Entertainment July 2011

Transcription

Sector Report
July 2011
A 360˚ analysis of the most important search terms, trends and benchmarking
data for entertainment retailers. This report provides an exclusive snapshot of
the online search and social media market for your sector right now. From the
size of your potential audience to the top performing companies, it’s all here.
Product focus: CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray DVDs and gaming consoles & games.
Issue 6
Entertainment
The most visible websites, advertisers
and brands in Google search.
Flights
sector report, Issue 9, March 2011
Introduction
At Greenlight, we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of thought leadership
within the search industry. Our dedicated Research Division is able to track,
record and analyse consumer search behaviour in any market vertical, which in
turn leads to the creation of our industry renowned Sector Reports.
Each report examines the total search engine audience size; the most visible websites in
Google natural search and paid media results; paid media ad copy analysis and budget
allocation strategies on how to improve your website’s audience reach. Additionally, we
have included some new features to our Social Media analysis.
Furthermore, we are proud to introduce Greenlight’s magazine. Each quarter, a new trending
focus in the Search industry will be introduced by COO, Andreas Pouros, or CEO, Warren
Cowan. Our directors of paid media, natural search and social media will comment on how
the topic plays into each aspect of search and what consequences, negative or positive,
they might have in the future.
We hope you enjoy our revamped report and magazine and look forward to your comments
and feedback.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Sales and Marketing team at:
[email protected].
Kind regards,
Alicia Levy
Chief Marketing Officer
31
www.greenlightsearch.com
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The most visible websites, advertisers and brands in Google search
Contents
3
Executive summary
4
Total audience size
5
Keyword breakdown
6
Natural search: which websites were most visible in July?
8
Natural search: CDs
9
Natural search: DVDs
10
Natural search: Blu-Ray DVDs
11
Natural search: gaming consoles & games
12
Paid media: which advertisers were most visible in July?
14
Paid media: ad copy analysis
15
Paid media: CDs
16
Paid media: DVDs
17
Paid media: Blu-Ray DVDs
18
Paid media: gaming consoles & games
19
Paid media bidding strategies
21
Social media: which brands interacted well?
23
Integrated search: which websites/advertisers performed well?
25
Learn more about our research
Get in touch to discuss your site’s specific performance.
2
Entertainment Sector
Report, Issue 6, July 2011
Executive
Summary
This latest report profiles search behaviour in the entertainment retail sector. It analyses which brands, retailers
and review sites were the most visible in both natural and paid media results (and thus had the greatest share of
consideration) when UK consumers searched for entertainment products on Google. The report also assesses which
brands interacted well on social media networks. In our analysis we established that:
In July, ‘xbox’ was the most popular search term, having been queried 550,000
times.
Searches for gaming consoles & gaming-related queries were popular, accounting
for 85% of all searches made for the sector.
Amazon was the most visible website in our natural search listings, achieving a
77% share of voice.
Amazon was also the most visible advertiser in the paid media space, attaining
48% visibility.
Playstation was the most visible brand in our social media league table, attaining
a Klout score of 78.
Amazon was the most visible website in our integrated league table, achieving a
high share of voice across both natural search and paid media.
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Total audience size (1.5 million searches – July 2011)
Approximately how many searches were performed in July using terms relating
to CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray DVDs and gaming consoles & games.
July
We have considered every search term and aggregated the number of times
each one was used in May, June and July to give an indication of the number
of searches.
In July, there were more than
1.5 million searches made for
entertainment-related keywords
on Google UK.
Searches for gaming consoles &
game-related keywords proved to
be the most popular, accounting
Total number of entertainment retail-related searches
for 85% of all searches made for
2,500,000
2,000,000
1,500,000
May
the sector.
June
With the festive season fast
July
1,000,000
approaching, Greenlight
expects to see searches for
entertainment-related products
increase, as people start to search
500,000
for gifts.
0
500,00
500
000
0
Number of searches by type (July 2011)
10,000,000
CDs
1500000
Blu Ray DVDs
39,168 | 2%
35,746 | 2%
DVDs
15,000,000
167,498 | 11%
2000000
2500000
20,000,000
Gaming consoles & Games
1,335,240 | 85%
Share:
4
Entertainment
Sector Report, Issue 6, July 2011
Natural
Search
Keyword breakdown
Which were the most queried terms across CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray DVDs and
gaming consoles & games?
In July, the search term ‘Xbox’
was queried 550,000 times,
We initially analysed 3,000 keywords for this exercise, which cumulatively
delivered 1.5 million searches in July 2011. Here we looked at which individual
terms were most searched for and the trends of the top search term from each
segment displayed over the previous 12 months.
accounting for 35% of all
searches made for the sector.
By comparison, there were
Keyword breakdown (July 2011)
135,000 searches for the
keyword ‘PS3’.
Other keywords
484,952 | 31%
As can be seen in the trends
Xbox
550,000 | 35%
graph, searches for the keyword
‘xbox’ increased significantly
between April and June.
Nintendo DS
27,100 | 2%
Playstation 3
27,100 | 2%
PSP
40,500 | 3%
DVD releases
49,500 | 3%
PS3
135,000 | 9%
DVD
49,500 | 3%
Wii
49,500 | 3%
Playstation
74,000 | 5%
Xbox 360
90,500 | 6%
Search trends for the most searched for terms over the previous 12 months
600,000
500,000
400,000
300,000
200,000
Xbox
DVD
100,000
Blu Ray
0
5
CDs
Aug-10 Sep-10 Oct-10 Nov-10 Dec-10 Jan-11 Feb-11 Mar-11 Apr-11 May-11 Jun-11
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Jul-11
Share:
Which sites were most visible in July?
Given that UK web users conducted 1.5 million searches for entertainment
retail products in July 2011, which brands were best positioned on
page one of Google natural search and therefore most likely to gain the
searcher’s consideration?
We have determined the best positioned and hence most visible websites in
this sector based on the volumes for each keyword and their respective ranking
on page one of Google. These websites have been scored in the league table
below, which represents visibility to a total of 1.5 million searches in July.
Amazon was the most visible
website, achieving a 77% share of
voice through ranking at position
one for 235 keywords, including
‘ps3 controller’.
Wikipedia attained the same
percentage of visibility (77%);
however, it ranked at position
The top 60 most visible entertainment websites in natural search
one for fewer terms (41) and thus
No. Domain
Reached
volume
Missed
volume
Percentage
reached
1
amazon.co.uk
1,215,914
361,738
77%
2
wikipedia.org
1,209,160
368,492
77%
3
argos.co.uk
911,724
665,928
58%
4
xbox.com
672,684
904,968
43%
5
play.com
609,230
968,422
39%
6
ign.com
409,754
1,167,898
26%
report (January 2011). It ranked
7
playstation.com
357,502
1,220,150
23%
at position 11 for the high volume
8
tescoentertainment.com
310,312
1,267,340
20%
search term, ‘ps3’.
9
hmv.com
298,120
1,279,532
19%
10
xboxscene.com
275,000
1,302,652
17%
11
twitter.com
220,006
1,357,646
14%
12
blockbuster.co.uk
171,149
1,406,503
11%
13
cnet.com
166,379
1,411,273
11%
14
nintendo.co.uk
161,100
1,416,552
10%
15
pcworld.co.uk
151,023
1,426,629
10%
16
nintendo.com
143,535
1,434,117
9%
17
game.co.uk
128,908
1,448,744
8%
18
lovefilm.com
124,579
1,453,073
8%
19
gamestation.co.uk
97,143
1,480,509
6%
20
asda-entertainment.co.uk
97,060
1,480,592
6%
21
gamespot.com
94,843
1,482,809
6%
22
dixons.co.uk
94,760
1,482,892
6%
23
cdwow.com
87,767
1,489,885
6%
24
oxm.co.uk
72,987
1,504,665
5%
25
uk.net
69,013
1,508,639
4%
Share:
ranked at second place in our
league table.
TescoEntertainment was a new
entrant to our league table, having
not featured in our previous
6
Entertainment Sector Report, Issue 6, July 2011
The top 60 most visible entertainment websites in natural search (contd.)
No. Domain
Reached
volume
Missed
volume
Percentage
reached
26
wii-consoles.co.uk
66,024
1,511,628
4%
XBoxScene saw its share of voice
27
ea.com
62,885
1,514,767
4%
increase by 16% and ascended
28
independent.co.uk
59,499
1,518,153
4%
from position 52 to tenth place.
