This year marks Google’s 11th annual look back at the searches that compose the year’s Zeitgeist—the spirit of the time. With Zeitgeist, Google look at both the popular and the  fastest rising terms around the world.

If you want to get your geek on and compare terms across categories, countries or just throw yourself into data, go to Google’s 2011 Zeitgeist site.

The video below shows what captivated people this year:

What got me most were the poigniant images that Google used throughout this video, they certainly gave my heart strings a good old tug. The two sections that tipped me over the edge were images of 9/11 anniversary and images of the troops (arriving home, being remembered and a father’s grief).

On that note, a very special shout out to all the men and women serving over this Christmas and New Years. Thank you for all you do.

If you would to leave a message for our troops you can via the Defence Department (Messages to the Troops) or Telstra’s Messages of Support (which was started on Anzac day and is still going strong).

Released in Q2 this year, TechKing’s Infographic takes a look at the Top 10 countries on the internet and their Top 5 Searches for 2011.

There is a bit of variety in the types of Searches for each country but there is one common theme – social media.

At least one social network features in the Top 5 Searches for all countries.

Although Australia haven’t make the Top 10, it’s still interesting to read how the rest of the world is searching.

A perk of working at Outrider is that we get to visit the cool Google head office in Pyrmont for various educational and networking events. Conveniently, their offices are located directly across the road from the Star City Casino! This week, myself and a colleague had the pleasure of attending the casino… I mean, Google’s head office, for an event aimed at assisting advertisers in increasing the effectiveness of their ads.

The hosts for the day consisted of Google’s senior management team: Nick Leeder, Managing Director Google Australia & NZ and Aliza Knox, Director of Sales & Operations APAC. Speakers for the day were keynote Mel Silva, Google Industry Lead, talking about “The Perfect Ad for Everyone” and Brendan Forster, Google Product Specialist, who went through some of the “New Innovations in Search”.

The Perfect Ad for Everyone

Mel Silva believes that there are four elements that make a perfect ad:

• Personal – Ads that connect to your audience on a personal basis have increased effectiveness. A case study used for this was the “Hunter Shoots a Bear” TippEx Youtube video, which allowed the audience to personalise the ad by telling the hunter what to do. TippEx saw sales in Europe increase by 30% as a result of this personal ad.
• Social – Ads that make the audience feel they are “part of something” are more effective in engaging customers. To demonstrate this case, Mel used the example of MINI’s CountryMan Competition. This social campaign utilised smartphones with built-in GPS to allow players to home in on a virtual MINI on their iPhone, catch it and then run as fast as they could out of its orbit to prevent other potential takers from swiping it. The player with the virtual mini at the end of the campaign won a real MINI car. In a week of this being live, MINI had 11,000 participants and massive brand exposure due to following of the competition which literally “stopped traffic” in areas where the virtual car visited.



• Relevant – The more relevant an ad is to a user, the better the reaction. Mel used Travelocity’s customised retargeting ads to demonstrate the impact of increasing relevancy of ads. Last year, the travel site changed their online display ad strategy and ditched generic messages like “Find low fares on Travelocity. Book now.” Instead, Travelocity display ads incorporated new remarketing technology to serve custom ads based searches done on the Travelocity website. For example, a customer interested in flights from Chicago to Las Vegas were served display ads that contained “Find low fares on Travelocity. Book Chicago to Las Vegas flights now!” The results drove Travelocity’s cost-per-transaction down 79%. It also saw a 230% increase in bookings; click-through rates jumped 651%.
• Speed: Mel highlighted that an intriguing ad that’s rapidly distributed can have positive results. Examples included VW’s superbowl ad that received 41.7 million views across the world and the Old Spice Ad, both of which went viral as a result of effective online channels.

Innovation & the Future of Search

Brendan Forster is the Product Specialist at Google and is renowned for always wowing the audience with something new from Google. This day was no different when Brendan demonstrated the latest developments in the Google search engine.

• Google Instant: A new built-in feature that enhances user experience of the search engine by pre-loading websites that are included in the Google search results. This new feature slashes 2-5 seconds off each search process.
• +1: You can now +1 any search engine result or sponsored ad of Google. You can also +1 any webpage that has the plug-in installed. These +1 buttons allow Google to further enhance the relevance of search engine results. Studies show 90% of online consumers trust recommendations of peers when searching and 71% say reviews help in deciding online purchases. The key takeaway from this – install the +1 plugin on your website!
• Google Voice Search: Google technology allows for searches to be performed by speech. This feature again enhances user experience through making it easier and faster to search. Importantly, this will result in searches becoming “longer” as less effort is exerted to obtain better results.
• Google Image Search: Ever been on vacation and taken a pic of a landmark only to forget what the name of the landmark when you get home? Google image search solves issues like these by allowing images to be uploaded to the Google search engine as a search query.

