Emakina Academy 5 - Know your audience - Extenseo

10/13/2006

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Online Population is Searching

• Search is the #2 activity on the web, behind email• 79% of web users use search to navigate the web

Source: Jupiter/The NPD Group Inc., June 2003

Search Engine Marketing (SEM): DefinitionSearch Term

Natural Search Results

Advertising

Art and Science of increasing a web site's visibility in search engines for a targeted list of keywords and phrases

Power of Top Results

About 50% of web users reviewonly the first page of search results!

Source: iProspect, Brand Survey 2, November 2002

SEM Advantages

• Non intrusive e-marketing strategy• Being found & increase traffic (up to 40%)• Appear above your competitors• Very low acquisition cost• New qualified visitors

365 days a year• Highly targeted traffic

(highest conversion rate!)• Best weapon for

Sales & Lead Generation!

Source: Nielsen E-commerce Report, May 2003 (NB: Tiles = buttons)

How do customers find products to buy?

SEARCH is #1

SEM is highly profitable!

Source: U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, New Methods in Search Marketing, June 2004

Search Now the Largest Share of Online Ads

Growth of Search: Marketers are voting

with their dollars

• Search now the most dominant form of online advertising

• Nearly 3x growth in since start of 2003

• 35 searches per user per month in U.S.

• 73% search penetration

% Online AdvertisingRevenue

40%

20%

17%

9%

8%

6%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Type of Online Media

Search

Banners

Classifieds

Sponsorships

Rich MediaOther

Source: PWC/IAB USA Internet AdvertisingRevenue Report, September 2004

Search Engines Getting Bigger and Bigger...

Source: SearchEngineWatch.com, November 2004

Search EngineReported Size

(indexed pages)

Google 8,1 Billion

MSN 5,0 Billion

Yahoo!4,2 Billion (estimate)

Ask Jeeves 2,5 Billion

It becomes more and more tricky to appear on top of their results.

Google is #1 in search in Belgium

Source: Media Metrix 2.0 Legend, June 2004

Second largest site of Belgium1.9 million unique usersanda reach of 66,6%Source: ComScore Media Metrix, Dec 2004

Where do surfers look at in Google results?

Rank 1 100%Rank 2 100%Rank 3 100%Rank 4 85%Rank 5 60%Rank 6 50%Rank 7 50%Rank 8 30%Rank 9 30%Rank 10 20%

Organic Ranking Visibility

Rank 1 50%Rank 2 40%Rank 3 30%Rank 4 20%Rank 5 10%Rank 6 10%Rank 7 10%Rank 8 10%

Side Sponsored Ad Visibility

Source: Did-it, Enquiro and Eyetools, March 2005

Of all the search phrases world wide,about 33%33% of the people use 2 word phrases2 word phrasesin search engines.

Source: OneStat.com, February 2004

1. 2 word phrases 32,58%2. 3 word phrases 25,61%3. 1 word phrase 19,02%4. 4 word phrases 12,83%5. 5 word phrases 5,64%

Most people use 2 word phrases!

Extenseo is:

• Pioneer (since 1998)• A Subsidiary of Belgacom Skynet (since 01/2006)• 100% focused on Search Engine Marketing:

– Search Engine Optimization (SEO)– Search Engine Advertising (SEA)– Conversion & ROI Analysis

• A team of 12 Professional Consultants• ROI-Minded , focused on Sales & Lead Generation• Market Leader in terms of:

– Turnover and Market Shares– Technology– Experience and Knowledge

• Innovating and Reactive (strong "R&D" pole)• Some References:

Extenseo: an Active Company!• Active member of:

• Partnerships, Labels & Certifications:

• Most Recent Publications:

• Latest Speaking Opportunities:– The Reference (Ghent): 'Search and Measure' Seminar (04/2005)– Solvay Business School (Brussels): Training (05/2005)– ‘Web Analytics Day’ Seminar (Brussels) (10/2005)– Jupiter ’Search Engine Strategies' Seminar (Paris) (11/2005)– FeWeb Congres (Antwerpen) (12/2005)

eTic Company #154

International Search Engine MarketingProfessional Organization

2 Extenseo specialists have obtained the'Google Advertising Professional' certification.

Selected by MSNas privileged partner

'Search Engine Marketing' White Paperin collaboration with MSN and Best Of Publishing.