29
wii.com
55,692
1,521,960
4%
30
guardian.co.uk
51,612
1,526,040
3%
31
google.co.uk
50,533
1,527,119
3%
32
dvd.co.uk
47,226
1,530,426
3%
33
bbc.co.uk
39,814
1,537,838
3%
34
wiipreorder.co.uk
34,868
1,542,784
2%
35
pspeur.org
32,400
1,545,252
2%
36
ebay.co.uk
31,048
1,546,604
2%
37
blu-ray.com
30,760
1,546,892
2%
38
thehut.com
29,720
1,547,932
2%
39
xbox360-offers.co.uk
28,404
1,549,248
2%
40
gameplay.co.uk
27,349
1,550,303
2%
41
compareconsoleprices.co.uk
24,808
1,552,844
2%
42
theregister.co.uk
24,454
1,553,198
2%
43
facebook.com
22,048
1,555,604
1%
44
comet.co.uk
20,910
1,556,742
1%
45
imdb.com
20,233
1,557,419
1%
46
movieweb.com
19,872
1,557,780
1%
47
sendit.com
18,858
1,558,794
1%
48
zavvi.com
18,713
1,558,939
1%
49
moneysavingexpert.com
18,405
1,559,247
1%
50
eurogamer.net
18,351
1,559,301
1%
51
simplygames.com
17,274
1,560,378
1%
52
richersounds.com
17,021
1,560,631
1%
53
crunchbase.com
16,500
1,561,152
1%
54
wiifit.com
14,800
1,562,852
1%
55
photoshop.com
14,800
1,562,852
1%
56
gameseek.co.uk
14,451
1,563,201
1%
57
computerandvideogames.com
14,180
1,563,472
1%
58
limexb360.co.uk
14,017
1,563,635
1%
59
nintendodsi.com
13,550
1,564,102
1%
60
yahoo.com
13,522
1,564,130
1%
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Since our January report,
Share:
Natural search: CDs
Searches for CDs accounted for more than 35,000 searches in July 2011. How
did these searches break down?
‘CDs’ was the most popular search
term, accounting for 34% of all
searches made for the subsector.
Other keywords
6,746 | 19%
In July, Play.com was the most
CDs
12,100 | 34%
Dance CD
210 | 1%
Buy CD
320 | 1%
Cheap CD
480 | 1%
visible website for CD-related
keywords, achieving an 83% share
of voice.
Music CD
590 | 2%
New CDs
1,000 | 3%
HMV attained a 73% share of
Buy CDs
1,000 | 3%
voice through ranking at position
Music CDs
1,000 | 3%
one for 10 keywords, including
the search terms ‘buy cds’ and
Cheap CDs
2,400 | 7%
‘music cds’.
CD
9,900 | 28%
Since our January report, Amazon
saw its share of voice decrease by
Which websites were most visible for CD keywords?
12% and it descended our league
No. Domain
Reached
volume
Missed
volume
Percentage
reached
1
play.com
29,495
6,251
83%
2
hmv.com
26,008
9,738
73%
By contrast, TescoEntertainment
3
wikipedia.org
24,813
10,933
69%
saw its visibility increase by 38%
4
cdwow.com
20,555
15,191
58%
and it ascended our league table
5
amazon.co.uk
19,880
15,866
56%
6
15,829
19,917
44%
7
11,111
24,635
31%
8
cds.co.uk
9,680
26,066
27%
9
drama.ac.uk
8,470
27,276
24%
10
bangcd.com
6,816
28,930
19%
11
101cd.com
5,709
30,037
16%
12
wizbit.net
3,333
32,413
9%
13
find-cd.co.uk
3,102
32,644
9%
14
thehut.com
2,304
33,442
6%
15
priceminister.co.uk
2,295
33,451
6%
16
tunechecker.com
2,016
33,730
6%
17
best-cd-price.co.uk
1,418
34,328
4%
18
cduniverse.com
1,392
34,354
4%
19
4cheapcds.com
1,347
34,399
4%
20
amazon.com
1,274
34,472
4%
Share:
table from second to fifth place.
from its previous position at 17 to
sixth place.
8
Natural search: DVDs
Searches for DVDs accounted for more than 167,000 searches in July 2011. How
did these searches break down?
In July, the search terms ‘DVD’
and ‘DVD releases’ were
each queried 49,500 times,
Other keywords
33,698 | 20%
DVD
49,500 | 30%
cumulatively accounting for
60% of all searches made for
the subsector.
BBC DVD
1,600 | 1%
Disney DVDs
1,900 | 1%
New DVD
2,900 | 2%
Disney DVD
2,900 | 2%
Play.com was the most visible
website, attaining a dominant
Harry Potter DVD
3,600 | 2%
New DVDs
4,400 | 3%
92% share of voice through
ranking at position one for 28 of
Cheap DVDs
5,400 | 3%
the search terms analysed.
DVDs
12,100 | 7%
BlockBuster achieved 61%
DVD releases
49,500 | 30%
visibility through ranking at
position three for the search term,
‘DVD releases’.
Which websites were most visible for DVD keywords?
No. Domain
Reached
volume
Missed
volume
Percentage
reached
Through achieving a 26% share
1
play.com
154,036
13,462
92%
of voice, TescoEntertainment
2
blockbuster.co.uk
101,756
65,742
61%
was a new entrant to our league
3
amazon.co.uk
82,106
85,392
49%
table, having not featured in our
4
hmv.com
71,613
95,885
43%
January report.
5
lovefilm.com
71,267
96,231
43%
6
wikipedia.org
67,780
99,718
40%
7
dvd.co.uk
46,537
120,961
28%
8
44,342
123,156
26%
9
cdwow.com
35,276
132,222
21%
10
27,605
139,893
16%
11
movieweb.com
19,802
147,696
12%
12
sendit.com
18,237
149,261
11%
13
dvdcollections.co.uk
11,682
155,816
7%
14
thehut.com
10,875
156,622
6%
15
imdb.com
9,577
157,921
6%
16
find-dvd.co.uk
8,407
159,091
5%
17
disney.co.uk
8,084
159,414
5%
18
bbcshop.com
7,572
159,926
5%
19
moviemail-online.co.uk
6,318
161,180
4%
20
moviefone.com
5,847
161,651
3%
9
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Share:
Natural search: Blu-Ray DVDs
Searches for Blu-Ray DVDs accounted for more than 39,000 searches in July
2011. How did these searches break down?
The term ‘Blu Ray’ totalled
22,200 searches, accounting for
57% of all searches performed for
Other keywords
6,828 | 17%
the subsector online.
BluRay attained the highest
Blu Ray releases
720 | 2%
Blu Ray DVDs
720 | 2%
Disney Blu Ray
720 | 2%
Finding Nemo Blu Ray
880 | 2%
visibility for the subsector,
achieving a 79% share of voice
through ranking at position
Blu Ray DVD
1,000 | 3%
one for 15 terms, such as ‘Blu
Blu Ray
22,200 | 57%
Lord of the Rings Blu Ray
1,300 | 3%
Ray movies’.
Blu Ray movies
1,600 | 4%
In July, Wikipedia ranked at
Cheap Blu Ray
1,600 | 4%
position one for four search
Blue Ray
1,600 | 4%
terms, including ‘blu ray’,
achieving a 71% share of voice.
Which websites were most visible for Blu-Ray DVD keywords?
No. Domain
Reached
volume
Missed
volume
Percentage
reached
1
blu-ray.com
30,758
8,410
79%
2
wikipedia.org
27,957
11,211
71%
3
play.com
27,070
12,098
69%
4
guardian.co.uk
18,656
20,512
48%
5
richersounds.com
15,977
23,191
41%
6
hmv.com
15,408
23,760
39%
7
lovefilm.com
12,910
26,258
33%
8
blu-raydisc.com
10,160
29,008
26%
9
amazon.co.uk
9,662
29,506
25%
10
panasonic.co.uk
6,737
32,431
17%
11
cdwow.com
5,839
33,329
15%
12
cheapbluraymovies.co.uk
5,592
33,576
14%
13
zavvi.com
4,863
34,305
12%
14
highdefdigest.com
3,379
35,789
9%
15
3,225
35,943
8%
16
2,540
36,628
6%
17
thehut.com
2,489
36,679
6%
18
mymemory.co.uk
2,380
36,788
6%
19
blockbuster.co.uk
2,158
37,010
6%
20
moneysavingexpert.com
1,831
37,337
5%
Share:
RicherSounds was a new entrant
to our league table, achieving a
41% share of voice.
10
Natural search: gaming consoles & games
Searches for gaming consoles & games accounted for more than 1.3 million
searches in July 2011. How did those searches break down?
In July, the keyword ‘Xbox’ was
searched for 550,000 times,
accounting for 41% of all searches
Other keywords
297,140 | 22%
made for gaming consoles &
game-related terms.
Nintendo Wii
22,200 | 2%
Wii games
22,200 | 2%
Xbox
550,000 | 41%
website for the subsector, attaining
Nintendo DS
27,100 | 2%
an 83% share of voice. It ranked at
Playstation 3
27,100 | 2%
position one for 78 search terms,
PSP
40,500 | 3%
including ‘ps3 controller’.