It’s obvious that Google is doing a great job at continually enhancing the organisation of information on the web. Attending this event, it’s clear to see that Google is still the “black jack” of the industry.

These days, I’m sure if you ran into somebody from Google they would do their best to make you believe that mobile is the next big thing to happen in the world of online marketing. And there definitely is a strong reason why you should start to take note.

The number of mobile Internet users is growing at an incredible rate. Consumers are increasingly reliant on their mobile devices for information while they are on the go, be it on a train or bus, reading news articles, checking sports scores, or searching for nearby restaurants or movies.

According to research data released by Google, mobile internet usage and engagement is exploding in terms of growth:

• More people will access the internet using a mobile device than via a PC by 2013
• 9 out of 10 Australians have mobiles (43% have smartphones)
• 63% of Australians connections are 3G (Globally only 20%)

Growth in Mobile Usage

Small Screen – Big Opportunity: Google’s mantra

This all translates into a huge opportunity for advertisers to connect with their customers anytime, anywhere. With Google mobile ads, you can engage with the fast-growing mobile audience while they search and browse content on their mobile devices. And you can do so throughout the whole day, as consumers have their mobile devices close by at any given moment or location.

You have the flexibility of choosing from text, display, and even rich media ads. Simply place your ads across mobile search pages, mobile websites via the Google Display Network (GDN), mobile applications or YouTube mobile.

Display / Banner Advertising on Mobile – Looking Beyond Mobile Search

You must be thinking that we haven’t yet fully explored the mobile market for Search, so why should be talk about Display advertising on mobile?

I have a strong belief that Search & Display go hand-in-hand on any device, with mobile devices being no exception.

As highlighted in my previous blog post, there is a high level of synergy between these two approaches and Display does have a positive impact on overall Search metrics.

We can definitely extrapolate this theory to mobile devices as well. In fact, Display advertising on mobile is a great way for advertisers to engage smartphone users with compelling and interactive experiences. This is particularly useful for online retail / e-commerce business, where it’s vital to give customers immediate ways to shop – especially for last-minute purchases.

Another thing that works in favour of mobile advertising is the fact there are fewer advertisers, i.e. ‘early adopters’, using mobile platforms, which means less competition, leading to lower CPCs.

Putting this into practice

One of Outrider’s clients (an online retailer selling magazine subscriptions) concluded that a well-timed Display campaign, targeting mobiles, can deliver positive results and significantly improve the overall efficiency of Display activity.

For this online retailer we decided to experiment by running a test display campaign targeting high-end mobile devices, using the Google Display Network and another, targeting desktop devices.

The test ran in the final days (May 3 – May 8, 2011) in the run up to Mother’s Day.  (A big gifting opportunity for this advertiser each year).

Below are the top line highlights for the 2 display campaigns for the above time period*;

• Mobile display impressions formed  21% of the total impression volume across both sets of display activity
• Clicks from the mobile targeted campaign were an impressive 7% greater than the total from the Desktop campaign
• Click-through rate (CTR%) for the mobile targeted campaign was 0.29% compared to 0.07% for the desktop targeted campaign
• Average Cost-per-click (CPC) for the Mobile display campaign were 50% lower than that of the Desktop campaign

It’s all about personalisation in the search field these days. I mean, it’s “all about” a lot of things in the search field, but personalisation’s a big one right now. Personalisation was discussed at length at SES’s “Search: Where to Next?” session in New York this week, and leaves a lot of people wondering, what does it mean for the future of search?

When I search for “cakes”, I don’t just get bakeries in the city that I’m in, but even more granular down to the suburb that I’m searching from!  The first thing they show me is the bakery down the road who’s gallery of cake photos I have drooled over on many a rainy afternoon. They also make sure to show me ads for my favourite recipe site, and then re-market all of this content back to me all over the web. Google is tracking me. They know where I am, where I’ve been, what I like, and what I’m looking for. And you can bet they do their best to show me everything they can get their robot-y hands on that is truly “me”.  

So, what happens when I change? What happens when I’m not the same “me” that I used to be?

Two years ago, my search behaviour and interests were different than they were last year, and that’s different still from what they are today. People’s likes and dislikes evolve with time and experience. There’s the loyal Fitness First user who had a terrible encounter, quit the gym, and never wants to see anything about them again. Then there’s Susie who spent 2 years searching for nothing but Jonas Brothers pics. How long is she doomed to a life of Kevin, Joe, Nick and their unfortunate hairstyles staring at her from every Google Content Network partner on the web? 

