Search + Social Media = More Traffic
By Anna Johnson on October 18th, 2009Few Internet marketers would rely on just one Internet marketing tactic to generate traffic and conversions. Not when the Internet so easily lends itself to synergies between various tactics. Well, it seems the existence of the synergy between search and social media, at least, is backed up by research.
Research by comScore, GroupM and M80 indicates that search engine users are more likely to keep a brand in mind if they have seen a combination of paid search ads and social media. As reported by eMarketer, the researchers found that U.S. Internet users exposed to a particular brand in social media engaged in 19 percent more searches for that brand than those who had not been so exposed. There was a further 13 percent lift in searches among people who had been exposed to social media influenced directly by a given brand.
The lift in searches is even more acute when it comes to product terms, rather than brand terms. Following exposure to a product in social media, Internet users are three times as likely to perform searches on those terms.
Not only do product and brand mentions in social media tend to increase organic searches for those products or brands, but they also tend to increase clicks on paid search ads.
According to comScore, GroupM and M80, exposing consumers to products and brands along with paid search ads tends to increase click-through rates on those ads by 50 percent.