Wii
49,500 | 4%
Wikipedia attained slightly less
Playstation
74,000 | 6%
visibility (82%) as it ranked at
Xbox 360
90,500 | 7%
PS3
135,000 | 10%
position one for fewer search
terms (22).
Which websites were most visible for gaming consoles & games keywords?
No. Domain
Reached
volume
Missed
volume
Percentage
reached
1
amazon.co.uk
1,104,265
230,975
83%
2
wikipedia.org
1,088,610
246,630
82%
3
argos.co.uk
910,048
425,192
68%
4
xbox.com
672,673
662,567
50%
5
ign.com
409,170
926,070
31%
6
play.com
398,629
936,611
30%
7
playstation.com
357,454
977,786
27%
8
xboxscene.com
275,000
1,060,240
21%
9
247,600
1,087,640
19%
10
twitter.com
220,000
1,115,240
16%
11
hmv.com
185,091
1,150,149
14%
12
cnet.com
165,914
1,169,326
12%
13
nintendo.co.uk
161,100
1,174,140
12%
14
pcworld.co.uk
151,016
1,184,224
11%
15
nintendo.com
143,535
1,191,705
11%
16
game.co.uk
128,803
1,206,437
10%
17
gamestation.co.uk
97,141
1,238,099
7%
18
gamespot.com
94,843
1,240,397
7%
19
dixons.co.uk
94,760
1,240,480
7%
20
oxm.co.uk
72,987
1,262,253
5%
11
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XBoxScene was a new entrant to
our league table, achieving a 21%
share of voice.
Share:
The most
visible websites, advertisers and brands in Google search
Paid
Media
Which advertisers were most visible in July?
We have conducted a detailed level of monitoring and analysis to determine
which advertisers appeared most prominently in the paid media space. An
advertiser’s share of voice is based on: how often it was present in Google, which
ad position it bid for and the associated search volume for the keywords it bid on.
These advertisers have been scored in the league table below, which represents
visibility across the top 120 keywords in July 2011.
The top 60 most visible entertainment retail advertisers in paid media
No.
Advertiser
Share of voice
1
amazon.co.uk
48%
2
johnlewis.com
33%
3
littlewoods.com
30%
4
uk.playstation.com
27%
5
isme.com
25%
6
argos.co.uk
20%
7
game.co.uk
20%
8
kandco.com
19%
9
tesco.com
16%
10
comet.co.uk
15%
11
dialaphone.co.uk
15%
12
moneysupermarket.com
12%
13
play.com
11%
14
tourdefrance-thegame.com
10%
15
ebay.co.uk
10%
16
carphonewarehouse.com
10%
17
9%
18
9%
19
flutteroo.co.uk
8%
20
very.co.uk
7%
21
thehut.com
6%
22
hmv.com
5%
23
oxfam.org.uk
5%
24
ziinga.com
4%
25
zavvi.com
4%
26
madbid.com
4%
27
bidwiz.co.uk
4%
28
gopspgo.co.uk
4%
In July, Amazon was the most
visible advertiser in the paid
media space, attaining a 48%
share of voice through bidding on
119 keywords, at an average ad
position of three.
By contrast, JohnLewis bid on
13 keywords, at an average
Share:
ad position of five, achieving
33% visibility.
Tesco was a new entrant to our
top 10, having not featured in our
previous report (January 2011).
In July, it bid on 30 keywords at
an average ad position of five,
12
The top 60 most visible entertainment retail advertisers in paid media (contd.)
No.
Advertiser
Share of voice
29
disney.co.uk
3%
30
booksprice.co.uk
3%
31
ea.com
3%
32
boots.com
2%
33
giantbuyer.co.uk
2%
34
psp-console.supaprice.co.uk
2%
35
tmart.com
2%
by 42% and it fell from third place
36
gameplay.co.uk
2%
to position 13, in our league table.
37
phones4u.co.uk
2%
38
panasonic.co.uk
2%
39
ask.com
1%
40
sdcd.com
1%
41
lowpriceshopper.co.uk
1%
42
marksandspencer.com
1%
43
multidsgamezone.com
1%
44
kelkoo.co.uk
1%
45
viking-direct.co.uk
1%
46
blu-ray-dvd-player.crowdstorm.co.uk
1%
47
rewards.bestforfilm.com
1%
48
nintendo.co.uk
1%
49
gamecarduk.com
1%
50
gamingmodz.com
1%
51
wii-console.supaprice.co.uk
1%
52
letsbuyit.co.uk
1%
53
ps3accessories.miniinthebox.com
1%
54
smythstoys.com
1%
55
sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk
1%
56
market.blockbuster.co.uk
1%
57
virginmedia.com
1%
58
choice.co.uk
1%
59
shopyea.com
1%
60
gamingzap.com
1%
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Interestingly,
TourdeFranceTheGame bid on
only two keywords; however, it
attained a 10% share of voice.
Since our previous report,
Play.com saw its visibility decrease
Share:
Paid media: ad copy analysis
The table below shows which ad creatives featured most frequently
across the top 120 entertainment retail keywords in the Google
paid media space during July 2011. Share of voice is based on the
number of times Google displayed the ad creative, also taking into
account ad position, search term volume and Google’s ad rotation.
In addition, we have analysed how many unique creatives were
present for each advertiser.
No. Domain
Ad creative
Unique
Share of
creatives voice
1
Buy PS3 Slim Online
Order the PS3 Slim online & get Free Delivery
from John Lewis
www.johnlewis.com/ps3
26
Playstation 3 Consoles
Free Bext Delivery at Littlewoods.
Buy Now and Pay Later.
www.littlewoods.com/PS3
83
2
johnlewis.com
littlewoods.com
19%
JohnLewis displayed the most
16%
kandco.com
Playstation 3 | Kando.com
Shop for Playstation 3 products at Kando.com.
www.kandco.com/Playstation3
12
16%
4
amazon.co.uk
PS3 Console at Amazon
Low Prices on PS3 Console.
Free UK Delivery on Amazon Orders
www.amazon.co.uk/PS3 console
1384
13%
Tour de France The Game
Buy it now!
www.tourdefrance-thegame.com
2
10%
Buy Playstation 3
Next Day Delivery at isme on Playstation 3.
Buy Now and Pay Later!
www.isme.com/Playstation
26
8%
7
tesco.com
Buy PS3 Consoles - Get £10 Off £75 Use Code TDX - MNGK
New Autumn Winter Catalogue Out Now
www.tesco.com/PS3
34
8%
Free Phone And PS3 Slime
Get A Brand New Contract Phone & A Free PS3
Slim From Just £19.83pm!
www.dialaphone.co.uk/PS3_Specials
12
ad creatives (1,384) whilst
the least (2).
Interestingly, the four most
successful individual ad creatives
7%
for the sector, advertised the
PlayStation 3.
9
isme.com
Xbox 360 - isme
Buy the Xbox 360
www.isme.com/Xbox360
26
7%
10
argos.co.uk
PS3 at Argos PS3 Entertainment Center at Argos
Check, Reserve & Collect for Free!
www.argos.co.uk/PS3
88
6%
11
ebay.co.uk
PS3
Great deals on video game cosoles.
Feed you passion on eBay.co.uk!
www.ebay.co.uk
989
5%
12
Buy latest PS3 Games
Find All The Latest Titles at Tesco
Get Free UK Delivery On Everything.
www.tescoentertainment.com
139
5%
13
Blu Ray DVD Players
Find great deals on DVD Players and rise above
the high street
www.moneysupermarket.com/shopping
141
5%
14
Free PS3
Get a FREE Playstation 3 when you buy a contract
mobile phone!
www.carphonewarehouse.com
10
5%
15
game.co.uk
GAME: PlayStation 3
By Playstation 3 From GAME For £189.99. Free
Delivery. Buy Online!
www.game.co.uk
54
4%
Share:
Amazon displayed the
TourdeFranceTheGame displayed
isme.com
dialaphone.co.uk
PS3 Slim.
largest array of individual
6
8
visible individual ad creative,
advertising free delivery for the
3
5
Achieving 19% visibility,
14
Paid media: CDs
Searches specifically for CDs accounted for more than 35,000 searches in July.
Here we assess which advertisers were most visible for those keywords.
advertiser for the subsector,
achieving an 88% share of voice
No.
Advertiser
Share of voice
1
amazon.co.uk
88%
2
81%
3
81%
4
hmv.com
46%
5
play.com
43%
6
cduniverse.com
16%
7
ebay.co.uk
15%
8
oxfam.org.uk
11%
9
kelkoo.co.uk
10%
league table as it bid on
10
ask.com
8%
fewer keywords (9).
