Using Search Engines to Market your Consultancy

1. Using Search Engines to Market your Consultancy

2. What are Search Engines?

3. “The search engine is the focal point of the online experience for Internet users across the spectrum”

4. Why Search is so important 1 trillion documents on the world wide web 250 million searches per day Over half of all online purchases start at a search engine 28% of all searches on Google are for product names 35% of all searches are commercial 73% of searches end in a purchase

5. UK Search market will continue to grow in size, reaching £802m in 2010 2005 will see a 57% growth rate but growth will slow down dramatically from 2006 as market reaches maturity SEM as a % of overall online ad spend will peak in 2006 (at 67%), tailing off to 49% by 2010 2007 2008 2009 2010 2003 2004 2005 2006 % Growth of SEM in UK SEM as % of Internet Ad Spend Market Forecasts

6. Search Engine Marketing

7. = Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Natural Visibility Paid-for Visibility Strategy Solution Pay-for Placement (PFP) Paid Inclusion (PI) Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) = Search Per URL (site submit) Trusted Feeds On the page (website) Off the page Paid-for Results Organic Results Jargon Busting Marketer Consumer

8. Natural visibility • Crawler-based automated technology • Spiders are launched by the search engines to crawl the internet • Results returned to the engine and ranked on relevancy • Can take weeks to be found • Relevancy is determined by: • Quality and quantity of website content • Website build and architecture • Speed of page download • Link popularity

9. 25 million competing pages Natural Search

10. 17 million competing pages Natural Search

11. Benefits of Natural Visibility • Cost Efficiency • Traffic Increase • Easier site navigation • Accountability 60 60

12. Pay-for-Performance Listings • Real-time auction of keywords • Overture, MIVA, Mirago • Google – (slightly different to real-time auction model) • Paid for on Cost per Click basis • Price driven by the market • The higher you bid the higher up you appear • Prone to bidding wars • Copy (titles and descriptions) optimised / changed regularly

13. Pay-for-Placement Opportunities

14. Awareness of Paid Listings What do you think the listings circled in the above search results pages are? 83% of the sample went on to say they would use paid search listings

15. Instant and Guaranteed Traffic • A Paid Search Campaign can go live in days • Low risk – only pay when a user clicks • Qualified traffic – users are actively searching for content relevant to your site • Tactical Paid Search

16. Understanding Demand In 2005 there were: • 102,000 searches for “Management Training” • 28,000 searches for “Management Consultant”

17. Search Volume and Seasonality 2003 record: 10,753 searches on Tuesday 11th February 2004 record: 16,389 searches on Tuesday 16th March; almost as many on Thursday 18th March

18. Managing Paid Search • Advertisers can also use 3rd party tracking tools e.g. Dart Search / Atlas Search allow: • CPA targeting • Bid updates of 12 times per day • Rule groups to avoid bidding wars

19. Managing Search

20. Developing Search strategies • ROI or visibility? • Do we need to be ranked #1? • Is your brand strong enough not to be top of listings? • A tactical or long-term vehicle? • Ongoing lead generation • Targeting new audiences • Promoting new products • Purely direct response? • Search is increasingly used as a branding tool • “the majority of consumers expect leading brands to hold top search listings, with 33% believing that those found in top spots ARE the big brands” (iProspect)

21. Pay for Performance Pay for Performance Pay for Performance Visibility Pay for Performance Traffic Cost Effective Directories – for homepage & single product pages SEO – focusing on Primary Terms Now Time Example Search Strategy Tactical or Campaign Specific Generating Additional Volume Trusted Feed Long Term Presence

22. Management • In-house: • SEO – internal technical resource required • PFP – credit card and direct search engine relationship • Dependent on campaign size • Agency: • SEO – consultancy or implementation • PFP – access to auto bid management • Specialists: e.g. • Understand how people search • Can assist with copy writing (knowing what works well) • Dynamic market forces • Agency discount

23. Integration

24. Putting Search at the heart of the Communications Mix Search has a significant impact on other channels – and vice versa Retail Customer Experience Align Search with client’s other marketing & advertising channels Search Dovetail web development, usability & accessibility for a complete understanding of your customer’s online needs Advertising Maximising ROI for multiple marketing & business units (Retail, Brand, Direct) Website

25. 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Leveraging offline advertising 160 TV Activity Press Activity 140 Volume Daily Searches 01-Oct-03 04-Oct-03 07-Oct-03 10-Oct-03 13-Oct-03 16-Oct-03 19-Oct-03 22-Oct-03 25-Oct-03 28-Oct-03 31-Oct-03 03-Nov-03 06-Nov-03 09-Nov-03 12-Nov-03 15-Nov-03 18-Nov-03 21-Nov-03 24-Nov-03 27-Nov-03 30-Nov-03 03-Dec-03 06-Dec-03 09-Dec-03 12-Dec-03 15-Dec-03 18-Dec-03 21-Dec-03 24-Dec-03 27-Dec-03 Searches for product x

26. The Future of Search • Market proliferation and sophistication • Launch of MSN Paid Search • Increased targeting options • Another buying point • Local Search • Pay-Per-Call and Pay-Per-Text • MIVA first to launch in UK • Mobile Search

27. Golden Rule of Search Marketing • Understand your audience and how they look for your product or relevant information online • Don’t restrict efforts to keyword buying • Embrace Search as a marketing medium • Develop a strategy that capitalises on other advertising & marketing • Be in control of your Brand • Understand latent and indirect response