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Perception and Search Engine Marketing April 4, 2006 |
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Have you ever been in a meeting or a discussion with someone and come
away with a totally different take on what was discussed? It happens all
of the time. Everyday we perceive information in a way that we are
accustomed to. How I perceive something may not be how you perceive it.
From a search engine marketing point of view, perception plays a key
role in your online marketing campaign.
What exactly is perception? Well in essence, perception is the way one interprets and digests information that is being communicated through a selected medium. Wikepedia defines perception as “… the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information…” You may ask how does perception play a role in your online campaign? Well it plays a role in many ways, from compiling the keywords that you select for your organic campaign to the selection of keywords that you bid on for your sponsored campaign. Whether we admit it or not these keywords are based on our perception that our target market will conduct a search for these phrases. Then there is the perception of those whom we are trying to market to. Think about this scenario, a company is in the market for a high end piece of equipment. (Let’s say that this piece of equipment costs on average $300,000.) They have a perceived need so they use the medium of search to research this high end piece of equipment. Now let’s say this person who is the decision maker for this company is not a Google or Yahoo user, opting instead to use ASK or MSN. (Based on their perception that ASK and MSN return more relative results.) However you have targeted both your organic and sponsored campaigns for Google and Yahoo. Due to the fact that you have perceived your target market to be Google or Yahoo users when in fact they are users of ASK and MSN you may have just missed an opportunity for a potential conversion or sale. While this may be an extreme example you get the idea. Perception can often, and usually is different between the various parties involved. Understanding your target market can help you understand the perception they have about your industry, your products/services, your competitors and your website. There is often a significant gap between the consumer’s perception and what your perception may be. This is why, to get the most out of your search engine marketing campaign, you need to understand your target market and not just focus on tactics. Think about the thousands or millions of ads that are unsuccessful. Part of the reason that they may have failed is due to perception… perception of a concept that had nothing to do what the user/viewer was looking for. Whatever the medium, an unsuccessful ad may have altered the viewer’s perception about your product, service or company. The end result is that the viewer did not convert. Expectations We all have expectations. Some of us have higher expectations than others. A difference in perception can affect your expectations. Let’s take the search engine marketing industry for example. Some people have this perception that all you need to do is have the top sponsored listing (for your important key phrases) in Google, Yahoo and MSN and that your business will flourish. Or that all you need is a sponsored campaign without any organic strategy. As a result these people have an expectation for a dramatic increase in their ROI. However having the top sponsored listing won’t necessarily help you with your ROI if your site or landing page doesn’t provide the user with what they are looking for. When users conduct a query in the search engines, they expect to find relevant results for what they are looking for. If your site ranks number one, but your site is not relevant to the user’s query than you are not going to improve your ROI. There are still many people who do not click on sponsored listings as they have a perception that it is just advertising that may or may not be unrelated to their search query. You may have based your entire online campaign on the perception that being number one in the sponsored results will result in an increased ROI. However if no one is clicking on your listing or are not finding the information they are looking for when they do click on the listing, your ROI will actually decrease. The value of your search marketing campaign is not a value unless it is perceived to be one by the parties involved. (This includes buy in from C-suite executives, your marketing team, your technical team etc.) The same can be said about your product or service offering, there is only value if your site visitors perceive a value. Does perception affect your search marketing campaign? The answer is an overwhelming yes, in more ways then you would think. |
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Jody Nimetz