11
sdcd.com
7%
12
cornishdrivingschool.co.uk
3%
Since our previous report,
13
arkivmusic.eu
3%
CDUniverse saw its visibility
14
screamingcd.com
3%
increase by 8% and it ascended
15
booksprice.co.uk
2%
our league table from position 14
16
lowpriceshopper.co.uk
2%
17
shopzilla.co.uk
2%
18
moneco.com
2%
19
shop.hettykate.com
2%
20
ingdirect.co.uk
2%
through bidding on 30 keywords
at an average ad position of two.
Both AsdaEntertainment and
TescoEntertainment achieved
an 81% share of voice;
however TescoEntertainment
ranked at third place in our
to sixth place.
AsdaEntertainment displayed
the most visible individual ad
creative, achieving 62% visibility.
It advertised the latest CD
Which ad creatives were most visible for CD keywords?
releases at low prices.
No. Domain
Ad creative
Unique
Share of
creatives voice
1
CDs Asda
Buy The Latest CDs AT Low Prices| asda.com
www.asda-entertainment.co.uk/CDs
8
62%
2
Buy Music CDs at Tesco
Choose from a Wide Selection of CDs
Get Free UK Delivery on Everything.
41
57%
3
amazon.co.uk
CD's at Amazon
Best Selling CDs from £8.99
www.amazon.co.uk/music
360
40%
4
hmv.com
CD's at hmv.com
Free UK Delivery On A Huge Range Of CD's & Find
Special Online Offers! 150 Oxford Street, London
www.hmv.com/CD
98
36%
5
play.com
CDs at Play.com
Buy CDs from £2.99
Free Delivery on Everything!
www.play.com/CDs
156
31%
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Share:
Paid media: DVDs
Searches specifically for DVDs accounted for more than 167,000 searches in
July. Here we assess which advertisers were most visible for those keywords.
attaining an 82% share of voice
No.
Advertiser
Share of voice
1
amazon.co.uk
82%
2
play.com
78%
3
57%
4
47%
5
oxfam.org.uk
39%
6
booksprice.co.uk
26%
7
hmv.com
21%
8
boots.com
20%
9
thehut.com
18%
10
ebay.co.uk
18%
one keyword, at an average ad
11
sdcd.com
11%
position of seven, achieving a
12
rewards.bestforfilm.com
7%
20% share of voice.
13
smythstoys.com
5%
14
market.blockbuster.co.uk
5%
Achieving a 38% share of voice,
15
5%
AsdaEntertainment displayed
16
dvd.stellaartois.com
4%
the most visible individual ad
17
marksandspencer.com
4%
18
movies4momandme.com
3%
19
ask.com
3%
20
blinkbox.com
3%
through bidding on 29 keywords,
at an average ad position of three.
Play.com achieved slightly less
visibility (78%) as it bid on 29
keywords, at a lower average ad
position of five.
Interestingly, Boots bid on only
creative, advertising free delivery
on the latest DVD releases.
Which ad creatives were most visible for DVD keywords?
No. Domain
Ad creative
Unique
Share of
creatives voice
1
DVDs at ASDA
Buy The Latest DVDs At ASDA.
Plus Free Delivery! Buy Online.
www.asda-entertainment.co.uk/DVD
41
38%
2
play.com
Play.com-Great DVDs
A Great Range of DVDs from £2.99.
Free Delivery on Everything.
www.play.com/DVDs
222
33%
3
DVDs at Tesco.com
1000s of Titles at Low Tesco Prices
Free Delivery & 2X Clubcard Points.
55
27%
4
oxfam.org.uk
DVD's From Oxfam
Find Quality New & Used DVDs Online at Oxfam.
Free UK Delivery
www.oxfam.org.uk/Shop-Sale
26
27%
5
booksprice.co.uk
Buy DVDs | Bookprice.co.uk
Find the lowest Price!
www.booksprice.co.uk
9
20%
Share:
16
Paid media: Blu-Ray DVDs
Searches specifically for Blu-Ray DVDs accounted for more than 39,000
searches in July. Here we assess which advertisers were most visible for
those keywords.
attaining a 78% share of voice
No.
Advertiser
Share of voice
1
amazon.co.uk
78%
2
argos.co.uk
58%
3
panasonic.co.uk
55%
4
hmv.com
46%
5
33%
6
ebay.co.uk
16%
7
play.com
15%
8
14%
9
philips.co.uk
12%
10
kelkoo.co.uk
9%
league table, having not featured
11
sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk
5%
in our previous report. In July, it
12
dvdfabb.com
5%
bid on 25 keywords, at an average
13
ask.com
5%
ad position of four, achieving
14
moviemail-online.co.uk
5%
12% visibility.
15
thehut.com
4%
16
hdmoviesource.com
4%
17
zavvi.com
3%
18
tesco.com
3%
19
comet.co.uk
3%
20
blockbuster.co.uk
2%
through bidding on all 30 of the
keywords analysed, at an average
ad position of three.
Argos bid on 25 keywords, at
an average ad position of five,
Philips was a new entrant to our
Argos displayed the most visible
individual ad creative, advertising
Blu Ray players and 25% off all
TV stands.
Which ad creatives were most visible for Blu-Ray DVD keywords?
No. Domain
Ad creative
Unique
Share of
creatives voice
1
argos.co.uk
Blu Ray Players at Argos
25% off All TV Stands at Argos Now
Reserve Now & Collect Instore Today
www.argos.co.uk/Blu-Ray
16
49%
2
amazon.co.uk
Cheapest Blu Ray DVDs
Low Priced Cheapest blu ray DVDs.
www.amazon.co.uk/blue ray DVD
318
42%
3
panasonic.co.uk
Panasonic Blu-Ray Range
Find Out More About Award Winning Range of
Panasonic Blu-Ray Players!
www.panasonic.co.uk/bluray_offer
14
33%
4
hmv.com
Blu Ray Films at hmv.com
Get The Latest Blu-Ray Releases At Great Prices
+ Free UK Delivery!
www.hmv.com/Blu-Ray
43
23%
5
Bestselling DVD Players | Crowdstorm
Find the Best DVD Players
2
21%
17
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Share:
Paid media: gaming consoles & games
Searches specifically for gaming consoles & games accounted for more than
1.3 million searches in July. Here we assess which advertisers were most
visible for those keywords.
Amazon achieved 41% visibility
through bidding on all 30 of the
keywords analysed, at an average
No.
Advertiser
Share of voice
1
amazon.co.uk
41%
2
johnlewis.com
40%
3
littlewoods.com
36%
4
uk.playstation.com
32%
5
isme.com
30%
6
game.co.uk
24%
7
kandco.com
23%
8
argos.co.uk
23%
9
tesco.com
19%
10
comet.co.uk
18%
league table, achieving a 30%
11
dialaphone.co.uk
18%
share of voice through bidding on
12
14%
nine keywords, at an average ad
13
13%
position of three.
14
12%
15
flutteroo.co.uk
9%
16
ebay.co.uk
9%
JohnLewis displayed the most
17
very.co.uk
8%
18
ziinga.com
5%
19
madbid.com
4%
20
bidwiz.co.uk
4%
ad position of three.
Interestingly, JohnLewis bid on
only 12 keywords, at an average
ad position of five; however it
attained only 1% less visibility
than Amazon.
Isme was a new entrant to our
visible individual ad creative.
Which ad creatives were most visible for gaming consoles and games keywords?
No. Domain
Ad creative
Unique
Share of
creatives voice
1
johnlewis.com
Buy PS3 Slim Online
Order the PS3 Slim Online & get free delivery
from John Lewis
www.johnlewis.com/ps3
25
23%
2
littlewoods.com
Playstation 3 Consoles
Free next day delivery at Littlewoods.
Buy Now and Pay Later.
www.littlewoods.com/PS3
52
19%
3
kandco.com
Playstation 3 | Kando.com
Shop for Playstation 3 products at Kando.com.
www.kandco.com/Playstation3
12
19%
4
amazon.co.uk
PS3 Console at Amazon
Low Prices on PS3 Console.
www.amazon.co.uk/PS3 console
326
16%
5
2
12%
Share:
www.tourdefrance-thegame.com
18
Paid media bidding strategies
We have monitored Google closely to identify who was advertising in the
paid media space and when they chose to advertise. Our analysis tracks
visibility of advertisers, in terms of bidding frequency, average ad position
and keywords bid on, rather than assessing other performance indicators,
such as sales and cost per acquisition. The data has then been broken down
further to reveal advertising behaviour by individual days of the week and
times of the day.
Day parting strategy
Our research, through working with various retail clients, established that most
entertainment retail-related search queries are performed over the weekend,
especially Sunday, with fewer searches made on weekdays. But did advertisers
reflect this day parting in their bidding strategies?
