Loading ...« Localization 2.0 | Home | Weekly Wrapup - 7 March 2008 »
Reading too much into it?
By Teri Foley | March 5, 2008
While speaking last week with a group of sales representatives who call on local advertisers, I was asked about the recent news that fewer people are clicking on paid search engine ads. The February 25th report in question was from ComScore and it was picked up by various news sources. The report related specifically to Google and showed that clicks to Google’s sponsored links had fallen by 7.5% in January from the previous month to 532 million.
So what does this mean to a local advertiser (or sales representative calling on them) considering paid SEM as part of its advertising mix? As Google tends to be the name brought up most often when discussing search engines, the assumption that this report was a report about search engines in general was not surprising. Could this information be cause for an advertiser or sales representative to assume the worst about the effectiveness of SEM? Sure. But is it a fair or valid assumption? I don’t think so.
First of all, consider the state of the economy. Times are tough right now. Consumer spending is down overall. Therefore, it seems reasonable that one can expect a decrease in purchase spending and thus, searches for purchase or service information on search engines (which make up the bulk of paid listings). Couldn’t we make a logical assumption then that people are taking less action across other forms of advertising as well? Might there be a decrease in the number of calls an advertiser is getting from their local TV or radio spots? If we’re tightening the purse strings and spending less on non-essential items like magazines, might fewer potential customers be seeing the ads in those magazines?
Secondly, consider the data. The report was discussing numbers for one month only – January. In December, a prime shopping month, searches conducted for products are generally up. It would make sense that a decrease from December to January could be expected in clicks to sponsored links, as fewer people overall have a need to make purchase decisions compared to December and the spur-to-action behavior the holidays inspire.
Finally, at this point, I would have to respond with a bit of sarcasm overall and say, “So what?” So ComScore is reporting only 532 million clicks to Google’s sponsored links in January? That’s still 532 million clicks! The economy is causing people to be more cautions with their money right now, not to mention that the consuming-oriented month of December is over, so the need to search for a purchase or service they decide isn’t essential right now will affect clicks to the sponsored link area on Google (and likely other engines as well). But SEM is still one of the more cost-effective ways to reach a targeted audience, and it’s still a more trackable medium than many other forms of advertising. What I might say to an advertiser or sales representative is this: “Isn’t there an opportunity here? The sponsored link areas of a search engine are based on a PPC model, so really, what do you have to lose? The ads are still only seen by folks looking by the keywords deemed relevant to that business. There may be a dip right now in the number of those folks willing to make a purchase, and therefore search for information related to those needs, but don’t you still want to make sure you’re seen by the ones who are looking?”
Topics: National advertisers, Forecasts, Local Advertisers, Resources, Advertising, Reports |