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An analysis of the importance of the long tail in search engine marketing

Presenter: Chun-Wei Chuang Instructor: Dr. Pi-Ying Hsu Date: March 2 ,2011

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Citation Bernd, S., Jochen, E., & Oliver, H. (2010). An analysis of the

importance of the long tail in search engine marketing. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 9, 488-494.

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Content

Introduction

The purpose and conceptual framework

Methodology

Result

Reflection

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Introduction Search engine marketing grows steadily

throughout the world.

$10.7 billion in the US alone

7% of the total online advertising spending in the US (IAB 2010)

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Literature review

Search engine by far is the largest source of revenue for Google (Edelman et al. 2006)

Search engines have become the man tool consumers use to locate information ( Rangaswamy et al. 2009)

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The search engine marketing campaign

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Long tail

Ander (2006) coined the phrase “long tail” to describe the phenomenon that nitch product can gain a significant share in total sales.

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Long tail

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The purpose of the study

The researchers doubt that the long tail, based on the large number of rather less popular keywords, drives the success of search engine marketing campaigns.

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Research Question

Whether the use of many different keywords drives the success in search engine marketing or whether this success is driven by a few but important keywords?

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Keywords Which one is better?

VS.

Less Popular keywords

Large number of keywords

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Research Hypothesis

H1: The distribution of searches, clicks and conversions across keywords is concentrated.

H2: An increasing number of keywords has a rather small effect on the number of searches, clicks and conversions.

H3: The use of the most popular keywords at one point in time is sufficient to capture the vast majority of searches, clicks and conversions in future periods.

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Methodology3 campaigns• Travel 1 ( selling boating vacations)• Industrial goods (selling industrial goods)• Travel 2 (selling cruises)

Countries• Germany• Spain

Time periods• 36 weeks (August 2007 - April 2008)

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Hypothesis

H1: The distribution of searches, clicks and

conversions across keywords is concentrated.

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Description of three search engine marketing campaigns

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Concentration of searches and clicks across keywords

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Results

H1: The distribution of searches, clicks and

conversions across keywords is concentrated.

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Hypothesis

H2: An increasing number of keywords has a rather small effect on the number of searches, clicks and conversions.

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Results

H2: An increasing number of keywords has a rather small effect on the number of searches, clicks and conversions.

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Hypothesis

H3: The use of the most popular keywords at one point in time is sufficient to capture the vast majority of searches, clicks and conversions in future periods

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Results

H3: The use of the most popular keywords at one point in time is sufficient to capture the vast majority of searches, clicks and conversions in future

periods.

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Findings and Conclusion

The top 100 keywords cover 88.57% of all searches, 81.4% of all clicks and 79.45% of all conversions.

An increase in the number of keywords only slightly increases the number of searches, clicks and conversions.

The set of top 100 keywords varies over time.

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ReflectionCompared to other studies, this study

provides results for more than one firm and more

than one country.

The figures illustrate very clear about the trend of search and click share.

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The data of only three firms might not be representative of the search engine marketing

campaigns of other firms.

The definition of short tail was not explained in the research.

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Note

Short tail Hugh MacLeod

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“You’ve got to find what you love”, Jobs says.