Ad count by day, over a 1-week period (chosen at random; week commencing 11th July)
Consumer search behaviour
25%
Ask
Kelkoo
LowPriceShopper
20%
MoneySupermarket
AsdaEntertainment
15%
Play
TescoEntertainment
10%
HMV
eBay
5%
Mon 11th
Tue 12th
Wed 13th
Thu 14th
Fri 15th
Sat 16th
Sun 17th
Amazon
The majority of brands appeared
HMV appeared to recognise
The majority of brands analysed,
to achieve a relatively consistent
consumer search behaviour over the
failed to recognise the increase in
share of visibility.
weekend period; however, it attained
consumer search behaviour over
high visibility on Monday, when
the weekend period.
search activity was at its lowest.
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Hourly parting strategy
Our research found that there is a considerable peak in consumer search
behaviour in the evening between 8pm and midnight. Search behaviour
remains relatively low throughout the day but starts to increase slightly
from 12pm onwards. Did advertisers consider these trends in their
bidding strategies?
Consumer search behaviour
Ad count by hour, over a 1-day period (day chosen at random; Tuesday 12th July)
Littlewoods
Tesco
25%
LowPriceShopper
Kelkoo
20%
MoneySupermarket
HMV
15%
AsdaEntertainment
TescoEntertainment
10%
Play.com
eBay
5%
Midnight - 4am
4am - 8am
8am - 12pm
12pm - 4pm
4pm - 8pm
8pm - Midnight
Amazon
The majority of advertisers
AsdaEntertainment achieved high
Interestingly, eBay appeared
appeared to attain a constant share
visibility in the early hours of the
to recognise consumer search
of visibility.
day; however, it appeared to fail to
behaviour in the late afternoon;
recognise search behaviour from
however, it failed to recognise
12pm onwards.
search behaviour between midnight
and 12pm.
Share:
20
Entertainment
SectorMarketing
Social
Media
Which brands had the most influence?
Social media provides consumers with a dynamic platform upon which to talk about and engage with brands. Smart brands recognise the
importance of effectively employing this medium in order to inspire positive conversation around their products. The most influential brands
engage on a daily basis with consumers, driving traffic to their online and offline properties.
To gauge their influence, we’ve had a look at the top 15 brands and measured their engagement by monitoring their fans and followers across
various social media platforms, shown in the table below. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube presences were all measured, whilst Klout
scores have been obtained, quantifying the influence of that brand across the social networks analysed.
No.
Brand
Twitter
Facebook
1
PlayStation
17,180,879
1,060,622
2
xBox
11,149,453
3
Play.com
4
LinkedIn
YouTube
Uploads
YouTube
Subscribers
Klout Score
26,760
195,655
757
78
250,997
0
44,757
565
71
81,282
26,343
0
0
0
75
Game
162,711
24,054
1,177
752
232
69
5
HMV
39,358
16,472
1,106
19
37
65
6
AsdaEntertainment
23,025
19,866
3,884
56
16
62
7
Argos
93,248
14,215
0
128
163
61
8
Wikipedia
751,711
28,681
337
17
1
60
9
Littlewoods
45,462
3,975
696
55
24
60
10
Amazon
55,119
23,164
0
0
0
58
11
JohnLewis
148,452
9,318
4,709
851
89
56
12
MoneySupermarket
32,534
4,603
679
135
258
48
13
eBay
39,036
4,039
0
19
84
33
14
BestPrice
0
0
0
0
0
0
15
Nintendo
0
0
0
0
0
0
According to our social media table,
Of the brands analysed, PlayStation
Even though JohnLewis had a large
PlayStation was the most visible
had the largest number of followers
number of followers on its Facebook
brand across the social media
across both its Twitter and
account, it did not have many
platforms analysed.
Facebook accounts.
followers on the other social media
platforms analysed and therefore
achieved a lower Klout score.
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Share:
This word cloud outlines the
topics associated with the primary
entertainment retail keywords
during the month of July. As clearly
illustrated in the graphic on the left,
keywords such as ‘play’ and ‘forums’
were a predominate focus of user
generated discussion.
Top Bloggers in the Entertainment Sector
Below are 3 of the top bloggers in the Entertainment sector, ranked according to authority and number of mentions. You’ll notice that many of
these blogs revolve around lifestyle and hobbies as well as fashion themes.
1. Hannah Hart: http://hartoandco.com/
With “My Drunk Kitchen”, Hannah Hart managed to turn something shamefully commonplace into a genuinely
entertaining foray into the world of YouTube stardom. Each webisode involves Ms. Hart, who has no discernable
culinary talents, attempting to cook a meal whilst consuming a copious amount of wine and waxing more or
less philosophically about the sorts of things the vaguely inebriated like to spout on about. Hilarity ensued from
webisode 1 and Hannah’s fame and subscription numbers rose by the thousands.
2. Carles of Hipsterrunoff.com
HIPSTER RUNOFF is Perez Hilton for those who would pretend to not read Perez Hilton. The blog is self-described
as “Mindie (Mainstream Indie)”and boasts a healthy following across all social media outlets. According to the
“anonymous blogger” known only as Carles: “HIPSTER RUNOFF is a blog worth blogging abt, created by Carles that is
trying 2 stay relevant. It blogs abt buzzbands, alt_stuff, and memes”.
3. SoFarSounds.com –Sounds from a Room
SoFar Sounds is run by a crew who keep their ears to the ground and make it their business to know and love music.
They took to hosting pop-up gigs in the living rooms of the likeminded and a small but mighty international web
phenomenon was born.
Share:
22
Entertainment
IntegratedSector
Search
Which websites/advertisers performed well?
If we look at the visibility achieved by websites in natural search
and the impression share gained by those websites as advertisers
in the paid media space, who obtained the greatest share of
voice overall? Here we have taken the top websites/advertisers
across both mediums to give an indication of their integrated
search performance.
80%
wikipedia.org
amazon.co.uk
70%
60%
Natural search visibility
argos.co.uk
50%
Strong natural
search visibility
Strong integrated
search visibility
Poor integrated
search visibility
Strong paid
media visibility
xbox.com
40%
play.com
30%
ign.com
playstation.com
20%
hmv.com
xboxscene.com
10%
game.co.uk
tesco.com
comet.co.uk
dialaphone.co.uk
0%
0%
10%
kandco.com
isme.com
20%
uk.playstation.com
littlewoods.com
johnlewis.com
30%
40%
50%
Paid media visibility
Amazon achieved strong integrated
Wikipedia achieved notable
JohnLewis achieved strong
visibility, as it attained a high share
visibility in the natural
paid media visibility; however,
of voice across both natural search
search space.
it lacked visibility in the natural
and paid media.
23
search listings.
|
T: +44 (0)20 7253 7000
Share:
The most visible entertainment retail websites in both natural search and paid media
No.
Website / advertiser
Natural search
Paid media
Amazon featured at position
1
amazon.co.uk
77
48
one in our league table, having
2
argos.co.uk
58
20
achieved a high share of visibility
3
wikipedia.org
77
0
for the natural search listings.
4
play.com
39
11
5
xbox.com
43
0
6
johnlewis.com
0
33
7
littlewoods.com
0
30
8
20
9
9
game.co.uk
8
20
achieved strong visibility in the
10
uk.playstation.com
0
27
natural search listings (58%)
In July, Argos was the second
most visible website in our
integrated search league table. It
11
ign.com
26
0
and sizable visibility in the paid
12
isme.com
0
25
media space (20%).
13
hmv.com
19
5
14
playstation.com
23
0
15
kandco.com
0
19
16
xboxscene.com
17
0
17
comet.co.uk
1
15
18
tesco.com
0
16
attained no visibility in the paid
19
6
9
media space.
20
dialaphone.co.uk
0
15
21
twitter.com
14
0
22
0
12
23
ebay.co.uk
2
10
24
nintendo.co.uk
10
1
25
blockbuster.co.uk
11
0
26
cnet.com
11
0
27
0
10
0
28
pcworld.co.uk
10
29
0
10
30
nintendo.com
9
0
31
lovefilm.com
8
0
32
flutteroo.co.uk
0
8
33
thehut.com
2
6
34
very.co.uk
0
7
35
ea.com
4
3
36
gamestation.co.uk
6
0
37
gamespot.com
6
0
38
dixons.co.uk
6
0
39
cdwow.com
6
0
40
zavvi.com
1
4
Share:
Interestingly, of the top 10
websites in our league table,
Wikipedia and Xbox both
24
Learn more about our research
Get in touch
Download free reports
If you would like to know exactly what share of search traffic your company
is currently attracting, why not get in touch? We can show you the exact size
of your market based on the keywords that matter to you most and we can
measure how well you are capturing this market through your current search
activity.
