Should You Target Prospects Based on Search Engine?
By Anna Johnson on February 18th, 2010It may be time to target website visitors based on which search engine they use to come to your site. Research by Wunderman, BrandAsset Consulting, ZAAZ and Compete indicates that search engine users’ choice of search engine impacts their view of your brand, along with what they do on your site, including their propensity to BUY.
According to the research, loyal users of Bing, Yahoo! and Google have distinct characteristics that benefit some brands more than others. In addition, people’s experience with a given search engine also affects their overall brand awareness and satisfaction. If a search engine user is satisfied with the results generated by their search, they will be happier with the search engine, and happier with the brand as well.
Of most interest, however, is the finding that consumer search engine preference says something about who a customer is and how they act, and therefore how they respond to the brands that appear in the search results.
For example: loyal Bing users tend to buy more from Walmart than do other kinds of search engine users; Google users tend to convert slightly higher on Target and Amazon than Bing and Yahoo users; Google users tend to buy more on travel sites such as HotWire and JetBlue; and Yahoo buyers tend to purchase more on AT&T than Bing or Google users.
It seems logical that different search engine users will tend to favor and behave differently in relation to different brands and product/service categories. But what are the practical implications for Internet marketers?
Well, if you discover that a prospect or customer from Bing is worth more to you than one from Google or Yahoo, you might put greater effort into optimizing your website for Bing and/or advertise on Bing.
You would just need to balance the desire for higher quality visitors against the need to maximize prospects/customers to your site. While Bing might deliver a higher quality prospect, it may not deliver enough prospects than, say, Google. Then again, you may be able to appeal to both customer segments by advertising on both search engines, or optimizing for Google and advertising on Bing, or testing some other combination.
Overall, whether or not it makes sense for you to target prospects based on which search engine they use, Wunderman’s study does affirm this: the need to KNOW your prospect or customer for maximum Internet marketing effectiveness.
