Search Engine Marketing

Brands that buy rankings through paid search on engines powering retail websites experience better sales.

When integrated, search engine marketing (SEM) and online display advertising can deliver far greater results than the same campaigns planned in isolation.

As temperatures across the US have skyrocketed this summer, searches for warm weather fashion products have also soared. In the last month, searches for warm weather apparel and footwear correspond with the rising temperatures.

A common gripe among U.S. soccer fans is that vuvuzelas, the South African horns heard buzzing throughout the World Cup tournament, are obnoxious noisemakers. But for 365 Inc., the plastic trumpets represent the sweet sound of success. Late last year, the 10-employee online retailer ordered several thousand vuvuzelas on a hunch that they'd become popular among U.S. soccer fans. The Birmingham, Ala., company then promoted the instruments mainly using paid-search advertising on Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. amid minimal competition for relevant search terms such as "soccer horn" and "stadium horn." Since then, the small firm has sold nearly 30,000 vuvuzelas for about $8 each, pulling in roughly $240,000 in revenue.

For multichannel retailer Deb Shops, a seller of junior and plus-sized apparel and accessories for women aged 13 to 25, combining the power of two of online retail's most profitable channels — social media and search — has brought increased brand awareness, more site traffic and ultimately increased sales.

For niche online retailer Cruiser Customizing, a seller of motorcycle parts and accessories, an easily navigable site is critical to its success. Riders come to CruiserCustomizing.com to look for specific parts or accessories exclusive to their particular bike. Finding them quickly and easily enhances their likelihood to buy. For that reason, Cruiser Customizing has invested resources in upgrading its site search.

Branders.com realized its current infrastructure couldn't scale to support its growing SEO operation. The company needed an integrated platform that could handle large keyword volumes and provide comprehensive competitive SEO intelligence. After a review of the alternatives, Branders.com contracted with BrightEdge, a San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of on-demand, enterprise-class SEO platforms in 2008.

Do you know which keywords are driving phone calls to your business? Are the pay-per-click (PPC) keywords “red shoes” making the phone ring? Or perhaps calls are coming from searches initiated with “black pumps” or “wedge sandals”? Whether you’re spending $600 a month on PPC or six figures, it’s imperative to know how your online marketing efforts affect your offline sales conversions.

Vic Gundotra, VP of Engineering, demonstrated last December a preview version of Product Search for mobile with local inventory, which lets you see right in your search results whether items are in stock at nearby stores. We're happy to announce that as of today, if you're searching for a product that is sold by participating retailers, including Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, or West Elm, you can just look for the blue dots in the search results to see if it's available in a local store. If you see a blue dot, you can tap on the adjacent "In stock nearby" link, and you'll be taken to the seller's page where you'll see whether the item is "In Stock" or has "Limited Availability" near you. You'll also see how far away the stores are from you -- as long as you've enabled My Location or manually specified your location.

Part of the attraction of search advertising is that since it targets consumers toward the bottom of the purchase funnel, ads are served to users likely to convert. But display ads appear to a wider swath of consumers, pulling some into the purchase funnel and thus energizing search.