Paid Search Series Introduction:

Here in New England, the leaves are turning colors, the temperature is getting colder, the air is feels crisper and the amount of daylight is getting shorter. As every seasoned New Englander knows, these occurrences are early indicators to one thing (no, not time for a tropical vacation), the holiday season!

Each holiday season, brands are willing to spend millions of dollars on comprehensive multi-platform holiday advertising campaigns in order to deliver their message most effectively, persuading consumers to ultimately do one thing; buy their product!

Search has become a leading marketing channel and consumers are actively searching for product information, reviews, specifications, pricing and availability. According to Google 42% of consumers research online and then purchase online. Additionally, 51% of consumers research online and then purchase in store. This trend will continue throughout the 2011 holiday season.

Google Makes Search Secret

On October 18^th, Google announced that they were going to start using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Encryption – most easily recognized by the “s” which is added to the “http” at the start of the URL and often a “padlock” symbol indicating that you are accessing a secure server – to serve their search results to logged in users.  This change will impact several different areas within the search arena, most notably, as brands look to extract data from their website analytics to help them make smart SEO decisions.

What the change means for brands

With this change from Google, a brand will no longer have visibility into the keyword phrase that generated any given click through.  This is very valuable information for SEOs and online marketers alike, as it is used to inform the website owner which keywords are driving successful interactions with their clients, rather than just driving traffic.  Google is not planning on restricting this data on the paid search side – and most online marketers should be tracking these clicks with a third party tool which would deliver this information anyway – but this will allow Google to show it’s paying customers that the product they are paying for is working – or not working – for them and optimize accordingly.  While Google mention that websites will still be able to get “an aggregated list of the top 1,000 search queries” from the Google Webmaster Tools, this does not allow them to focus their efforts on those terms within the top 1,000 that actually drive positive customer interaction.

We often find ourselves working with brands that have a real concern about using coupons due to coupon frauds. The challenge is that traditional coupons are difficult to track which makes them hard to measure.

That was then. Today, electronic coupons can be an answer, specifically through QR-codes.

What is QR-Code?

Mobile and smartphone usage has been growing very rapidly merging the gap between physical and digital work. Customers use their phones for everything from price comparison to coupon and deal hunting. A QR-Code is a bar code that can contain any text, numbers or URL. It can be placed on product labels, billboards, tags, websites, etc. By using a smart phone and QR-code reader, a user can uncover the encoded information that is linked in that code. The code can be placed everywhere and be used for a variety of reasons.

It was a typical Wednesday late afternoon, more work to do than I could possibly get done that evening, and I should have already left for to join the kickball team.  It crossed my mind that I should stay and keep working, but I committed to the team I would be there and like a typical Catalyst Team member we do not back out on our commitments to our clients or teammates.

I packed up my work and was on my way to join the team that I was sure was anxiously awaiting my arrival, not because of my expertise on the field but I had the roster of players and score sheet.

Upon my arrival, there was an eerie absence of any Catalyst team members.  There was a slight chill in the air and I thought maybe they were huddled up somewhere thinking through strategy for that night.  I waited a little more time and still no team members and this odd loneliness feel over me.  I had let the team down and perhaps I was too late and they could not play, but knowing the Catalyst Team, I knew something like this would not stop someone from Catalyst, when out of the misty cold air I noticed a group of people walking towards me with a stride and confidence to their walk that could only be Catalyst.    I was right, they were all together, drinking, I mean thinking.  They were throwing back a few ideas on how we would win that night.  You could sense this humble arrogance, like no one is going to beat Catalyst, not at our game.