Our research division produces market sector reports on
an ongoing basis, covering a broad range of industries
including: banking, brown & white goods, car hire, flights,
fashion retail, gaming, holidays, hotels, insurance and many
more. To download our FREE reports go to:
Our sector reports are a great way to benchmark your company’s search
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search activity and help realign your search strategy.
www.greenlightsearch.com/sectorreports
Contact
Ian Hucklesby | Head of Business Development
+44 (0) 20 3326 6237 | E: [email protected]
How the report was created
Disclaimer:
We used industry data to classify a selection of the most popular search
The information provided in this report is for information
terms that customers used within this sector. We took a set of generic,
only and should not be relied upon to enter into any
general sector specific keywords that were used when searching. This gave
business transaction or to make any commercial
us an indication as to the size of the audience that used Google UK.
decision. Whilst Greenlight has made every effort to
For natural search, we analysed the natural search rankings on Google to
see which websites and brands were positioned on page one for each term.
This way we were able to build up an aggregate view of the most commonly
appearing and prominent websites, as well as the respective size of the
audience they were reaching, as a result of having that keyword-specific
visibility.
ensure the accuracy of this report, Greenlight cannot
accept any liability for any error or inaccuracy found
within this document and no warranty is provided
regarding its completeness or its suitability for any
purpose. The content of the report is the copyright of
Greenlight Marketing Limited. The reader may use and
circulate the report within its own business organisation.
For paid media, we monitored the advertisers appearing in the sponsored
However, it is not permitted to exploit, distribute, sell or
links for 90 of the top terms analysed. Data was retrieved from the Google
otherwise make use of the report for commercial gain. It
UK regularly on a daily basis during the period to ensure a fair assessment
is permitted to reproduce extracts of the report for public
of the paid media space and to take into account the ad rotation system
interest, provided that the publisher credits Greenlight
employed by Google UK.
as the source of the work.
For social media, we assessed the top 15 most visible brands in natural
search and paid media and assessed them based on the number of followers
and the level of interaction they had across several social media platforms.
This data was then collated and league tables of the most visible websites
in natural search, paid media and social media were created for this sector.
In our reports you will find market view data for the industry as a whole, as
well as by segment: generic keywords, and specific product/service types.
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Greenlight is a leading independent Search and Social Media marketing agency, the largest of its
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original research, speaking at trade events and delivering a highly respected digital marketing
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If your online marketing efforts need improvement or you have any questions on this report, why
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September 2011 | ISSue 01
the
mAGAzinE
Social media Edition
the ‘SOcial Search’ PhenOMenOn
Greenlight’s COO Andreas Pouros explains why social
media and search are not competing concepts
as some of the so-called experts
would have you believe.
GreenliGht acadeMy
Learn from our SEO, PPC and social media experts.
Find out what courses we currently have on offer!
60 SecOndS
Giedre Guntulionyte of Reiss takes
Greenlight’s 60 second interview.
adaM Bunn
Matthew whiteway
anna O’Brien
“What you do with social media
can now directly impact your
rankings in addition to building
and defining your brand, so it’s
an activity with multiple benefits.”
“There has been much debate
of late regarding the impact of
social media on SEO, but social
media engagement within
AdWords?”
“Good social media isn’t hard to
spot. The fact of the matter is if
it’s been successful you’ve seen
it, read it or had a friend tell you
about it on the tube.”
THE GREENLIGHT BOARD
Warren Cowan | CEO
Warren has worked exclusively in the search marketing industry for 13 years and
founded Greenlight in 2001. As well as leading the business in its growth and
influence, Warren takes an active role in product development and is hands-on
in service delivery for numerous client accounts.
Andreas Pouros | COO
Andreas has been involved in search for 11 years, joining Greenlight in 2003.
He is an expert in both business and technological principles and directs
Greenlight’s client services and implementation teams. Andreas also plays a
pivotal role in product development and business growth strategy.
Alicia Levy | CMO
Alicia has worked in digital marketing for 12 years and joined Greenlight
in 2003 to set up its paid search division. As managing Director of
Paid Search, Alicia was at the helm of Greenlight’s PPC technology launches
including the multi-award winning Adapt. in her current role, Alicia provides a
strategic lead in product development, marketing and training.
1
FOREWORD
Andreas Pouros | COO
I recall vividly in the summer of 2000,
Warren and I were discussing an article
that had been widely read within the
search industry. Its title proclaimed,
concisely and emphatically - ‘SEO is dead’.
social media provides additional data, insight and
information that needs to be stored, understood,
labelled, indexed and retrieved quickly and
conveniently.
if something produces content, data or information
then ‘search’ has an important role to play, regardless of
whether that information is indexed from pages on the
traditional Web or from what people do or say across
various platforms and networks.
it suggested that due to the emergence of paid
media, natural search results would disappear
entirely from search engine results pages within
about 12 months. i took the content of this article
to heart, depressed by the notion that we’d just got
started, with so many ideas and aspirations to turn
SEO into a kickass marketing channel and discipline,
and it would all come to a crashing close.
The opportunity that this ‘social search’ phenomenon
offers to brands and marketers is monumental. in the
pages that follow we look at social search from the
perspective of natural search, paid media and social
media marketing itself, forming a primer for those that
want to gain a sensible appreciation of what’s
happening and how to respond as a marketer or
business owner. We hope it inspires some innovation in
your own businesses as it has in our own.
Warren however, to his everlasting credit, did not
agree. To ‘search’, he said, was a basic human activity,
not dissimilar to those other behaviours that define
us as a species, such as reading, conversing, trading,
and sharing. The nature of search would invariably
change and Greenlight would have to with it, but the
need to search in some form or another would survive
us all.
Finally, if you have historically received our sector
reports, you’ll find these in the centre of this
magazine. We toyed with the idea of going digital only,
given that we had heard multiple reports that print was
dead, but we asked 50 marketers whether they’d be
more likely to read a printed magazine from us than a
digital one, and 90% of them said the former. it just
goes to show that when someone proclaims the death
of something, you should always question it and always
trust your own research.
Every year thereafter i would read a markedly similar
article proclaiming the death of SEO for any number
of different reasons. Then came the ‘PPC is dead’
articles too, just for good measure. Every time they
would completely miss the point; Google may lose
out to Facebook, the mobile phone may replace the
desktop for many activities, apps may become the
main method of retrieving information, pizza may give
way to the calzone, but the human activity of
searching the collected and indexed knowledge of
the human race will remain a crucial process into the
future, and experts will be required to facilitate and
optimise that process.
11 years later, we’ve delivered over £2bn of
incremental sales to our clients with SEO, and
each year it’s more than the last. Warren was right.
if you consider social media within this context too, it
becomes clear that social media and search are not
competing concepts as some of the so-called
experts would have you believe; quite
the contrary....
2
ADAM BUNN
Director of SEO
Social Signals as an algorithmic Variable
One of my favourite ways to look at SEO is through the lens of
history. That’s not just because I have a geeky fascination with
historical events in the industry, but because history brings an
important context to new developments in SEO that you simply can’t
get by looking at things in isolation. This applies to “social signals”
just as much as anything else.
Nowadays the near
universal adoption of
the likes of Twitter
and Facebook means
that almost any site
can leverage the
combination of truly
great content and
effective use of social
media.
if you go back far enough, to a time before there were proper search engine
algorithms, there was Yahoo!, categorising and rating sites in a tedious manual
process in its web directory. Some early search engines were toying with
algorithmically scoring sites, but they were mostly too busy dealing with the
challenges of crawling and indexing the web to create any particularly good methods
of actually rating content.
Because the people at Yahoo! were better at rating content than those early search
engines, Yahoo! ruled the roost. SEO was born; a skill set that at the time largely
consisted of being able to fill in a submission form.
Then search engines got better. Companies like AltaVista pushed the boundaries
of what was possible with automatically analysing web pages, creating complex
algorithms that could categorise and score pages on a scale that human editors never
could. As AltaVista grew in market share and other search engines progressed their
own algorithms, manual review dwindled in importance. SEO began to properly take
shape, and optimising titles, meta keywords, page content, URLs and headings was
what mattered.
Unfortunately for AltaVista and its ilk, relying solely on on-page factors has one major downfall, namely that it’s very
easy to game such a system. As the commercial potential of the web became more and more apparent that’s exactly
what spammers started to do. Eventually, software capable of reverse engineering a search engine algorithm in a
matter of minutes meant that search engines were fighting a losing battle against spam.
What the engines needed was some sort of information about what sites users liked in order to supplement the often
suspect information they had collected from the sites themselves. Lacking that information directly they of course
settled on links, which, in various guises, have dominated search engine algorithms since the turn of the century.
When you look at the progression of the various algorithmic factors and how their importance has waxed and waned
over time, it becomes very clear that social signals are the next in a long line of natural evolutions within SEO.
History, and the fact that social signals are what links always were a proxy for, tells us that they will grow in importance
as an algorithmic signal, until they in turn are supplanted by whatever unforeseen development occurs within SEO in
the future.
Social signals have been part of search engine algorithms for around a year now, so that means there is now a direct
overlap between SEO and social media (there’s been an indirect overlap for many years, in the sense that social media
helps to catalyse link building activity to a site – but i’ll come to that in a minute). in truth the “overlap” is more
parasitic than symbiotic, but that’s okay. The point here is that what you do with social media can now directly impact
your rankings in addition to building and defining your brand, so it’s an activity with multiple benefits.
