Is Google Broad Match losing you money?

June 20, 2007 – 8:45 am

Every search vendor and media vendor has a solution for Click Fraud (including Catalyst). However, click fraud is not the only source of lost ad dollars. What is tragically overlooked is Google’s broad match tool - and it just got more dangerous. Google AdWords has just made available a new report type, one that reports on the user’s TYPED query. I don’t know why they did this, but this has blown the lid off the hocus-pocus behind “extended broad match.”

A quick look at this report for many of our clients reveals that they have indeed received many impressions and clicks on keywords that they should not be, including

  • keyphrases they are not indicated for, not on the keyphrase list
  • competing drug, not in the keyphrase list
  • keyphrases we have listed as negative keyphrase, for example “X problems in cats; “cats” was on our negative list but it just came up
  • words not at all related to “condition X”, they’re just spelled similarly
  • and keyphrases that our paid search analyst states, ‘I don’t know how the heck this qualified as a match to the keyword “X”"

We at Catalyst and you folks in pharma marketing should think about the implications of this from a number of perspectives:

  1. As a reality check about our use of broad match.
  2. As a potential tool giving us insight into user behavior. (Lots of people seem to use those refine results for disease “x” links).
  3. As a potential regulatory violation if inappropriate queries trigger your ads
By Heather | Posted in Adsense, Google, Healthcare Search, Pharma Marketing, SEM, Search Marketing | Comments (1)

The importance of SEM in your marketing mix

June 13, 2007 – 1:25 pm

I read an interesting article on MediaPost Monday. The article discussed a recent study of pharma marketing managers’ opinions on marketing tools for their industry and found that a quarter of the brand managers believe their current marketing mix is only performing “reasonably well” or “not well at all.” Over 80% of respondents said an integrated direct marketing program is an important part of promoting a brand.

This article does not delve into the importance of SEM in the marketing mix, so I thought I would get up on my soapbox again and emphasize the importance of integrating an SEM campaign.

When investing in a DTC campaign, consider the ideas below; they will improve the integration and thus success of your marketing efforts:

  1. After seeing an ad on TV, be it branded or unbranded, folks are going to go to the Internet if interested in more information.
  2. 95% of health information seekers look for information on the search engines
  3. Invest in paid search (in can be up and running in a matter of days)
    • The consumer may not remember your brand name; make sure you have an ad with your brand name in it (even if does not contain the condition - I love regulatory)
    • The consumer may misspell the brand name; make sure you buy all misspellings
    • Included all the relevant keyphrases used in the commercial, press release, etc.
    • When estimating your paid search budget, using historical numbers is only an estimate, we typically experience significant increases in keyphrase volumes during TV campaigns and even more if you are receiving a lot of press. A mention on Oprah 10x - be prepared!
  4. Invest in SEO, organic search. As many of you know, it takes a while before organic search results begin to show up. Start the organic process at least three months prior to launch. If successful, your site will rank organically on the first page of Google for relevant keyphrases.
  5. Studies show that if both a paid and organic listing appears in the SERPs, the performance of the campaign improves dramatically. Specifically, iCrossing reported when organic search listings and paid search listings appeared on the same page, visitors increased by 41% and actions increased by 45%.

Bottom line: Include Search Marketing!

By Heather | Posted in Catalyst, Healthcare Search, Pharma Marketing, Pharma Search, SEM, SEO, Search Marketing | Comments (1)

Are your DTC Dollars driving users to the competition?

June 1, 2007 – 2:52 pm

So the cover of MedAdNews displays the top DTC drug spends in 2006. As we would guess,
-Lunesta leads the pack at $329 million
-Ambien CR is next at $209 million

Now go to Google and type “insomnia treatment“.

Neither site is listed on the first page of Google in the organic results. Although on the second page, Ambiencr.com is ranking ahead of Lunesta.com in the results.

I would think both of these brands would invest in a successful organic search strategy. These DTC campaigns will raise awareness and drive folks to the search engines! It gets worse. The third biggest spender, Crestor, not listed on the first three pages of Google for “cholesterol treatment.”

I am now on my soapbox, if you are going to invest $100 million+ on DTC, please close the loop and invest in Search Marketing. Your drug sites will rank for condition x treatment if you have a solid search strategy. I am now stepping off the soapbox.

By Heather | Posted in Healthcare Search, Pharma Marketing, Pharma Search, Regulated Industries, Search Marketing | Comments (1)

Some thoughts for Memorial Day Weekend

May 25, 2007 – 8:31 am

So, to start your Memorial Day Weekend, I thought I’d load you up with some facts. You know, some fun conversation starters for your barbecues. I do hope a lot of you will have other things to discuss, like the Red Sox are still nine and a half games ahead of the Yankees, even after our visit to NYC. Anyway, back on topic.

The IAB and PriceWaterhouse Coopers released their 2006 Internet Advertising Revenue Report on Wednesday. Internet advertising revenue for the full year of 2006 increased 35% over 2005. The total was $16.9 billion. That is 5.9% of total US ad spending, up from 4.7% in 2005. We are expanding and when compared to broadcast television (1949 - 1960) and cable television (1980 – 1991) we are expanding quickly.

