I little while ago I mentioned that I’d received some interesting information from Microsoft about their adCenter product. The info was actually some analysis of the ongoing research data compiled by Nielson into the quality of search traffic. The emphasis was placed on the difference in traffic quality by looking at conversion and levels of engagement / stickiness.

Now clearly this needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, but it did make some interesting reading. For the engagement figures, the analysis showed that on average people who clicked through from Live Search would spend 4 mins 7 secs on the site, compared to an industry average of 3 mins 4 secs, or for Yahoo 3:31 and Google 2:55.

In other words…

Live Searchers are 35% more engaged on destination sites than the average UK searcher

What does this tell you? Well, once you’ve paid for your click and the customer is on site, you have a slightly longer amount of time to convince them to buy.

In terms of conversion, Nielson was only able to track whether searchers had actually reached the secure area of a site, rather than actually making a purchase. This creates quite a weakness if you ask me, however, we’ll look at the results in any case.

For Live Search, 7% of searchers went to a secure page after clicking through. This is against a 4% industry average or 5.3% for Yahoo and 3.6% for Google.

This might lead you to believe that Live Search brings more quality traffic, or as Microsoft puts it:

Live Searchers are 77% more likely that the average UK searcher, nearly twice as likely as Google searchers… to convert

So what does this tell you?

Well, there are a lot of questions we’d need to ask Microsoft to really interrogate the data. However at a fairly simplistic level you’d have to say adCenter seems to offer a very credible alternative to other paid for search advertising. With both stickiness and conversion rates higher than the industry averages it’s perhaps time to take adCenter a little more seriously.

From personal experience I’ve already transferred one of my clients PPC campaigns from Google to MSN and noticed a slow down in clicks (and therefore lower costs) but with increased traction. In other words, once someone clicks on an ad they are more likely to download the eBook we are offering and then move further along the sales cycle. The slow down in clicks is clearly a result of Live Search attracting less traffic than Google.

I have to say, I’m also a big fan of the telephone support on offer from Microsoft, so much better than email support on offer from the competition.

Well, if you haven’t yet, give Live Search and adCenter a go and let me know how you get on.

It was brought to my attention recently that welovelocal.com, an online local business review site, had commissioned some research into the way in which people look up local businesses these days. In particular it asked about the relevance of printed directories, like the Yellow Pages, Thomson Local and others.

I thought you’d like to see the results as it’s a good bet many of you small business owners will be paying for print directory listings - after all, you’ve probably done so for years and picked up some good business along the way. In fact, it’s one of the most popular places for a small business to advertise, well, at least it used to be…

Now the research is very UK focussed, but I’d bet in most developed countries you’ll be facing a similar situation as here in Britain. So without further ado, here are my highlights of the research findings (or you can find the full wrap-up here):

• Over 50,000,000 directories are distributed each year in the UK, but 35% of adults would prefer not to receive them

• 70% of 18-34 year olds would prefer to use the internet to find local businesses

• In the last 6 months 51% of adults have used the internet to find a local business and only 24% a printed directory

I think you will agree these are some interesting stats. Essentially there’s a massive and not surprising trend towards using the internet for finding businesses.

First priority then, get yourself an online presence. There are no shortage of options for doing this - check out my previous posts for micro-businesses and the very small.

The next step then is to start encouraging other people to create an online presence for you. A great example is to look at Welovelocal.com and ensure your business is both listed and reviewed. If it hasn’t been reviewed yet, don’t be tempted to add your own false reviews, you’ll only get caught out. Try to encourage some locals to get you started, or maybe provide a discount code for those who write a review.

What then happens to the model of paying for directory listings.

Will this continue to add value? Should you still consider advertising in paper directories, or has the Yellow Pages had its day?

My answer to that one is simply, it depends. I know, you wanted a yes or no answer, but it really depends on who your audience is and what product you sell. If you sell products to less technically able customer groups then yes the yellow pages is probably still viable.

For everyone else, move on my friends, move on. Do something different and maybe think about how you can work with the new online review sites like the fantastic Welovelocal. I refer you back to the old quote

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got

Absolutely classic advertising!

Happy easter everyone!

YouTube Direct

Recently I posted a YouTube video of Derren Brown’s phenomenal subliminal advertising exercise. The reaction I got in the comments got me to thinking that it truly is an interesting concept to play around with.

Any ideas would be much appreciated. What audio visual clues could I leave to highlight the importance of customer satisfaction, without pushing it down their throats.