Display Ads Need To Be Coordinated With Search Optimization Strategies
By Jane Dawson
New research provides some telling information about how consumers respond to paid display ads on search engine rankings pages and we suggest how to interpret and use the information.
iProspect, a search engine marketing company, recently conducted a study of over fifteen hundred Internet users to study how they responded to display advertising. The results tell an interesting and not necessarily predictable story.
The January 2009 survey determined that more than half of survey takers respond to display ads, a finding thats consistent with the view of online retailers who believe that display ads are an extremely valuable form of advertising. However, the response varies substantially, falling generally into one of two groups.
While about thirty-one percent of the survey takers click on the ad itself, a whopping twenty-seven percent of survey takers use the ad as a bounce point to initiate a search for the product.
What does this mean? We think that Internet users are very smart and are using the display ad to get an idea but many are not willing to simply go with the ad option. Instead, they want to do the research that will allow them to learn more about the product, possibly compare products and make an informed purchase.
How do you as an online retailer use the information? First, be sure you are using display ads because they are obviously effective at attracting about one third of the viewers. But, in order to capture the viewers who use your ad as a launching point rather than accepting the invitation to your site, you will need to continue your efforts to gain a search engine page ranking advantage, if you can. The need to hone your search engine optimization strategies becomes even more important when viewed against some of the study’’s additional findings.
The study asked about what it called latent behavior, i.e., actions that the ad viewer took at some after viewing the ad. They discovered that over fifty percent of people noticed a display ad did eventually engage in a search for the product at some later time. Clearly, display ads drive some purchasing, about fourteen percent of users who click on the ad actually purchase, and a substantial amount of searching.
Finally, of the people who respond to display ads, about one third of them eventually buy the product or service from a vendor they are familiar with versus the fourteen percent above who buy solely based on the display ad.
This in-depth and every insightful study gives retailers three strong pieces of data to work with:
1. Display ads work to gain attention and some sales so keep investing in them
2. Display ads also generate a great deal of search activity so search engine optimization should be pursued aggressively as well.
3. Familiarity is key to improving sales. People become familiar with a product or service when the logo is seen, there is good content available to read about the product or service, press releases keep strong news flowing and so on. You must work to get your website and your company out in front of people, associating your website with the products they want to buy.
Data driven marketing is ultimately the best way to leverage your promotion funding. Track all your traffic with tools like Google Analytics to identify the best balance for your market and product.
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