3
it’s the first problem that has led Greenlight to create
GOSSiP, a one stop combined SEO and social media
platform that facilitates the creation of content and
the easy management of social conversations about
your brand. i’m particularly excited about GOSSiP,
precisely because it will help our clients to engage
users in a more real time, social fashion, opening up a
whole world of creative approaches to SEO that simply
haven’t existed for those companies before.
GOSSiP which is about to launch, i believe will become
a lynchpin in the online marketing strategies of brands
worldwide, because the benefits – both SEO and
social – are too great to ignore.
So what sort of social signals might search engines be
looking for in particular?
The obvious one would be how many times your site
is linked to, from or mentioned on social media sites.
Like normal links though, social links and mentions
aren’t going to be judged solely on quantity. it’s fair
to say that search engines learnt that lesson a long
time ago! Quality is an important signal as well, and
in social media that means the reputation and
authority of the person linking to you. in simple
terms: links from profiles with lots of fans, followers,
re-tweets, and so on, are worth far more.
As for the second problem, social media is the perfect
vehicle for sharing content online. Of course, social
media already existed back when the idea of “content
as king” first gained popularity, but this was mainly in
the form of Digg and Delicious, two social
news/bookmarking websites that, while really
catalysing the idea of link bait in the first place, were
frequented largely by people interested in the internet
and technology. This severely limited the type of sites
that could gain much benefit from them.
And what of the indirect overlap? For all the recent
hype about social links and mentions directly
improving rankings, right now it’s still the indirect
benefits of social media that marketers should
predominantly focus on, if they want to supercharge
their SEO efforts. in about 2003/2004, the phrase
“content is king” started being bandied about as a
clarion call to SEOs to abandon traditional link
building and start producing great content on their
sites, to which – lo and behold - links would naturally
flood in. it’s a seductive idea with a lot of potential,
but one that has a couple of inherent problems.
nowadays the near universal adoption of the likes of
Twitter and Facebook means that almost any site can
leverage the combination of truly great content and
effective use of social media to potentially generate
hundreds or even thousands of natural links in the
space of a few days. That’s the kind of SEO ranking
impact that no other approach to SEO can easily match
and, of course, by happy coincidence, the social
mentions you need to satisfy the direct algorithmic
signals the search engines are looking for will be a
natural by-product of this activity as well.
Firstly, most brands struggle to host and promote
content of a compelling enough nature on their
corporate websites, for a variety of reasons. This is
a problem that we come up against at Greenlight all
the time - often the site communicates a brand image
that the kind of content in question isn’t consistent
with, or iT exercises such control over what gets
changed, and then the very thought of being able to
produce regular content for users is a pipe dream.
in conclusion, social signals as part of SEO aren’t new,
nor really are they a particularly radical departure for
the search engines. But they are coming of age, and
will only grow in importance in the coming years as the
engines get more confident in gathering, interpreting
and using the data they have at their disposal.
inevitably some companies will be left behind as SEO
takes this, it’s next of many evolutions – make sure
yours isn’t one of them!
Finally, content is only “king” if people get to see it.
You could have the most mind blowing, compelling
and shareable content in the world (“link bait” as we
call it) but if nobody views it to begin with that flood
of links you’re expecting won’t be forthcoming.
www.greenlightsearch.com/search-engine-optimisation
4
MATT WHITEWAy
Client Services Director
The role and impact of
social extensions in
paid media
Google has long been the
catalyst and evolution of
search, however Google has
come up against a fierce and
game-changing competitor.
The competition in question
is not however a singular
brand or company, it is a
completely new
marketing channel – social
media. Rather than fight
it, Google have embraced
social media within its results
pages, and for advertisers and
marketers alike, it is
important to fully understand
the benefits and potential
shortcomings of Google’s
“social extensions”, namely
Seller ratings, and Plus One.
What has changed?
Google continue to change
the landscape of search, both
from a natural perspective,
and paid. Their constant
refinement of the AdWords
system is what keeps us
marketers on our toes and
eager to find and test new
ways of driving incremental
revenue to our clients.
in 2011 alone Google has rolled out a
number of improvements, including
advanced remarketing, improved logic
to serving of sitelinks, umpteen
refinements to ad creative and display
urls’, local extensions, enhanced
tablet and mobile targeting, instant
preview, and a new version of Google
Analytics.
Arguably, two of the most
significant features for Google to roll
out across AdWords were their “social
extensions”, namely Seller Ratings,
and Plus One. There has been much
debate of late regarding the impact of
social media on SEO, but social media
Engagement within AdWords? - This
really was something different for us
to think about and digest.
What are Social Extensions?
Seller rating extensions (Fig 1.0)
display the merchant star rating
for companies that meet a certain
criteria. The ad extension will show up
below the paid media ad in question
and show the merchant star rating,
along with the number of reviews
present on Google Product Search.
in addition, you can click through the
review total to read the reviews on
Google Product Search. needless to
say, merchants that qualify for seller
rating extensions have an advantage
as shoppers are determining which
ads to click through on Google. Again,
minor enhancements to paid media
ads can make a big difference,
particularly when competition is fierce
and budgets are limited.
in April 2011 saw the launch of
Google’s latest development to....
Fig 1.0 – Seller Rating Extensions
5
leverage the social graph for their search
results. While the company has used
social cues from Twitter and Flickr for
more than a year to improve organic
rankings, Google have now created their
own recommendation function and extending it to both paid media and organic
search.
The feature is simply called “Plus One”
(Fig 2.0). You will be familiar with
Facebook adverts and likes, the concept
is not dissimilar. When users are logged
into Google, they will be able to rate
individual search results and adverts by
clicking the “Plus One” symbol. Their
friends will then see the endorsement.
Fig 2.0 – Plus One
Social Extensions’ impact on Paid media
As yet, these social extensions have
not direct impact on the all-important,
mysterious holy grail of Google Quality
Score, however we can safely assume
that it is only a matter of time before
these, and other social signals start to
have an influencing factor on the
algorithm, and therefore performance on
the account.
marketers are already finding ways to
utilise these extensions to influence a
number of key performance indicators
(KPi’s) such as Click-thru Rate (CTR)
Cost per Click (CPC) and Conversion
Rate (CVR). For example, advertisers
wanting to stand out from the crowd in
the SERP have, with good effect,
implemented the Seller Rating
extension within their AdWords
account.
We initially found for a number of
advertisers that having the Seller
Ratings as part of the adcopy....
resulted in an increase in CTR, which over time improved Quality Score. However, with an increasing number of
advertisers using Seller Ratings, these quick win improvements in CTR are arguably no longer possible, or at least are
not as significant as they once were.
The Plus One extension on the other hand has a far greater potential impact on the performance of an advertiser’s paid
search campaign. i, as a user, am likely to be more inclined to buy something from a site if it has been recommended, or
Plus One’d by someone within my “circles” and therefore trust.
The Shortfalls of Social Extensions
Both social extensions do lend themselves to brands that sell good products / services and/or provide good levels of
services. All brands are going to want to achieve as many positive seller ratings as possible, as well as being Plus One’d
by vast numbers of users. in theory, this should mean i am able to see which advertiser is likely to give me a pleasurable
shopping / user experience, after all, users are not going to Plus One or provide a positive seller rating if they receive
poor experience right? Well, there are either functionality flaws or limitations which mean that users are not
necessarily going to be aware of any negative levels of feedback. Firstly, Google allows users to Plus One an ad but not
a negative one. So again, in theory an advertiser may have 20 Plus One’s, yet 1000 people have had a very poor level of
service and would have negative One’d them given the opportunity or functionality. Therefore, on face value the
advertiser with 20 Plus one’s looks good value and one where i would have little reservation in spending my money with.
Presumably then, Seller Ratings would be far more impartial as they allow for users to add a negative review should they
wish. However, unfortunately it is not quite so clear cut as the advertiser can opt in (providing they achieve a certain,
very easily achieved, criteria), or opt out of displaying the Seller Ratings. Again, theoretically, if an advertiser received
a number of negative reviews which could have a detrimental impact on KPi’s such as CTR, and CVR, they could simply
disable the ad extension, once again potentially hiding valuable social signals away from the end user.
Arguably, it is too early to really understand the full impact of Plus One on paid media results and it’s not really
something as marketers we can completely influence. With Seller Ratings on the other hand, marketers have some
interesting choices to make. By implementing Seller Ratings, are you prepared to sacrifice one of the most significant
influencers of CTR in paid media – Site Links? if your strategy is to target the positions down the right hand side of the
SERP, positive Seller Ratings can give you a step change in performance and should at least be part of a comprehensive
testing schedule.
