Re: Google's Targets vs Overture's Targets

From: Jim Novo <jimnovo_at_sprintmail.com>
Date: Thu 31 Oct 2002 20:44:38 -0600

Hi James,

> So what I'm saying is that in my opinion, the average
> users on Google are younger than the average users
> on Yahoo. I can't say exactly why, there may be many
> reasons for this.

One of the things many people have failed to realize about the search
engines is they in fact do have different demographics, just like the major
TV networks do. This turns into different audiences for the pay-per-click
services, which depend on the audiences of the engines they serve.

Google tends to attract a more tech-oriented, web savvy user; these people
are younger. Overture, by serving MSN, Yahoo, and (up until summer) AOL,
tended to attract a newbie, less web-savvy audience, and these people tend
to be older. Basically, Google is Fox and Overture is CBS, or perhaps more
accurately, the "old" CBS. The reasons are pretty obvious - Overture tends
to serve mass market engines newbies would hear about; Google is a
word-of-mouse hip web thing.

The magnitude of this split was lessened substantially when Google took AOL
away from Overture, but it is still there. The exact same search term on
Overture and Google generates a different quality visitor from each.
Further, if you look at the quality of non-paid search traffic from the
different engines to your site, you find the same thing to be true.

In the end, it is the combination of keyword phrase *and* search engine
audience which determines the quality of the visitor generated. This
effect is one reason why so many people fail to achieve high ROI with
pay-per-click - they don't really analyze what is working by phrase, by
engine. My experience is you can usually generate 70% of the sales (or
forms filled out, or whatever your goal is) for about 15% of the cost once
you apply this thinking to your PPC buys.

Tell your friend he doesn't know squat about PPC.

More on this effect, with stats, can be found here:

http://www.jimnovo.com/Keyword-Value.htm

Jim Novo | Author: Turning Customer Data into Profits
http://www.jimnovo.com
Co-Author: Marketer_s Common Sense Guide to E-Metrics
http://www.hiqhq.com/marketersguide.asp





Received on Thu Oct 31 2002 - 20:44:38 CST