 We change. What we look for changes. How will Google reflect that by showing us what we like now? Is that even possible? Is that even something we would strive for?

So, how does Google leave room in their search results for the part of “me” that loves a good surprise? Sometimes, it’s a bit creepy to see results that are totally and completely tailored to me. Isn’t discovering new sites a big part of what makes search so great? Sure, I might be interested in the bakery whose site I’ve been to many times, but I also want to see more. Is there a newbie in the market with a killer Strawberry Cheesecake? 

If all I see are the sites that I’ve told you that I like, how much new and awesome stuff will I miss out on?

Don’t get me wrong, personalisation in search results can be a great thing. For location-based searches, it can save a lot of time and prove to be a much easier and relevant user experience. When you’ve shown me what I want based on your knowledge of what I like, that can be a wonderful thing. However, sometimes personalisation can go too far, and what we really want is what’s good for everybody else.

“Search gives me ROI. What can Display give me?”

I’m sure, you might have heard this many times from clients – who are all so focussed on their search ROI, Cost Per Acquisition or Return On Ad Spend. I can empathise that it’s not always easy to tell them – “No, you really should trial display/banner advertising as it can positively impact your search ROI”.

We know that the two networks – Search and Display – have different dynamics, outcomes and benchmarking metrics. Search is a pull medium and is run to deliver cost-effective clicks and responses / actions. On the other hand, Display being a push medium is targeted more for delivering brand awareness and reach which can result in a high brand recall when people who were exposed to the banners online, actually go on to search for those products or brands. 

The objective of Display is to expand and broadcast the reach of on-line advertising. The core here is the cost effective impressions.  

“So, impressions are what Display can give me – that’s it!”

Not really, there’s definitely more to it than what meets the eye and this is what the industry has been researching for some time. There are some very definitive and concrete studies that show exactly that. The Latent Impact of Display Advertising on Search clearly brings out the synergy between display advertising and search. The study suggests that display actually impacts search by:

• Contributing to a lift in searches for both branded and generic terms
• Incremental clicks on advertiser’s paid or organic ads
• Direct visits to the website

Running an effective display campaign can cause statistically significant increase in search traffic by increasing brand awareness, brand recognition and brand preference. This brand affinity causes users to be more attracted to the brand website and can help SEM and other channels run more efficiently, boosting overall ROI.

“Sounds good but the Display click-throughs are so low – is it really being effective”?

Evidence shows that the success of online advertising has paradoxically been the prime cause for the decline in click through rate (CTR) performance. MediaMind says:

“as users are exposed to more & more ads, they probably are not going to keep clicking at the same vigour and as a result, their CTR  will seemingly drop!”

Building on this theory, Google has announced another tracking metric for comparison of display campaigns vs. those running on the Google Display Network. (View throughs). This is similar to Post-impression tracking, which is a step ahead of click throughs. These can show how exposure to a banner ad, without clicking on it, can positively impact both Search or direct website visits, hence increasing the overall performance of the campaign. They can also help you better measure the value of your display advertising campaigns.

A recent study by comScore and MediaMind, shows the positive impact of banner exposure (with or without clicks) on Search metrics.

Included in the MediaMind paper is research by comScore that has shown that two-thirds of Internet users do not click on any display ads over the course of a month, and that only 16% of Internet users account for 80% of all clicks. comScore confirmed that there is a latency effect and branding effect to online advertising, in which users arrive at the advertiser’s website even without clicking.

In the research, which included 139 display campaigns from seven verticals, comScore has shown substantial effects on traffic, sales and branding despite a lack of clicks.

According to comScore:

• The display campaigns yielded a 46% lift in advertiser websites visits, over a four week period
• Exposed users are 38% more likely to conduct an advertiser related branded keyword search over a four week period, and are 27% more likely to make a purchase online
• Exposed users are 17% more likely to make a purchase at the advertiser’s retail store

MediaMind has found similar results to those of comScore. An analysis of more than 100 million conversions from thousands of campaigns worldwide confirms that only about 20% of conversions are the result of a click, while the vast majority is the result of viewing the banner without clicking.

These results, together with comScore’s research, show that clicks are only a partial measure of online advertising effectiveness. About 80% of the traffic of users that were exposed to the ads is not accounted for when measuring only clicks.

So, in summary, an effective Display campaign is a very potent tool to lift the overall metrics of a Search campaign and impact the integrated bottom-line.

