efficient cars.

Based on our research and data from Google, GroupM Next determined that there was a true correlation between search volume for fuel efficient brands and change in gas prices; “when gas prices go up, the query volume for fuel efficient brands rises.” Conversely, when gas prices go down, the query volume for fuel efficient vehicles declines.  Monitoring gas price changes and implementing a more aggressive bidding strategy for ‘fuel efficient’-based terms is an idea to get your brand in front of the consumer at the right time.  This ensures that brand exposure matches increased click opportunities.

 

Sources: GroupM Next / Google Insights / US Dept of Energy, Mar 2012

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The Next Shift at Google Could Have Big Impact On Advertisers

by Chris Copeland ~ April 18th, 2012

With ‘Near Match,’ Google Is Changing the Game Again, Meaning Costs Will Rise for Brands

As children we are taught that in order to win you must understand the rules of the game and play by them. As a parent, you quickly realize that kids excel more at changing the rules than following the original ones. In fact, an oft-spoken phrase from adults to complaining children is “If you don’t like the rules, don’t play the game.” By contrast, in the adult world the phrase gets flipped and you start to frequently hear the cavalier line “If you don’t like the rules, change the game.”

No company better exemplifies this mantra than Google. The entire basis of the company was built on changing the way information was organized using its own PageRank algorithm. The approach has never stopped. No shift is too great (opaque auction models) or too small (IPO via Dutch auction) for Google to not want to test the bounds of change. You could argue that no company does disruption and game-changing as routinely and well as Google.

You could also argue that no company has more levers to pull to enable those changes than any other business today. And that is why the fourth-quarter earning miss from Google was so jarring. Even more surprisingly it missed at its core, inside search with an 8% cost-per-click decline. Now, on the eve of its first-quarter numbers, Google is preparing to move a beta initiative to the mainstream which creates market asymmetry to their benefit. (Note: Here’s Google’s announcement on its AdWords blog.)

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Get SEO “Appy:” Optimizing Mobile Apps for Organic Visibility

by Tarina Roberts ~ April 18th, 2012

Mobile app technology has become an intuitive, yet strategic way for brands to target and engage with consumers. Apple is currently touting on their app store homepage that they have more than 500,000 apps available. With the increased growth of the Android Market, it is apparent that the space is voluminous. Some apps are “big brand” centric, but much of what is housed in this repertoire of downloadable games, tools and e-Commerce enablers are virtual gadgets created by developers who aspire to have their apps highly visible in the search results. As new apps are being made available daily, how does one cut through the clutter and rise to the top?

Unfortunately, for most developers (unless they reach the coveted first page) the discovery process of an app on a search engine, or in an app store, is a remedial search experience and unlikely to deliver on the hope of consumer discovery and usage. In response to this reality, Apple acquired CHOMP to improve the organization and apply relevancy to the marketplace. This move by Apple underscores the importance for app developers to value SEO as any other web developer does and optimize their apps to rank in search. It is important for developers to understand what drives visibility for mobile apps within the app store search feature and normal search environments like Google, Yahoo and Bing, and then implement these tactics to achieve optimal first-page ranking.  Survey says … ”keywords and links!”

Like with the major search engines, the search feature in the app store is focused on keyword relevancy, but the popularity of an app is also a contributing factor to its ranking potential. Here, popularity is defined by reviews, number of downloads and backlinks. Backlinks are the most important of the three as the effectiveness of your linking strategy creates interdependency among the other two.

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Google’s New Health Search Results: Healthy for Both the Ailing, and Advertisers?

by Tarina Roberts ~ April 16th, 2012

On Feb. 13, Google updated its algorithm to help simplify searches for conditions related to certain health symptoms.  Google’s Chief Health Strategist, Roni Zeiger, M.D. described the change by saying: “The company sees users search on health symptoms and then almost immediately turn around and search for conditions they discovered in those initial search results. As a consequence, Google is now going to ‘compress’ that two or three-step process into one.” 

In the truest sense, this appears to be an algorithm change that increases the efficiencies of the SERP. For brands, the question is: What impact will Google’s “compression” have on its search advertising? Will Pharma brands maintain the same level of visibility, in both paid and organic search, for symptom-related terms as they did before? What can they do to maximize the change?

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Are Your Ad Buys Digitally Insured?

by Lauren Pesko ~ April 13th, 2012

Simply put, insurance is smart planning — planning that can help protect you from expensive, irreversible and unfortunate outcomes. In most cases, people purchase insurance when they make a costly investment, such as buying a house or car. While traditional advertisers may not be in need of a “good neighbor” like State Farm, they do have a need for a different type of insurance – digital.

Too often, advertisers miss the opportunity to enhance and extend the life of their traditional marketing efforts, by failing to allocate the budget and time towards digital ads that will ‘insure’ their campaigns are maximized. Consumers now expect brands to create interactive and personalized relationships. The maturation of social media, digital properties and mobile devices means it is no longer a luxury to have a complementary digital component to your traditional media, but a requirement.

Just as there are not one-size-fits-all insurance plans, there is not a standard solution for creating an integrated marketing campaign. Each campaign should be customized to deliver the right message, to the right audience, through the right channels, and at the right time. Listed below are examples of two brands that, in different ways, integrated digital and traditional channels to create impactful advertising campaigns with a good amount of digital insurance coverage.

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Winning and the High Price of Fighting the Wrong Opponent

by Chris Copeland ~ April 4th, 2012

“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

One of the most iconic sports quotes is the statement above. Frequently attributed to Vince Lombardi, the famous Green Bay Packers football coach, there is ample documentation that suggests Lombardi didn’t utter the line first. It was his own success that made it stick to his legacy. Nonetheless, Lombardi has become the forbearer of a generation of competitors who believe every game has only two outcomes – victory or defeat. While Lombardi might be reluctant to see Charlie Sheen and his “winning” tiger blood as a direct descendant, we are more and more a society driven by triumph.

As a sports fanatic, I am the last person to cast judgment on the notion of winning. However, more and more in the marketing space, we seem confused about who our competitors are and for what we are competing. On a daily basis, you can open a trade email and see a competitive summary of spending moving from one channel to another. Digital types triumphantly proclaim the onslaught of media moving out of traditional channels and into their coffers for allocation. All the while, traditional media looks at the reach and impact of digital and wonders what, exactly, all the fuss is about. In this exchange, the investment allocation itself is the determinant of victory when, in fact, it should be the combination of media that delivers the greatest value that is declared winner.

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