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April 25, 2008 by JP

Effect of Search Behaviour on Conversion Marketing

At a recent presentation on streetwise marketing Fadi Shuman, pod1 founder, discussed the impact of conversion marketing. This is the method of analysing the behaviour of online searchers for certain keywords. It details how a customer moves from the stage where they think that they want a product or service to the end stage where they convert on a site.

The concept broadly analyses the different stages that a potential customer goes through when trying to purchase an item online, regardless of what it is. This includes details of the four stages of a customer’s online decision making process: Awareness, Research, Decision and finally Purchase.

Each of these stages cause the customer to use different search terms as they progress. For example someone looking for a personal loan may go through the following process: In the Awareness stage the customer is likely to type in ‘Loans’, while in the Research stage they are likely to type in ‘Best Loans’. In the Decision stage they may type in ‘Debt Consolidation Loan’ while in the Purchase stage they are likely to type in the name of their preferred provider and the possibly product name such as ‘Picture the Loan‘

This analysis is causing a reanalysis of which terms are best for a particular client to rank for since competition for 1 word terms is normally extremely high. While it may look good for a client to rank for a 1 word terms such as ‘Loans’ they may see greater conversions for longer terms such as ‘Debt Consolidation Loan‘.

If you can’t be top for every term in a user’s search process then being no. 1 for the term used during the decision stage of their move to convert will give you a far higher chance of getting their final conversion to occur on your site. As opposed to the conversion taking place on the site of the people who ranked for no. 1 during the initial searches that occurred during the awareness and research stages. This can be due to the fact that your name is the most recent and therefore the one most likely to be remembered.

This is not necessarily standard for every searcher who visits the net, but it is equally applicable for purchases, sign ups and other types of conversions that are measured on a site. The benefits that you can gain from ranking for the longer tail and more specific terms include higher conversion volumes for the traffic you gain. This type of focused traffic means that it is imperative to capitalise on the visitors who do find you at no. 1 during the decision stage by completely ‘owning’ your brand name.

In order to own your brand name you need to ensure that as many entries, both paid and natural on the first page of the search results are for your site. While some people think that bidding on your own brand terms is a waste of money, being able to ensure your competitors are kept out of the results is priceless. Once a person decides on your product the last thing you want them to do is get distracted and end up giving the conversion to a competitor who ranks well for your brand name or brand terms.

2 Comments »

  1. [...] harry wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIn the Decision stage they may type in ‘Debt Consolidation Loan’ while in the Purchase stage they are likely to type in the name of their preferred provider and the possibly product name such as ‘Picture the Loan‘ … [...]

    Pingback by Effect of Search Behaviour on Conversion Marketing — April 25, 2008 @ 12:09 pm

  2. Now that’s really, really ironic. Consumer habits reflected in terms of the analogy of debt purchase, and the poetry of the progression, as they move from simple “loan” to “debt consolidation loan”. Haha. That’s funny.

    Google searching is for noobs. Google was great in 2001, now it’s a spamfest.

    Actually, I personally believe that there is a motivational structure for people in their use of technology. It’s generally called laziness. The secret to harnessing this is easiness. This requires incredible smartness.

    I think that the right sort of traditional promotion combined with a memorable URL is the only way to go. Also, as with any business, it’s not about winning new customers. It’s about looking after current ones. They’re the true adverts, evangelists. They’re free salespeople. Of course, you can’t sell that sort of advice. Good businesses know this already.

    The web is the wild west, there’s a lot of snake oil on sale. Truth is that people are learning slowly, it’s not easy to acquire knowledge. Conversion from analogue to digital is slow. Many people are owning computers for the first time. Their buying habits are influenced by Google.

    Of course people become more and more specific as they get closer to a purchase. That is common sense.

    Comment by da bishop — June 12, 2008 @ 6:36 pm

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