Bing has been up to A LOT over the last few weeks. Below is a round up of all things BING!
- Bing Goes Live in the UK
- Bing Integrates Wolfram Alpha
- Bing Updates Home Page with Task-Focused Functionality
- Bing Adds Instant Answers - Bing Adds Additional Additional City Data (attractions, neighborhoods, local data from newspapers, etc.)
- Bing Upgrades Preview Feature
- Bing Adds Event Search (sort by performances, civic activities, music, etc.)
- Bing Integrates Facebook and Twitter into Search Results
- Bing Updates Maps
And that is just to name a few of the recent upgrades.
Well, if we look at the new data from Hitwise, Bing had a 7% gain in October, while Google and Yahoo both lost 1%.
I think Bing is really trying hard to be a serious competitor to Google — and it is working.
A study announced today by GroupM Search, comScore and M80, exploring the interplay of search marketing and social media, reveals the dramatic correlation influenced discovery of brands through social media has with search behavior, including more lower-funnel searches and increased paid search click-through-rates (CTR).
The study,“The Influenced: Social Media, Search and the Interplay of Consideration and Consumption,” explored the correlation between social media exposure and search behavior across different verticals, including automotive, consumer packaged goods and telecommunications.
Key findings include:
- Consumers exposed to a brand’s influenced social media and paid search are 2.8x more likely to search for that brand’s products
- There was a 50% CTR increase in paid search when consumers were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search
- There was a 42-point lift in searcher penetration around brand product terms when consumers were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search compared to paid alone
What the study tells us is bigger than correlation, making the topic at large, Discovery. We’ve learned how internet users discover and engage with brands in social media and how that discovery influences search behavior. The findings help us to better understand how the intent expressed by consumers via search is established through social media exposure and the interplay between the two channels.
Of note, it further validates our view that generating upper-funnel awareness and influencing consideration through influenced social media (social media leveraged by a brand advertiser) can produce better down-the-funnel performance with paid media, such as paid search. In our white paper, we expand on the findings and address the value of the synergy between paid, owned and earned media. Additionally, we address the state of media today, challenges advertisers face, and introduce the discussion of Media Delivery and Media Discovery and the new thinking we must consider in making maximizing engagement that drives lower-funnel activity.
As CEO of GroupM Search-The Americas Chris Copeland addresses in the whitepaper,:
“As advertisers come to recognize a need to create greater connections on a one to one level with consumers, they also must acknowledge a shift in their approach to advertising. If they agree with the assessment that media delivery in traditional forms has a limited impact given the threats identified above, then it is equally important to understand the new advertising mandate of media discovery.
Media discovery represents a shift in approach where allowing your brand to be central to the conversation but doing so in a manner that uses your brand, its products and the assets associated with both at the center. Media delivery has been about using buying clout to drive scale and push out paid media to broad swaths of consumers. Media discovery is about using the owned and earned media that a brand can produce to its advantage.”
He later concludes the implications for digital advertising at large:
“At this stage of digital advertising development, the goal has to be investing more intelligently to get people into your brand consideration and drive them through the process to a location well suited for paid media effectiveness, such as paid search.”
On Tuesday, October 6, GroupM Search, comScore and M80 will sharing the findings and implications of the research for the first time publicly. Check it out at SMX East at 1:30 – 2:45 p.m. in Room 1A03.
A study announced today by GroupM Search, comScore and M80, exploring the interplay of search marketing and social media, reveals the dramatic correlation influenced discovery of brands through social media has with search behavior, including more lower-funnel searches and increased paid search click-through-rates (CTR).
The study,“The Influenced: Social Media, Search and the Interplay of Consideration and Consumption,” explored the correlation between social media exposure and search behavior across different verticals, including automotive, consumer packaged goods and telecommunications.
Key findings include:
Consumers exposed to a brand’s influenced social media and paid search are 2.8x more likely to search for that brand’s products
There was a 50% CTR increase in paid search when consumers were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search
There was a 42-point lift in searcher penetration around brand product terms when consumers were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search compared to paid alone
What the study tells us is bigger than correlation, making the topic at large, Discovery. We’ve learned how internet users discover and engage with brands in social media and how that discovery influences search behavior.
The findings help us to better understand how the intent expressed by consumers via search is established through social media exposure and the interplay between the two channels. Of note, it further validates our view that generating upper-funnel awareness and influencing consideration through influenced social media (social media leveraged by a brand advertiser) can produce better down-the-funnel performance with paid media, such as paid search.
In our white paper, we expand on the findings and address the value of the synergy between paid, owned and earned media. Additionally, we address the state of media today, challenges advertisers face, and introduce the discussion of Media Delivery and Media Discovery and the new thinking we must consider in making maximizing engagement that drives lower-funnel activity.
As CEO of GroupM Search-The Americas Chris Copeland addresses in the whitepaper,:
“As advertisers come to recognize a need to create greater connections on a one to one level with consumers, they also must acknowledge a shift in their approach to advertising. If they agree with the assessment that media delivery in traditional forms has a limited impact given the threats identified above, then it is equally important to understand the new advertising mandate of media discovery.
Media discovery represents a shift in approach where allowing your brand to be central to the conversation but doing so in a manner that uses your brand, its products and the assets associated with both at the center. Media delivery has been about using buying clout to drive scale and push out paid media to broad swaths of consumers. Media discovery is about using the owned and earned media that a brand can produce to its advantage.”
He later concludes the implications for digital advertising at large:
“At this stage of digital advertising development, the goal has to be investing more intelligently to get people into your brand consideration and drive them through the process to a location well suited for paid media effectiveness, such as paid search.”
Recently it has become fashionable in technical circles to parrot the line that Google is facing a grave crisis. “They can’t do real-time or social search”, the argument goes: faced with obsolescence, “they‘ll have no choice but to buy Twitter” cry the doom-mongers. Of course if we look at the reasons often given to explain Google’s imminent demise, it soon becomes clear that nothing is clear except that Google is unlikely to wave the white flag any time soon.
I still remember, vaguely, when Fonzi jumped the shark on Happy Days, signaling what we know today as the decline of the show, but more importantly, I remember when Henry Winkler actually jumped a shark on Arrested Development. Much like Happy Days, Twitter seems to be in a decline. This statement is based on general observations and not on actual usage statistics because user statistics don’t show the real value that something can provide. I know from personal usage (I have been registered on Twitter for over a year now) that I check it frequently and every once in a while I find something useful, but a majority of the time there isn’t anything that peaks my interest. The following is some of my observations why I believe that Twitter has strapped on their water skis, hit the ramp, and are flying through the air in their best Fonzi impersonation.
In a recent Business Week article it stated that Facebook recently took a $200 million investment from Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies which values it at a total of $10 billion. But is it really worth that much to your company?
People have been flocking to Facebook for about 5 years now and the user base has crossed the 100 million mark. This sounds great, but you need to start capitalizing on all this traffic that is full of people eager to spread the word and share messages about their favorite brands. Here are some of the options Facebook currently offers:
Highly targeted banner ads based on user activities and interests
Promotion of a certain event that users can “RSVP” for
Creating a customized group where users can become “fans” of your brand
Recently it has become fashionable in technical circles to parrot the line that Google is facing a grave crisis. “They can’t do real-time or social search”, the argument goes: faced with obsolescence, “they‘ll have no choice but to buy Twitter” cry the doom-mongers. Of course if we look at the reasons often given to explain Google’s imminent demise, it soon becomes clear that nothing is clear except that Google is unlikely to wave the white flag any time soon.