What is your experience of running Display campaigns? Have you seen positive impacts on your Search activity? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

It was announced by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) this week that International Domain Names (IDNs) are to be made available by early to mid 2010. IDNs will allow for registration of domain names that do not use the latin alphabet, instead using local language characters, for example Chinese or Arabic. ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush described the new system as “the biggest technical change to the Internet since it was created four decades ago”.

Some countries, such as China and Thailand, have already introduced workarounds that allow computer users to enter web addresses in their own language. However, these were not internationally approved and do not work on all computers. Support for 100,000 international characters would make traditional keyboards insufficient input devices for accessing the entire Internet.

The impact of this change on the SEO industry has the potential to be significantly concerning, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The change shouldn’t affect search campaigns where a site owner is solely interested in Australian traffic, however it may add an extra layer of complexity to strategies if a website is trying to capture traffic from the countries that end up embracing IDNs.

One of the most talked about concerns with IDNs is the new angle that will be made available to scammers and fraudsters. Phishing is a form of Internet fraud that aims to steal valuable information such as credit cards, social security numbers, user IDs and passwords from unsuspecting internet users. Anti-Phishing Working Group reported this month that non-Latin characters could help phishers spoof legitimate websites with similar characters. For example, a phishing website set up to mimic the online payment website paypal.com could use a Cyrillic “a” instead of an ASCII “a,” making it a technically different web address but similar enough to fool users. So far at least, phishers have not been using such tricks at a high frequency, but the proliferation of new international web addresses could present the opportunity. Site security factors heavily in search engine ranking algorithms, and this may become an even more important factor as malware injections become more feasible.

The ICANN has stated on their website that ccTLDs (country code top level domains eg. com.au for Australia) will be available to the governments of countries who wish to use languages based on scripts other than Latin. This is significant as it’s generally agreed that having a local ccTLD will have a positive impact in search engine rankings in that country.

In order to attain strong rankings in a particular region, not only is it important that your content targets that region in the correct language, but also link building strategies should be conducted in the target language. It is likely that this change will cause the internet to become more highly segregated, and websites utilising new IDNs will not (initially at least) have as many natural linking sources as other latin-character based websites.

Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics are two great resources for webmasters to track diagnostic issues and monitor user activity on your site, but whether Google opens their services up to non-latin character based websites remains to be seen.

We would love to hear others thoughts on this change – how do you feel it will impact on search, or the web in general?

Resources:
http://www.icann.org
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://searchengineland.com
http://www.ethioplanet.com
http://www.internetnews.com

On the 6th of October, GroupM Search, comScore and M80 revealed their study on how Social Media plays an intertwined role with search marketing, predominately in the Paid Search arena. The purpose of this study was to explore the connection between social media and its influences on search behaviour. Evidently the results from the research unveiled a dramatic correlation, whereby influenced brands discovered through social media saw a positive impact on their paid search activity, including lower-funnel searches (long tail searches) and increased paid search click-through-rates (CTR).

To put the whole study into a little more perspective, GroupM and the team looked at the background and opportunities between Social Media and Search to identify synergies. The plan was to explore:

• When consumers are exposed to social media and influenced social media, are they more likely to search, and, when they do, more likely to engage?

• Does social media exposure influence search behaviour by driving search queries further down the purchase funnel where consumers are more likely to convert?

• Is there a synergy between influenced social media and search marketing that drives better performance than search only?

Based on these explorations, some of the key findings discovered were as follows:

• Consumers who are exposed to brands influenced by social media and paid search advertising are 2.8x more likely to search for that brand’s products in comparison to users who only saw the brand through paid search.

• 50% CTR increase for paid search when consumers were exposed to influenced social media and paid search.

• Searches related to a brand’s product name saw a CTR increase from 4.5% to 11.8% when users were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search around a brand.

• In organic search, consumers searching for a brand related keyword, who also has exposure through a branded social marketing campaign, are 2.4x more likely to click on organic result.

• Consumers exposed to both a brand’s influenced social media and paid search, spent almost 3x more time online than the average consumer.

However, one of the primary findings the study revealed is that social media expo¬sure is correlated with lower-funnel search behaviour.

In addition to these key findings, there are additional results discovered through this study. If you want to check out the whole research, visit our Outrider US blog, SearchFuel, where you can download the Interplay of Influenced Social Media and Search white paper.

Finally, I thought I’d end with a quote taken from the study.

“It is this ability to influence discovery that signals the single largest shift in how brands and consumers will engage going forward, and represents a significant opportunity for brands to play an active, but natural role in the social space.”