Internet advertising revenue surpassed cable in its third year of growth and broadcast television in its fifth year of growth. What does this mean? It means as marketers we need to quickly understand how to apply our marketing efforts to Internet advertising. Not an easy task, there is way too much going on. However, as I have mentioned before I do believe Search will continue to be a road-map for consumers. Make sure you are testing search. There is a lot to learn including:

  • How do people talk about my condition?
  • What messages and keyphrases do they respond to?
  • Should I buy broad keyphrases with low conversions but more branding opportunities or more targeted keyphrases?
  • What is the impact to my query volumes and conversions when running a national DTC or DTP campaign or sponsoring the health section of Yahoo?
  • How do I integrate search into my current marketing strategies? How do I integrate organic and paid search?
  • What is the consumers experience when they search for my brand?
  • I could keep going, but it is a holiday weekend.

Although not pharma related per se, here is some public information: Searches on Yahoo! for Cadillac Escalade jumped over 75% after the Superbowl. Cadillac was listed at the top of the sponsored search results and organic results. Search volume was up 105%, traffic volume was up 177%. Superbowl keyphrases generated 1.3 million impressions. Closing the loop is key. Am I beating a dead horse? Any of you planning a Superbowl ad? Any of you launching a DTC campaign soon?

By the way Search revenue accounted for 40% on Internet advertising revenue in 2006.

By Heather | Posted in Google, Healthcare Search, Pharma Marketing, Regulated Industries, SEM, Search Marketing | Comments (0)

Google invests in Sergey Brin’s wife’s company

May 24, 2007 – 11:18 am

It just keeps getting more interesting. On Tuesday Google said they have invested in a biotech company founded by Sergey Brin’s wife. According to 23andMe’s Web site, this company will create a common, standardized resource that has the potential to accelerate drug discovery and bring personalized medicine to the public. This will be accomplished by encouraging individuals to learn about their own genetic information. I must admit, sounds interesting. Other investors include Genentech!

By Heather | Posted in Google, Pharma Marketing | Comments (0)

comScore Health Search data is out

May 22, 2007 – 11:14 am

comScore released its health related search information yesterday. (GO) Here are some of the highlights:

The average monthly unique visitors online in the US is up 4% to 176 million visitors. The average monthly unique visitors looking for health information is up 12% to just over 55 million. WebMD leads the pack with NIH.org, MSN Health and Yahoo! Health (experiencing a significant jump over last year) following close behind.

When planning your Search campaigns, think Yahoo and MSN, particularly if you are engaged in display ads and sponsorships. In terms of search, Google is the ominous leader, however folks are using Yahoo and MSN as a health resource, so you can see how this may present a problem to Google - even though the co-op was supposed to solve this. Perhaps the reason that Yahoo and MSN are doing so well (they are the in top ten portals for visitor loyalty at roughly 17% each, NIH and WebMD are 22% and 29% respectively) is that the interface gently funnels the user into a health vertical and there are interesting value adds for the user like Yahoo Answers and MSN’s Ask the Experts.

Research demonstrates a significant increase in search query volume, click through rates and conversion after a consumer has viewed a display ad. Therefore, it is essential to make sure your online media shop is coordinating efforts with your search shop to maximize that synergy.

According the study, the top searches are: Pregnancy, Cancer, Fitness, Cold and Rash. I would venture to say that Flu, Fitness and Cold are seasonal. Flu and Cold, as it is flu season Q1 in most of America, and Fitness as the warm weather is coming? Next on the list is Nutrition and Weight loss, no surprises there. Finally the list wraps up with Diabetes and Depression. The recent Avandia news notwithstanding, I have to give GSK kudos - even if they’re not a client - because they are ranking page 1 in Google organically for both those keyphrases. I would estimate the one listing for each of those highly searched keyphrases brings the site about one million visitors a year. GSK had the foresight about ten years ago to purchase both depression.com and diabetes.com. What URLs do you have in your closet?

By Heather | Posted in Healthcare Search, Pharma Search, Search Marketing | Comments (8)

Pharma, are you watching your brand?

May 18, 2007 – 8:57 am

I recently read a great article, “What Are Search Engines Saying About Your Brand?”,

“In the offline world, companies make it a priority to influence the message people see in the media. However, in the search marketing world, very few companies make an effort to influence the message seen in search results pages. Instead, many companies ensure their website(s) are at the top of page one, and leave Google, Yahoo and MSN free to determine what to display in the remaining positions.”

What is pharma to do? I know, I know as I am talking with many of you about SERP (search engine results page) reputation management, the answer is regulatory won’t let us look, let alone influence. If you are not from this industry, that seems crazy, but it’s what we are all grappling with right now.

We are afraid of the FDA, we are afraid of our internal regulatory committees (perhaps afraid is the wrong word). “What about adverse effects?”, they will ask with disdain. Who wants to fight that battle? We do. We are marketers, and it is in our blood to make sure we understand our market, develop and protect our brand. So, again, what is pharma to do?

