Online marketing firm iProspect reached out to WebProNews to offer some commentary, after distributing a POV to its clients with insights into the changes.

Here’s a sample from their POV:

These moves mark a continuation of the trends to include more social content and signals as part of both search results and the algorithms that determine them. By integrating both related Google+ profiles and the ability to follow them directly from SERPs for musicians, this may also mean the integration of Google+ business pages as well – for example, suggesting users follow the adidas brand page as a result of searching for adidas, or Motel 6 as a result of searching for Motels, making optimization, linking, following and keywords usage surrounding these profiles even more important.

Furthermore, the wider use of content from a user’s social sphere theoretically opens the door to other Google-related services and activities becoming part of search results. For example, highlighting YouTube channels that a user (or a user’s contacts) are subscribed to, have liked, rated highly, stores and restaurants reviewed by people in a user’s circles, or content from sites that are part of their friends’ reader list, makes participation and gaining a following in these spheres even more important.

Herndon Hasty, Associate Director, SEO at iProspect tells us, “It’s a firm step towards integrating social content and signals into search results, which is itself an effort to deliver more relevant results to its users and deliver results that’ll keep people coming back.”

“It’s also our most solid look yet at how Google views the value of a social share, and how much it’s banking on the success of Google+,” he adds.

Indeed. If people don’t show interest in Google+, and their search results continue to be bogged down by Google+ content, they may just find themselves going elsewhere for their search needs.

“Brands definitely need to at least be claiming their names in Google+, if not contributing at the same level that they might in other social networks to take advantage of the special preferences that Google+ is getting in results,” says Hasty. “Images shared on Google+ are getting a lot more real estate on the SERPs than they did before, and shared videos are called out in the new SERPs as well, so making sure to share these kinds of assets from Google+ can help put you at an advantage when it comes to continually attracting your followers’ attention.”

“It also means that brands need to be encouraging followers and shares like they do for Facebook and Twitter,” he adds. “Link to your profile from your site and customer communications, include +1 buttons at your site, and in general make an effort to capture fans in the Google+ network.”

“Ultimately, it’ll come down to user adoption of Google+ as to whether or not this really tips the scales on social influence, and it’s going to be very interesting to see what Bing and Facebook do in response,” says Hasty. “We expect to see a lot of tweaking in the coming months as Google weighs how much influence to put on shares, and how often to show shared content balanced against traditional results. It’s certainly another fun start to the year!”

A new study from iPospect, commissioned by Forrester Consulting, though, bridges the gap between search and display by revealing 49 percent of internet users who respond to display ads eventually run a search on a company, product, or service featured in them.

The key term there is eventually. Only 27 percent of those who respond to display ads perform an immediate search, compared to 31 percent who click on the ad itself, and 38 percent respond eventually with a search and visit websites from the results (for an aggregate of 49% when combined with those who search and do not click on the results).

The word eventually is important because it’s much rarer that initial exposure to a display ad will inspire a purchase. Just 14 percent of those who respond to a display ad will buy upon first exposure, but a third (33%) eventually purchase from a company with which they are already familiar, and 38 percent of those who respond to a display ad learn about a brand for the first time as a result of their exposure to the ad. 

Another necessary semantic distinction involves those who respond to a display ad, which of course, isn’t everybody. Still, among the group surveyed by iProspect, those who respond to display ads equaled 52 percent.

“In essence, search becomes an alternative mechanism for Internet users to respond to online display,” said iProspect CEO Robert Murray. "Considering that, this finding has an important message for marketers — if they are going to invest in online display, then they should leverage search marketing to help them capture the demand that display advertising creates. In other words, they should consider search as a form of insurance for their display investment."

Misty Locke, chief strategy officer for iProspect, chimes in with a term only very recently used to refer to online advertising: attribution model. “The findings also speak to the need for marketers to implement attribution modeling that is created with their needs in mind. This is key to understanding not only the impact of search and display on conversions, but also the impact of all of their online tactics."

