Web Presence Is Everything

[jmiller]

An interesting tidbit out of the searcher behavior session. Doug tells us about how a brand needs to be visible during the entire research process as searchers are far less likely to change their minds by the time they're ready to purchase.

article here.

[Peter (IMC)]

Well,.... :) I expected a research like this from Yahoo and the results pretty much say: Spend more money on PPC advertising.

That doesn't mean I don't agree with the results though. Branding is branding and Yahoo seems to make a case for using PPC ads to get your brand seen all the time.

But this is targeted at the big spenders. The bigger companies that can afford to spend thousands, if not more a month on advertising.

But what posibilities do you have to brand using just text? Yahoo tried to explain this:

"Message internalization can occur from simple text-only ads that repeatedly occur during the research process."

That´s a clear statement pretty much saying that PPC (text only) advertising can be used for branding.

Is this true?

I´m pretty sure that if you would be allowed to be the only one to advertise with a graphical ad in the SERP's, you're going to see some pretty nice results. But a SERP full of banners (even tiny ones) reduces the quality of the SERP. Searchers won't like all kinds of (flashy) banners and the advertisers won't like to be one of the many banners. Hence, Yahoo's case for using text-only ads to brand.

[jmiller]

I thought the same thing, Peter. It is very convenient for Yahoo to tout the importance of the top rank...but the thought behind it is sound...I followed up that article with this one on "sharp-shooting." Enquiro's research suggest that even if the top sponsored result isn't clicked, searchers linger on it for about 3 seconds before moving on to the top organic...that's a good example of building brand association.

[GapBridge]

being able to overcome tunnel vision is key here. Never underestimate the power of branding. people need to be led to coming back to you if they don't stay and buy the first visit around.

- Mike Dammann

[DMC_34]

I sat in on this seminar at SES. I believe she mentioned using the brand name in the listing.

For example:

"Sony DVD by Joes Electronics" as campaign text. Instead of just "Sony DVD".

DMC

[GapBridge]

Definitely! Also better seo wise ;)

[etechsupport]

I think your brand need to be interactive during enire search process as visiblity of your brand is not just enough IMO.

[GapBridge]

Never miss an opportunity to get your name seen :)