May 2005 - 88 pages

'Search Engine Marketing' Code of Ethics

October 2005

SEM Strategies

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Search Engine Adver tising (SEA)Advantages - Lowest acquisition cost - Quick Setup

- Long Term Strategy - Perfect for Generic Keywords- Perfect for search terms - Perfect for Punctual/Promo Actions composed of 2 or 3 words- Reach a lot of search engines

Disadvantages - Takes 2-3 months to go live - Some keywords might be expensive- Limited when too much competition - Time consuming

- Might capture less traffic than SEO

1. SEARCH ENGINEOPTIMIZATION (SEO)

2. SEARCH ENGINEADVERTISING (SEA)

SEO recognized as more profitable than SEA

Source: JupiterResearch Executive Survey, August 2005 (US Search Marketers only)

10/13/2006

SEA (mini-)Case Study: Coradirect.be

SituationDuring the 2nd Quarter of 2006, Cora plannedto launch ‘Coradirect.be’, a web site aimingto sell top-of-the-range electro-domestic products.

This e-commerce site has a particular way of working:• The client selects one of the special promotion

products and requests Coradirect’s best price offer. • His/her Cora retailer informs him/her of the unbeatable price, product

availability and the delivery period of the selection.• The client has then to confirm his/her reservation and makes an

appointment to pickup the order at the Cora store of his/her choice.

Emakina, their web agency, contacted Extenseo (Emakina SEM partner)to see how to best promote this atypical website and quickly generate sales.

ChallengesCoradirect.be was lookingfor immediate results as soon asthe website would be launched.

Available resources (time and budget)were very limited ...

The e-shop would only allow in the test phaseto book and pickup products in the Cora storeof Woluwe (Brussels) .

Solution

• Search Engine Advertising (SEA) has directly be selected as this strategy is perfect for:– quick campaign launch– low involvement from the client– easy budget control

• Google AdWords has of course been chosen as advertising network as it:– covers 90-95% of the search engine traffic in Belgium– allows Geotargeting on a regional level

• Even with a maximum cost-per-click of 0,05 EUR in a highly competitive sector:– the position was ‘good’ (avg. position 5,1)– the click-through (2,7%) can be considered as ‘very good’ (for such positions).

• For a media budget of 1.093,98 EUR spent on Google AdWords, the 5-months campaign generated:– 23.281 qualified visitors (= 0,05 EUR per visitor)– 274 highly qualified leads (= 3,99 EUR per lead)

Which other strategy can generate such results for about 1.000 EUR media budget?!?

Results, ROI & Findings

Month Impressions Clicks CTR Avg. CPC CostAvg.

PositionTransactions

Conversion Rate

Cost / Transaction

May 2006 169.688 4.593 2,70% €0,07 €331,55 4,5 65 1,42% €5,10Jun 2006 183.660 5.210 2,80% €0,04 €210,22 5,1 68 1,31% €3,09Jul 2006 162.043 4.757 2,90% €0,04 €197,07 5,1 44 0,92% €4,48Aug 2006 168.099 4.700 2,80% €0,04 €188,50 5,2 70 1,49% €2,69Sep 2006 163.113 4.021 2,50% €0,04 €166,64 5,5 27 0,67% €6,17

Totals 846.603 23.281 2,70% €0,05 €1.093,98 5,1 274 1,18% €3 ,99

10/13/2006

SEM (SEO+SEA) Case Study: Ethias.be

SituationEthias Bank & Insurance is the 2nd insurerin Belgium , with more than 1.000.000 customers.