Step One: To protect your brand and your company be aware of the threats - monitor the SERPs

Step Two: Assess the threat - analyze the SERPs

Step Three: Take action to remove the threat in the SERPs. How?

  1. Contact Yahoo and Google Trademark Concern Team to remove paid search violations.
  2. Optimize other brand assets to push the negative organic results/threats off the first couple results pages.

In the mean time, become an evangelist at your company. Create a solution that your regulatory team can live with, perhaps even present it to the FDA. Hire a firm to help you develop a corporate policy. Or start with baby steps, Step One in 2007.

The last thing our industry needs is another black eye. A real possibility is somewhere on the internet a person reads erroneous or old information about a drug and gets sick. We know what is next - the law firm!

By Heather | Posted in Brand Monitoring, Healthcare Search, Pharma Marketing, Pharma Search, Regulated Industries, Reputation Management | Comments (0)

Google Universal Search raises the search stakes

May 18, 2007 – 8:19 am

So Google introduced “Universal Search” (GUS for short). So what it is? Instead of using separate search pages for photo, video, maps, news, scanned books, images, and of course websites, Google’s Universal Search will find links to all of those sources in a single search. This is big news as this is the first major revamp of the site and its underlying architecture in several years according to Sergey Brin (Google’s co-founder). Equally significant, according to Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of search products and user experience, the Google home page eventually will have ads featuring more than just text ads, display and video. So what does this mean to pharma?

Here are some results:

“ear anatomy”
http://www.google.com/search?q=ear+anatomy - images integrated into results

“high blood pressure”
http://www.google.com/search?q=high+blood+pressure - Coop results… and a news item! (halfway down)

It means every asset owned by your company and brand should be maximized [read:optimized], or I guess I mean digitized! Just like other industries we need to increase the breadth of our readily accessible digital content. As I have mentioned before, pharma has some great videos, MOA, patient testimonials, lots of press releases, make sure your search shop is optimizing every available asset. Search is evolving, the digital space is evolving and the mobile consumer is coming (according to MMetrics 35+ million consumers are using mobile browsers). Additionally, the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are going to become more interesting with display and video ads. Make certain that when you achieve great Search results you also engage your potential consumer or existing patient. Finally, a shameless self promotion, make sure you are working with an agency that specializes in Search Engine Marketing.

By Heather | Posted in Google, SEM | Comments (1)

Consumers are using social computing for health info

May 10, 2007 – 1:57 pm

Thanks to a client who read my last blog posting I heard about a recent Forrester report. The report stated:

“19% of all US online consumers with a medical condition use Social Computing for health information.” (source)

Well there you have it. Let’s get prepared, because Gen X (proudly my generation - just made it at 39!) and Gen Y (who use it more frequently, 27%) are quickly taking up social computing because of its instant gratification and interactivity. However, as we get older, our parents (Baby Boomers) get older, I believe this number will dramatically increase. Again, it all comes back to search as the road map the road map for all (well, at least for information). In fact Forrester reports that consumers who are using social computing like blogs, wikis, forums, chat rooms [insert next big thing here], etc, for health are much more likely to start their online health research with a search engine. In the years ahead that search engine will ost likely be on a cell phone or mobile device; but that’s a blog for another day.

By Heather | Posted in Healthcare Search, Pharma Search, Social Networking, Social Search | Comments (0)

Is pharma ready for communities?

May 1, 2007 – 11:54 am

So the big boys are jumping into communities, “Just Do It”, marketers say. However, we are still struggling in the pharma industry. I could talk ad nauseum about why we should just do it, but instead I will present a couple options moving toward a solution. I know, I know. What about adverse effects? So how do we figure this out? I definitely do not have all the answers but here are a couple things to consider:

  1. Leverage existing assets/services: “To find appropriate resources to put toward managing a blog, companies should extrapolate from their current structure”, according to Patricia Pesanello, chief knowledge officer, BusinessEdge. “The same areas of business that address 1-800 calls could moderate and manage a company’s blog.” Pharma has this service in place!.
  2. Come up with standards/ best practices that your organization is comfortable and present it to the FDA. I know it’s a big job so hire an agency to help you develop these best practices.
  3. Baby steps - “ research firms are predicting video will represent 50% of the content on the Internet in ten years. We have plenty of video assets, patient testimonials, MOA videos, TV commercials and even very humorous videos.

I hear you, what is the ROI? Unfortunately, TBD. However, other industries are ahead of us and are beginning to measure the impact.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog entry, we are experiencing a User Revolution. We need to experiment a bit. When you see “The Finance Guy” coming with his excel spreadsheets, hit the button and play one of my favorite Jefferson Airplane songs, “Got a revolution, got to revolution”. I have to relive my college days once in a while. :)

Seriously, as the world becomes more personable, hold your company and your communication to a higher standard of relevance, value and transparency.

By Heather | Posted in Healthcare Search, Pharma Marketing, Pharma Search, Regulated Industries, Search Marketing, Social Networking, Social Search | Comments (0)