- Posts tagged Search Behavior
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Top US Local Mobile Search Categories, Q4 2011 [CHART]
When AT&T Interactive broke down the searches according to platform, it found that restaurants and automotive remained the first- and second-most frequently searched categories on both mobile devices and PCs. Mobile users were more likely to look for movie theaters, beauty services and hotels than their PC-using counterparts, reflecting smartphone users’ desire for information on nearby services. The report found that users were more likely to use PCs to search information-intensive categories, such as finance, real estate and legal services. Read the rest at eMarketer.
Top US Local Search Categories, Q4 2011 [CHART]
Automotive repair and service searches also saw a 25% quarter-over-quarter increase in Q4 2011, likely caused by consumers seeking end-of-year discounts from dealerships. Queries for financial services, real estate, and physicians and surgeons rounded out the top search categories at third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Auto parts and supplies ranked ninth. Read the rest at eMarketer.
Search Volume By Engine [CHART]
To date, Facebook hasn’t made search a priority, and it shows. The prominent white box at the top of each page is good at helping users find other members. It’ll also spit back Facebook pages for brands and locations, recent status updates from friends, and general Web search results powered by Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing search engine. It’s a crude tool, however. Type in “Sonoma winery,” for example, and you get a disorganized assortment of wineries, people who work at wineries, unrelated banner ads, and a page for a wine-tasting iPhone app. In February, Facebook fielded 336 million search queries, according to ComScore—magnitudes fewer than Google (GOOG) and its closest competitors. Read the rest at Bloomberg Businessweek.
Incremental Search Advertising Clicks [CHART]
On average, half of the search ad clicks that occur with a top rank organic result are incremental, meaning that visits to the advertiser’s site from the ad clicks are not replaced by organic clicks when the search ads are paused, says Google in a March 2012 follow-up to a 2011 report. Looking at 390 search ad pause studies, Google found that when the organic search result was between 2 and 4, incrementality of the ad clicks rose to 82%, while 96% of the ads were incremental when the organic result ranked lower than 4. Last year’s report had found that 89% of clicks from search ads are incremental.
The March 2012 report notes that results for individual advertisers may vary, and that the study focused on clicks rather than conversions. Read the rest at Marketing Charts.
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Organic Search Undervalued For Conversions [TABLE]
Last-touch attribution models drastically undervalue the contributions of organic search and non-branded organic search to multiple-interaction conversions, while overvaluing direct visits, finds a [download page] a March 2012 study from Slingshot SEO. The analysis examined 23 million multiple-interaction conversions across 30 domains throughout 2011, and compared results from using a last-touch attribution model (where the last in a series of interactions gets all the credit for a conversion) with results from using a flat multi-touch attribution model (where the value of each conversion is divided equally among each channel in the path).
Slingshot SEO’s analysis rests on the argument that the last-touch attribution model assumes that the final marketing event was the only influence on the user, and ignores the previous paths, although users often interact with a website several times before converting, and are influenced by each channel. By contrast, the multi-touch attribution model assumes that each interaction has equal influence on the user and that each interaction plays a role in any given conversion. The report notes that each interaction may not have equal influence, but that the model gives a truer sense of the influence of each channel in the purchase path. Read the rest at Marketing Charts.
People Positive About Search [CHART]
Given their attitudes towards search results, it is not surprising that a high proportion of search users report positive experiences using these tools. The vast majority (86%) of the Pew survey respondents say they have learned something new or important using a search engine that really helped them or increased their knowledge, a figure which rises to 92% among college-educated users. Half of users said they have found a really obscure fact or piece of information they did not think they would be able to find, also higher among those who have been to college (56%).
Even so, roughly 2 in 5 users say they have obtained conflicting or contradictory information in results and could not figure out what was correct, while a similar proportion have felt overwhelmed by the amount of information in the results. One-third say they have discovered that critical information was missing from search results. Notably, college-educated users reported a higher likelihood of these negative experiences, too. This group’s higher likelihood of reporting both positive and negative experiences may well be related to higher usage in general by those with a college education. Read the rest at Marketing Chart.
Most People Search At Least Once A Day [CHART]
pew-frequency-search-use-march2012.jpgMore than half of adult search engine users turn to search to find information at least once a day, representing a 54% increase from 35% in 2004, according to [pdf] survey results released in March 2012 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Daily use is highest among the 18-29 and 30-49 age groups (60%), college graduates (70%), and those with annual household income of more than $75k (68%). Overall, the proportion of online adults who use a search engine has risen to 91%, putting search on par with email use (92%) as the most popular online activities.
Search popularity mirrors its frequency of use: it is most used by 18-29-year-olds (96%) and college graduates (95%), with those groups also the most likely to say they used a search engine yesterday (66% and 74%, respectively). Read the rest at Marketing Charts.
Local Search [INFOGRAPHIC]
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41% Of Students Use Social Media For Study [CHART]
41.3% of students use social media for research or study purposes, according to a survey released in February 2012 by ebrary. And although a majority are not yet engaging with social media tools for these purposes, there are some usages which a majority of students report being likely to engage in. For example, roughly 7 in 10 are very likely (22%) or somewhat likely (47.2%) to use a social media tool to connect with other students with similar academic interest, and slightly less than 60% have some interest in sharing research information with peers or using research recommended by peers. Read the rest at Marketing Charts.