In 2005, more than 1.000.000 quotes have beencalculated on Ethias.be, leading to 39.000 newcontracts through the web .

Although they launched their first website in 1996 and wonthe “Inside Internet e-commerce Awards” in 2003 , Ethiashadn’t any experience yet in Search Engine Marketing.

Looking to complete their e-marketing strategy, Ethias selected in June 2003Extenseo as their SEM agency , based on Extenseo’s reputation and itsexperience in the insurance sector.

Challenges• Ethias Bank & Insurance has

a lot of products to promote, leadingto hundreds of keywords to manage.

• The Ethias.be domain name had notthat much external links since thebrand change (OMOB/SMAP -> Ethias)in December 2003.

• A new site had to be launched end 2005,involving multiple teams :– Marketing (Ethias)– Design & IT (NRB)– SEM agency (Extenseo)

Solution

• Chosen to:– continue with SEO (good results achieved in the past),– start with SEA (still unknown to Ethias).

• SEO approach for the new site:– optimize the new site structure since the beginning– optimize every (relevant) internal page of the new site (HTML

Templates, Copywriting, Internal Links, etc.)in collaboration with the different teams, mainly by giving Training’s &Consulting, and a strict follow-up on the project.

• SEA:– Test with a time-limited (2 months) Google AdWords campaign.

Results > SEO Positions in Google.be

September 13, 2006

• On the 160 strategic keywords/pages, more than 100 keywords are now ranked on the 1st page , with most of them in the top 3 results!

Results > Global Traffic

Ethias.be: Traffic (Global & Search Engines)

0

50.000

100.000

150.000

200.000

250.000

300.000

350.000

400.000

05/0

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Vis

itors Total Visitors

SEO+SEA Visitors

• Since the collaboration with Extenseo, the search engine traffic evolved from 1-4% to 13%-17% of the global traffic .

Results > Search Engine Traffic• In addition to SEO, the SEA campaigns:

– allow to get visibility on competitive terms,– reinforce the brand visibility on well ranked SEO keywords.

Ethias.be: Search Engine Traffic (Split SEO/SEA)

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20.000

30.000

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507

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501

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Vis

itors SEA Visitors

SEO Visitors

Results > SEO Traffic

Ethias.be: SEO Traffic

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5.000

10.000

15.000

20.000

25.000

30.000

35.000

40.000

45.000

05/0

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07/0

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• Depending on the life of the site and the level of optimization, the SEO traffic can quickly evolve.

New site launched

Results of the1st optimization

Results of a majorre-optimization

Results of the in-depthoptimization of the new site.

Results > SEA Traffic• Q2/2005: launch of the 1st Google AdWords campaign (2 months period)• Q2/2006: launch of a permanent & global Google AdWords campaign

Ethias.be: SEA Traffic

0

2.000

4.000

6.000

8.000

10.000

12.000

14.000

16.000

05/0

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06/05

07/0

5

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02/06

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6V

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rs

Results > ROIThe power of search engines was initially underestimated by somepersons at Ethias… but results are in fact impressive.

• 5% of the Ethias e-marketing budget are dedicated to SEM (SEO+SEA).

• More than 100 strategic keywords are ranked on the 1st page .

• Search engines generate 13-17% of the Ethias.be global traffic .

• 300% increase of the search engine traffic in 1 year,500% in 2 years.

• More than 40% of the SEA visitors request an online quote.

• SEO & SEA have:– the lowest acquisition cost– & the highest conversion ratesamong the different e-marketing techniques used by Ethias.

Findings & Conclusion• Google generates 94% of the Ethias.be search engine traffic.

• Search engines generate today 13-17% of the global traffic ,with SEO generating 3 times more traffic than SEA.

• SEO and SEA are 100% complementary .

• SEO is at least 2 times more profitable than SEA.

• SEO Link building takes time, but is really worth it !

• Due to the very good results, Ethias will continue to invest time & budgets in the coming months on its SEM Strategy.