UK Search Marketing is the Champ…But Underutilized
The AT Internet Institute, well known for its continuous insight into online trends and behaviour, recently did a study to compare the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns among different European countries. The results are quite complex and require substantial analysis but the bottom line is that the UK contains the most successful online marketing efforts. In a study that focused on websites that are actively using online marketing campaigns, it was revealed that in the UK, over 50% of visits to these websites actually came from the campaigns. By campaigns, the study means the use of affiliates, partners, marketing emails, RSS feeds, as well as sponsored links or advertising. Of the key statistics revealed was that:
- 53% of visits to these sites on average in the United Kingdom have been generated by online marketing campaigns
- Compared to 45.3% in Spain, 40.3% in Germany, and 28.9% in France
- For the month of September 2009, on average 65% of all visits from marketing campaigns were to two or more pages, and there were 9.9 page views per entering visit
Of the total visits to websites that ran online marketing campaigns in the UK, a whopping 28.2% came from sponsored links (PPC). If you consider search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts and include the 16.7% of visits that came from organic search results, that’s a promising 44.9% from search engine marketing (SEM) efforts. Furthermore, Efficient Frontiers’s UK Search Engine Performance Report said search spend in Q3 was up 10% year on year and 11% on Q2, after having seen a decline over the previous two quarters. David Karnstedt, Efficient Frontier president and CEO, said, “The third-quarter results and a look beyond provide some encouraging signs for the search marketing industry as well as the overall economy.”
This all VERY promising news for us online marketers here in the UK. It shows that not only are we doing our jobs well, but that there is an ever expanding market in which to continue doing so. However, another study has found that in the UK, businesses are not responding well to the fact that more people are willing to purchase things online. Research conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Tealeaf revealed that 53% of British ‘online adults’ say that they are now conducting more transactions online than they did in the past, due to the poor economic climate and ability to compare prices online. But due to the poor and slow reactions of business to adapt to this, an estimated £11.2 billion of ‘potential’ revenue is lost. Here are some of the reasons why:
- 77% of online consumers have experienced website issues in the last year
- 46% of those would then abandon a transaction entirely or switch to a competitor
- 74% of all British online adults said negative comments online influence likelihood to do business with a company
The answer is obvious to me: UK businesses need to become more responsive, reflexive, and reactive to online consumer demands. The aforementioned amount of ‘potential’ earnings that is flowing right down the drain is astounding. Businesses and online marketers alike need to respond to current trends in order to cater to the ever changing virtual marketplace. Will Copper wrote on New Media Age, that search should take advantage of the postal strike. This is a prime example. Many businesses and online marketers are busy whining and worrying about the ‘potential’ wasted earnings due to a postal strike that would severely hinder the delivery of goods purchased online in the run up to Christmas. What they should be doing, according to Cooper, is “developing a marketing strategy to reassure consumers if they buy early they’ll receive their goods.” He continues to claim that search should play a key role in this, with search ads tailored to ‘safe’ or ‘guaranteed’ delivery. It is this kind of responsive thinking that will help businesses capture the maximum revenue from online opportunities.
Another way of dealing with this state of disjuncture that comes to mind is by using social media. 13% of online adults who experienced problems conducting online transactions said they shared those experiences on a blog or social networking site. Furthermore, they noted that direct contact with companies has declined, even when posting comments on the company website. At this point in time that is just downright ignorance. The bottom line is companies need to wake up. Search is leading to increasing price/value comparison and social media is creating a ‘citizen quality control’. If the growth of UK search marketing in recent days is any indication of a recovering economy (especially online), and I think it is, then it is time for businesses and online marketers to snap out of it and turn ‘potential’ into profit.
0
Loading ...