Attribution models are fairly staple for traditional brand advertising. They show direct relationships between an ad campaign and resulting changes in sales as a result. Determining an attribution model for online sales is trickier because it is difficult to determine whether a sales conversion ultimately occurred as a result of a particular search or display ad, or if the decision was made farther in advance or somewhere else along the cyber path.

Nonetheless, ad gurus at the recent ad:Tech conference in San Francisco indicate the advertising industry’s desire to apply attribution models to online campaigns. (Hint: doing so could help raise advertising dollars beyond simple PPC.)
 

Nearly half of Internet users who respond to display advertising eventually do a search related to the ad they viewed, according to a new study from iProspect.

The study found search engine marketing and display advertising have a closer relationship than many marketers have thought. The study shows that Internet users initially respond to the medium as follows: 31percent responds by directly clicking on an ad; 27 percent respond by searching for a product or brand on a search engine; 21 percent respond by typing the company Web address into their browser and visiting the website; and 9 percent respond by using social media. Overall, 52 percent of Internet users actively respond to display advertising.

Robert J. Murray

"The key message from this study is that online display advertising is far from dead — its 31% direct response rate confirms that," said Robert Murray, CEO, iProspect. "However, it is interesting to see that almost as many people initially respond to display ads by performing a search as those who actually click on an ad. In essence, search becomes an alternative mechanism for Internet users to respond to online display."

"Considering that, this finding has an important message for marketers — if they are going to invest in online display, then they should leverage search marketing to help them capture the demand that display advertising creates. In other words, they should consider search as a form of insurance for their display investment."

One third of Internet users (33%) who respond to display advertising eventually purchase from a company with which they are familiar – more that twice the number who eventually purchase after learning of an offering/company for the first time from display advertising (14%).

"At the end of the day, the findings from this study closely tie search and online display advertising together," said Murray. "Overall, they tell a story of improved efficacy, which is a message that marketers should find particularly compelling during these trying economic times when they are being asked to do more with less."

First, the not-so-encouraging news.  In 2002, 48 percent of a survey’s respondents would only, at most, look at a single page of results before clicking on something.  This year, that number’s grown to 68 percent.  The percentage of people who either try a new query or another search engine after finding nothing good on a single page has risen from 28 to 49 percent.

 User Patience Stats

On to Robert J. Murray’s suggestions, then.  Murray, the president of iProspect, writes on the Yahoo Search Marketing Blog, "First, by using and optimizing all of the assets in your digital library, such as images, videos, audio files and press releases, you can gain a competitive advantage.  Seek out these assets within other areas of your company, and if they are appropriate to use, place them on your website and support them with other relevant content."

Then, "Take these same assets and find resource sites (e.g., YouTube) and social media sites (e.g., Facebook) to post and tag them, so that you can expose your brand to visitors of those sites who may otherwise have never visited your corporate website."

Remember that paid search strategies are always an option, too, when remaining visible is such a necessity.  People aren’t likely to become more laid back as time goes by.

Google, Yahoo and MSN started offering blended search results for some user’s searches in the past year. Before last year, users found specialized content through targeted vertical searches.

The study found that 36 percent of search engine users click "news" results within blended search results, while only 17 percent click a "news" result after conducting a news-specific search.

Thirty-one percent of search engine users click "image" results within blended search results, while 26 percent click an "image" result after doing an image-specific search. Additionally 17 percent of search engine users click "video" results within blended search results, while just 10 percent click a "video" result after conducting a video specific search.

Images are the most clicked type result after a vertical-specific search, news items are the most clicked type of result within blended search results.

Robert Murray – President
(Photo Credit: iProspect)

The study also found that users are less likely to click past the first page of search results, a growing trend backed up by past iProspect surveys. Sixty-eight percent of search engine users will click on the first page of search results, while 8 percent will review more than three pages of results before clicking on a result. Forty-nine percent of search engine users relaunch their search when they cannot find what they are looking for after reviewing the first page of search results.

"The bottom line is that companies that have optimized a variety of digital assets will have a distinct advantage," said Robert Murray, President, iProspect. "Those who lack such assets will essentially forfeit page real estate to their competitors."