The future of Social Extensions and Paid media
i wish i knew what the future of paid media looked like, but given the developments and refinements that Google
continues to make, we should not be surprised to see a far more joined up social and paid media experience, one that
integrates more than just Google’s Plus One and Seller Ratings into Google’s SERP (Fig 3.0)
Fig 3.0 – new socially enabled Paid media Ads?
integrating search results that your friends have engaged with would be a far easier integration for someone like
Facebook than Google’s approach of trying to create its own social network and then shoehorning it into the search
results pages. Google also has another major obstacle, the development that had set them apart from the competition
– Quality Score. Personally i think Google are still trying to work out how to implement social engagement to its Quality
Score algorithm, without sacrificing the main reason people chose to use it – relevancy and quality of results.
Ultimately Google will find a way and it is clear that social media and social extensions within paid media are here to
stay and continue to grow, so its time to fully embrace it and find innovative ways to continue to drive performance for
advertisers.
6
ANNA O’BRIEN
Director of Social Media
Simple Steps for Becoming Socially Superb
Good social media isn’t hard to spot. The fact of the matter is if it’s been
successful you’ve seen it, read it or had a friend tell you about it on the
tube. A good social media campaign is much like a good piece of
Hubba Bubba— tasty, sticky and nearly impossible to get out of your
hair…err head. At the risk of taking this mastic analogy too far and getting
myself into a gummy mess, I’d also like to note there is no universally
approved taste bud tingler. Your bubble gum might be another person’s
bad Chinese leftovers. What I am saying, in a somewhat convoluted way,
is that it is impossible to please every single member of society with your
social media program. Know your market, design for them and
remember- “haters gonna hate.”
The importance of Brand in Building a Social media Program.
A perfect social media program will naturally vary for each brand based on the company, sector, and multitude of other
variables. However, social media ideas are all grown from a single seed - the brand. A good brand is the
personality and charm of your product, service, or organization. if your brand were able to speak, shake hands and kiss
babies- it would be your social media. Social media serves as the core of the modern consumers’ brand experience.
Funnily enough, the word brand actually comes from a norse word meaning “to burn,” except instead of burning cattle
here, we’re burning exclusivity and value into the brains of potential consumers. When first hitting the social media
whiteboard, a company should make sure they know who they are. Put three employees in the room and ask them to
describe your brand in three words. if your answers vary widely, you don’t just have a social media problem- you have
a branding problem. The easiest way to un-muddle a brand is revisit existing brand guidelines and ensure they shine
through in your social media program. Any new media campaign should feel like a natural extension of the brand
experience in any other channel. it should not be used too single-handedly; for the best results all types of media
should be aligned on the same definition of brand.
Word-up, Use Your Ear before You Open Your mouth.
As a kid my parents were quite patriotic and were convinced i’d be the next president of the United States. Thus, as a
child i was suited up for stereotypical white collar activities such as ballet, piano, fencing, and public speaking. From
the tender age of 8 i began oration and by 16 i was competing in national speech and debate competitions. From my
years of speech training one thing simple fact stood out: The more i knew about judges, the more convincing i could
be. i could tailor my words to them and the speech would transcend from text to meaning.
in social media the bridge to meaning is just as important. The more a brand knows about their customers and fans the
more they can tailor content to their needs. Then it’s not just a Facebook update or a promotion, it’s something fans
genuinely care about and want to share. And when people want to share, that’s when social media is most effective.
The starting point for every major brand should be immersing themselves in online discussion around their brand. This
doesn’t mean you’ll like what you hear. it will, however, give you a basis for improvement.
Customer service is a natural extension of any social media program. Once the quickest route to a person for help
is discovered, people will use it. it seems social media is quickly becoming that route. While it can be challenging to
handle every mini-crises that flies across your desk, it can also be deeply rewarding. in order to effectively start brand
dialogue with a customer you have to first earn their trust. Resolving problems and taking an active role in improving
brand perception is the quickest way to gain that trust.
7
make starting the conversation easy
When creating content or a campaign or promotion, make sure that starting the dialogue is the easiest part.
if engaging with the brand is too hard, no one will do it. Simple. That means, even with the best intention, brands can
fail. it takes a bit of quick thinking and focus on the basic elements of communication to make engagement not only
simple, but fun.
For example, a few months ago while making a quick trip to sort out my finances at a local bank, i got in discussion
with a teller, Tina. She had “my daughter is a pyro” written on her nametag; of course i had to ask her about it. We then
ended up having a delightful conversation about her daughter’s career as a fireworks designer at Disneyland. After this
discussion i realized the strategic beauty of that nametag. That little plastic placard leveraged many of the relationship
building tactics social media fanatics evangelize digitally, offline.
4
it was non-evasive: if i didn’t want to talk to Tina, i didn’t have to. The conversation would have to be started
by me, the customer.
4
it was easy: The phrase on the name tag gave both of us an easy and immediate discussion point.
4
it was neutral: Unlike other badges that say “ask me about bladdity blah promotion” this badge has
nothing to do with sales. i knew if i asked about its meaning i wouldn’t be pressured into something i really
didn’t want or need.
4
it was interesting: it made me want to talk to Tina.
in the end, i left the bank with a better opinion of it. i also realized that small efforts to build dialogue with consumers
can be just as important as a large scale campaign.
Be Clever. Be original. Be you.
One of the things i find most interesting about business is that no matter what industry, product, or country, every
brand has another company they utterly love to hate. The social media result of this natural occurring phenomenon is
a deep desire to one up your opposition. if they have a Facebook store, you’re going to have a better one. if they have
a sweepstakes, your brand is going to give away a bigger prize. This goes on and on with no real creativity, and the
result is just ever expanding executions of the same ideas.
While the bigger and better game can be your best friend when trying to sell a project through, the “but so and so
did it” game often forces brands to lose focus and originality. i’m not suggesting that brands avoid doing everything
their competition does, because there will always be some cross over. However, the drive should be on creating truly
original work that evokes something from your audience. in social media creativity is the king and the brands that
embrace that are the ones that ultimately succeed.
make mistakes and Evolve
Brands are going to fail. i like to be upfront about it; it’s inevitable. People make mistakes, and the first reaction is
always going to be to close up shop and move on. it’s a natural human response. However, with social media (and
consequently any marketing channel) that is the wrong approach. instead, brands should ask questions, dive into
what caused a planned effort to go awry. Putting this information to good use, a company can restart, rebuild and
grow.
Even when things go as planned there are always opportunities for a brand to evolve and grow. For some, evolution
might be as simple as changing how customer complaints are dealt with. For others, that change could be an
incorporation of a new technology that revolutionizes a customer’s digital experience. Wherever your brands stand
it’s important to be aware that change is a necessary part of social media. in an area of marketing where things
change literally every six months, you shouldn’t expect your three year plan to stay completely on track. instead,
embrace the bumps in the road and help your brand grow into something socially superb.
8
60 SEcOND INTERvIEW
Giedre Guntulionyte
in August, Greenlight hosted a fashion roundtable event titled, in Search of Fashion, which can be found on our
website. Representatives from major fashion brands, including Reiss, next, Debenhams, Fashion Union and miH
Jeans, discussed how search and social media has helped them to market their brands in the online world.
We grabbed Reiss’s Giedre Guntulionyte for a 60 second interview.
“We hear about fashion trends before they hit the high street”
What was the last thing you bought online?
i bought a fantastic dress from Reiss.
What aspect of fashion do you dislike?
Sheepskin boots in the summer and crocks
with any outfit.
What was the last piece of clothing you bought?
A pair of heels.
What is the hottest item of clothing for AW11?
These amazing floral and striped pattern dresses
which Reiss are about to release. They come in several
different colours and fit really well.
How does your job influence the way you dress?
Obviously i wear a lot of Reiss year round. it’s very
exciting as we develop everything in house which
allows me to plan what i want to buy for the upcoming
season. We tend to hear about fashion trends before
they hit the high street. So for this season, i am
definitely going to be investing in a printed pleat
column skirt and bright blue crew neck knit.
Who is your favourite fashion designer?
To be honest i don’t have a favourite designer. i enjoy
shopping across a variety of labels and finding
clothes which suit me.
What inspired you to get into fashion?
That’s a really good question. Apart from being one
of the most exciting industries online it is also one of
the most desired industries to work in. i love the fact
that when it comes to fashion, people become so much
more involved and more willing to comment and share
their experiences.
How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
not that long. About half an hour.
What is your favourite item in your wardrobe?
A pair of closed high heeled shoes from Reiss.
They are my favourite as i can actually walk in them.
What is your best fashion advice?
i don’t really chase what the fashion world says.
The best advice i could give though, would be that
whatever you buy, make sure it fits you and that
it suits your figure.
What celebrity would you want to dress?
The Duchess of Cornwall
9
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10
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Technology

Entertainment July 2011

Transcription

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