09
Sep
2010
Will predictive advertising in Instant searches help advertisers find more targeted audiences?
With Bing and Yahoo! recently announcing a combining of forces against Google, it was somewhat inevitable that the world’s leading search company would do something splashy to answer back. And, they did.
Yesterday, Google debuted its latest feature update to its search engine, Google Instant. Basically, Instant pulls up search results as you type. No more will you have to type an entire word AND have to hit the enter button, wasting precious moments of your life, before seeing results. In fact, results begin appearing as soon as you type a letter, predicting what you’re about to type and delivering results based on those predictions. It’s like having a carnival psychic trying to impress you by naming your long lost uncle by name because you said the letter “N”.
In its abstract, it sounds like a slightly silly upgrade; but are there real benefits to speeding up search? Of course.
According to Google, the real innovation lies in behavioral change. Instant search allows users to perform multiple inquiries at virtually the same time. You can check product information, reviews, prices, etc., in one go. Additionally, for those times you aren’t quite sure what you’re looking for, Instant could help you identify your goals quicker.
What does this mean for advertisers?
Faster, more accurate findings? Increased user engagement through more targeted searching? An increasingly padded impression count? Possibly.
According to Google, “Google Instant doesn’t change the way ads are delivered, but will now display ads and search results for new ‘predicted query.’ For example, if someone types ‘flow’ into Google, an algorithm predicts that the user is searching for ‘flowers’ (the predicted query) and therefore displays search listings and ads for flowers. Those results will continue to show unless the next letters that the user types lead to a different predicted query.” But what does this mean for ad impressions?
With the new Instant search, ad impressions are counted if:
- The user begins to type a query on Google and clicks anywhere on the page (a search result, an ad, a spell correction, a related search).
- The user chooses a particular query by clicking the Search button, pressing Enter, or selecting one of the predicted queries.
- The user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of three seconds.
Is this good or bad for advertisers? Maybe both. As people search and the results start to display, they’ll pay attention to only what they see on the screen, meaning there will be a lot more clicking on the first result that pops up. This could make the SEO landscape far more competitive, where advertising and a strong organic SEO strategy become essential for being seen by potential audiences.
Other interesting facts about Google Instant:
- Saves users on average 2-5 seconds per search, saving everyone about 3.5 billion seconds per day
- Google Instant is starting to roll-out to users on Google domains in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia who use the following browsers: Chrome v5/6, Firefox v3, Safari v5 for Mac and Internet Explorer v8
- Won’t Instant search naughty terms as a level of protection for children using the web
- Able to perform 20 billion searches per day
- Won’t affect SEO; it’s about adapting to behavior not altering results
DL | September 18, 2010 at 8:31 am
You bring up interesting points about whether or not the innovations of the search giant will change how people create their SEO strategy. I can see how Instant Search might make on-page SEO and off-page tactics that increase organic rankings seem more important, but those two things should already be central to a website’s strategy.
If anything, I can see Instant Search causing Adwords to be less effective since a person is more likely to pay attention to the rapidly changing search results, instead of any potentially relevant ads in their peripherals.