What are the Top 5 Emerging Search Categories and Why?

Richard StokesCEO, AdGooroo.com@AdGooroo

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AdGooroo – A Leading Provider of Search Intelligence

More than 4,000 users, including:• AdGooroo founded the Search Intelligence industry in 2004

• Global scale across 50 countries, 14 search engines and 920,000 search advertisers

• Why AdGooroo? Our clients are three times more likely to be seen on the search engines than their top 20 competitors

Methodology

• Start with $100M+ of known ad spend• Combine with various sources of objective search data

(“occurrences”)– Millions of terms– Billions of impressions

• Utilize machine learning techniques to produce component models

• Combine component models to produce spend model

* Many steps omitted!

Methodology

CTR Model

CTR Model

CTR Model

Known Data

Occurrence Data

Estimated Spend

Why Do We Care?

• US AdWords spend flat for the year– Desktop (not mobile)

• Some categories are booming• Invaluable information for agencies• Advertisers in these industries can profit by

emulating more successful competitors

#1 – Online Education

• Estimated Spend:– 2011: $87M– 2012: $196M– Increase of $108M (223%)

• # of Advertisers: Up sharply• CPC prices higher in 2012

Who Are the Big Players?

WaldenU.edu

• Campaign Strategy– Online classes– Specific careers

• Highly targeted• High CTRs: 6-8%!

#2 – IT Solutions and Services

• Estimated Spend:– 2011: $49M– 2012: $109M– Increase of $59M (220%)

• Flat in 2010-2011• Explosive growth in 2012

Who Are the Big Players?

More Opportunities on Bing

SAP.com

• Campaign Strategy– CRM– Analytics– ERP

#3 – Internet Marketing Services

• Estimated Spend:– 2011: $18M– 2012: $45M– Increase of $27M (250%!)

• Significant growth in 2012• # of advertisers has doubled since 2010

Share of Voice

Commonalities

• Most are targeting SMBs• High churn means the marketing funnel must be

constantly filled• High acquisition costs

– CPCs vary, but most are in the $3-6 range– Some keywords as high as $25

Creative Survey

Expanding to Brazil?

20% of Paid Clicks Coming From Bing

#4 – Pharmaceuticals and Supplements

• Estimated Spend:– 2011: $121M– 2012: $181M– Increase of $60M (150%)

• # of advertisers has doubled since 2010

Higher in 2012 but Trending Down

Notice Something About the Top 10?

Targeting Varies By Subcategory

• Prescription drugs– Symptom-based minisites offer better traffic opportunities– Higher impressions, lower CTR– Cholesterol-info.net– Managingmybloodpressure.com

• OTC drugs and supplements– Brand name sites offer better traffic opportunities– Lower impressions, higher CTR– Offline advertising support critical to drive traffic– Claritin.com– Viagra.com

#5 – Home Improvement

• Estimated Spend:– 2011: $105M– 2012: $145M– Increase of $40M (138%)

Category Dominated by Two Advertisers

$7-10M spend

#3: $580k spend

Ditto for Bing

$915k spend

$423k spend

$25k spend

Highly Seasonal Category

Most spend occurs in March - August

What Drives Traffic In This Category?Highly fragmented but ~30% comes from a few categories

Takeaways

• Paid Search campaigns benefit heavily from offline branding efforts

• Most categories exhibit differences in– Campaign strategies– CPC ranges– Successful tactics– Possibility for cross-engine or international campaigns– Seasonality– Targeting

• You need to understand the dynamics of your category if you expect to succeed

THANK YOU!

Want to Learn More About How Competitive Intelligence Can Help Your Paid Search Campaign?

Website: www.AdGooroo.comPhone: 312-205-4260Email: rich@adgooroo.comTwitter: @adgooroo

P.S. We’re hiring!