The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: August 2005, Volume 4, Issue 8
Contextual Ads: Don’t Treat ‘Em Like Search
by Ben Perry, Ph.D., Paid Search Manager, iProspect
The recent launch of Google’s site targeting options got me thinking about contextual ads and how they differ from search. Content, or contextual, ads have been part of the pay per click offerings from Google and Yahoo! for quite some time now. This has been necessary in order for the engines to sell more advertising inventory where there are only so many legitimate searches conducted by internet users with which they can pair ads. However, the mere pairing of search and contextual ads in the same interface implies a similarity of function that I would assert does not exist.
It is a frequent complaint from direct marketers that the contextual ads don’t perform as well as search ads and I think the reason is that contextual ads are a fundamentally different form of marketing. JupiterResearch released a report recently that showed search as the “universal call to action.” The awareness and demand generated by offline efforts such as TV and radio is captured by search and users are directed to a site where they can complete the purchase of those products.
The problem is that contextual ads function more like TV and radio than like search. It is possible to target contextual ads, much like it is possible to target certain demographics with TV and radio, but the nature is the same. In those cases the customer is shown an advertisement that they did not request, perhaps they are interested, perhaps not.
TV, radio, print, contextual ads, etc., are obviously perfectly valid forms of advertising and most businesses need to advertise in a variety of forms to drive awareness and demand in the marketplace. However, on a conversion rate basis you cannot expect these forms of advertisement to compete with search marketing because in search advertising the customer is actively looking for the product/service and is shown an ad about the product they are seeking. They are already motivated before seeing the ad and are simply closer to the purchase event.
In my estimation, the real problem with contextual ads versus offline advertising is that contextual ads are very easily tracked. If print ads, for example, were so easily tracked, we would likely find that they produce sales at about the same rate as contextual ads. That isn’t a bad thing, so long as you don’t compare it to your search marketing. The real value of offline ads and contextual ads alike is that they drive users to search for products. Savvy advertisers need to be spending money on demand drivers like these as well as search marketing to maximize the effectiveness of their ad campaigns.
