Advertising pioneer Claude C. Hopkins started his seminal book, Scientific Advertising, with: 'The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science.' That was 1923. If he were alive today, with his focus on method, testing and analysis, Hopkins would undoubtedly have been a search marketer.
In the modern internet-led age, search is the most trackable and accountable of all ad media. It uses sophisticated technology to offer advertisers total visibility in terms of which keywords are converting into traffic and sales, and which aren’t working. It is this level of accuracy, enabled by partnering a stable and trusted search agency which will help marketers see their brands ride high through the recession.
Why it pays to search Paid search is efficient, built on a cost-controlled model, making it the most recession-proof medium in the ad world. Because search is pay-as-you-go, marketers can spend as much or as little, as slowly or as quickly, as they see fit. And they can make these changes on the fly -- something that can't be done with traditional media.
Quality score based algorithms used by the search engines add complexity to the variables of search -- as quality is improved, minimum bids go down and rank goes up, giving a search campaign the ability to become progressively more efficient.
Even so, volatile markets that occur during recessions are a difficult environment for any advertiser. If advertising spend is cut then sales volume is lost, if spend is increased then one is exposed to significant risk on the margin. Achieving success in a volatile market and ensuring the achievement of daily business goals can be accomplished with the right balance of the complex interplay of science and technology.
Technology rules
Predictive modelling technology is used by some firms, including Efficient Frontier, as an optimisation platform to boost campaigns. This highly evolved approach can accurately predict the cost and volume yield of a particular bid position and also the conversion profile of a keyword. Successful operation within the opaque markets occupied by Google, Yahoo! and MSN requires an agency to accurately model the maximum CPC, the effective bid position and the resulting revenues. This is extremely important at all times, however, in a recession when every penny counts and nothing can be wasted, this approach becomes even more critical.
Scientific search will continue to attract marketers' ad poundsA successful campaign requires specific skills and sophisticated technology to generate solid results. Search executed badly can be wasteful guesswork. It is vital not to waste budget on keywords that are too expensive. To get ahead of competitors, mining the long tail effectively is crucial, and to do that, it is essential to correctly use advanced predictive modelling and automated optimisation technology.
Typical rules-based methods are based on older technology and require a large amount of human management which both undermines productivity gains and introduces the potential for errors. Fundamentally, this approach will not calculate optimal bids on multiple positions across over 10,000 keywords.
A campaign consisting of two keywords that can be bid to ten different positions would require 100 trials to find the optimal solution for those two keywords. Increase the portfolio to ten keywords, and that number increases to 10 billion combinations. Even this limited campaign cannot be calculated effectively by individuals using Excel spreadsheets and applying rules to keywords. Once the three search engines are added, with the vagaries of keyword match types, content versus search and different syndication, the number of decisions required to figure out optimal positions is far beyond the scale of any rules-based technology.
Scientific search: best weapon against recession
By using mathematical models to determine cost-per-click and conversion rate, an agency can leverage optimisation technology to create a campaign strategy that reflects business goals. That goal could be maximising revenues within a fixed budget, or vitally during a recession, reaching a sales target while minimising costs.
This model provides far greater forward visibility into campaign performance. It also enables marketers to make informed decisions when setting their budget for search. Trackability plus accountability makes search the only viable option for marketers navigating their brand or product through a recession. The marketer is always in control and campaigns can be fine-tuned along the way to maximise ROI. Plus, predictive modelling technology can reduce your search spend but keep volumes steady.
In a recession, control and targeting will become vital if organisations are to remain competitive. Daily budget caps, geographic targeting and site targeting give search marketers unprecedented control and flexibility.
Hopkins would have loved it!
Jonathan Beeston is client services director at Efficient Frontier U.K.
