This document provides information about Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies including Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Advertising (SEA). It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. It also provides two case studies, one on a SEM campaign for Coradirect.be that generated over 23,000 qualified visitors and 274 leads for a 1,093 Euro budget, and another on long-term SEO and SEA efforts for Ethias.be that increased their search engine traffic from 1-4% to 13-17% of total traffic.

1. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
10/13/2006

2. Online Population is Searching
Source: Jupiter/The NPD Group Inc., June 2003
• Search is the #2 activity on the web, behind email
• 79% of web users use search to navigate the web

3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Definition
Search Term
Advertising
Natural Search Results
Art and Science of increasing a web site's visibility in
search engines for a targeted list of keywords and phrases

4. Power of Top Results
About 50% of web users review
only the first page of search results!
Source: iProspect, Brand Survey 2, November 2002

5. SEM Advantages
• Non intrusive e-marketing strategy
• Being found & increase traffic (up to 40%)
• Appear above your competitors
• Very low acquisition cost
• New qualified visitors
365 days a year
• Highly targeted traffic
(highest conversion rate!)
• Best weapon for
Sales & Lead Generation!
Source: Nielsen E-commerce Report, May 2003
(NB: Tiles = buttons)

6. How do customers find products to buy?
SEARCH is #1

7. SEM is highly profitable!
Source: U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, New Methods in Search Marketing, June 2004

8. Search Now the Largest Share of Online Ads
% Online Advertising Growth of Search:
Revenue
Marketers are voting
100%
Other
6%
with their dollars
Rich Media
8%
9%
• Search now the most
Sponsorships
80%
dominant form of online
17% Classifieds
advertising
60%
• Nearly 3x growth in since
Banners
20%
start of 2003
40%
• 35 searches per user per
month in U.S.
Search
40%
20%
• 73% search penetration
0%
Type of Online Media
Source: PWC/IAB USA Internet Advertising
Revenue Report, September 2004

9. Search Engines Getting Bigger and Bigger...
It becomes more and more tricky to appear on top of their results.
Reported Size
Search Engine
(indexed pages)
Google 8,1 Billion
MSN 5,0 Billion
4,2 Billion
Yahoo!
(estimate)
Ask Jeeves 2,5 Billion
Source: SearchEngineWatch.com, November 2004

10. Google is #1 in search in Belgium
Second largest site of Belgium
1.9 million unique users
and
a reach of 66,6%
Source: ComScore Media Metrix, Dec 2004
Source: Media Metrix 2.0 Legend, June 2004

11. Where do surfers look at in Google results?
Organic Ranking
Visibility
Rank 1 100%
Rank 2 100%
Rank 3 100%
Rank 4 85%
Rank 5 60% Side Sponsored
Rank 6 50% Ad Visibility
Rank 1 50%
Rank 7 50%
Rank 2 40%
Rank 8 30%
Rank 3 30%
Rank 9 30%
Rank 4 20%
Rank 10 20%
Rank 5 10%
Rank 6 10%
Rank 7 10%
Rank 8 10%
Source: Did-it, Enquiro and Eyetools, March 2005

12. Most people use 2 word phrases!
Of all the search phrases world wide,
about 33% of the people use 2 word phrases
in search engines.
1. 2 word phrases 32,58%
2. 3 word phrases 25,61%
3. 1 word phrase 19,02%
4. 4 word phrases 12,83%
5. 5 word phrases 5,64%
Source: OneStat.com, February 2004

13. Extenseo is:
• Pioneer (since 1998)
• A Subsidiary of Belgacom Skynet (since 01/2006)
• 100% focused on Search Engine Marketing:
– Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
– Search Engine Advertising (SEA)
– Conversion & ROI Analysis
• A team of 12 Professional Consultants
• ROI-Minded, focused on Sales & Lead Generation
• Market Leader in terms of:
– Turnover and Market Shares
– Technology
– Experience and Knowledge
• Innovating and Reactive (strong quot;R&Dquot; pole)
• Some References:

14. Extenseo: an Active Company!
• Active member of:
International Search Engine Marketing
Professional Organization
• Partnerships, Labels & Certifications:
eTic Company #154 2 Extenseo specialists have obtained the Selected by MSN
'Google Advertising Professional' certification. as privileged partner
• Most Recent Publications:
'Search Engine Marketing' White Paper 'Search Engine Marketing' Code of Ethics
in collaboration with MSN and Best Of Publishing.
October 2005
May 2005 - 88 pages
• Latest Speaking Opportunities:
– The Reference (Ghent): 'Search and Measure' Seminar (04/2005)
– Solvay Business School (Brussels): Training (05/2005)
– ‘Web Analytics Day’ Seminar (Brussels) (10/2005)
– Jupiter ’Search Engine Strategies' Seminar (Paris) (11/2005)
– FeWeb Congres (Antwerpen) (12/2005)

15. SEM Strategies
1. SEARCH ENGINE 2. SEARCH ENGINE
OPTIMIZATION (SEO) ADVERTISING (SEA)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Search Engine Advertising (SEA)
- Lowest acquisition cost - Quick Setup
Advantages
- Long Term Strategy - Perfect for Generic Keywords
- Perfect for search terms - Perfect for Punctual/Promo Actions
composed of 2 or 3 words
- Reach a lot of search engines
Disadvantages - Takes 2-3 months to go live - Some keywords might be expensive
- Limited when too much competition - Time consuming
- Might capture less traffic than SEO

16. SEO recognized as more profitable than SEA
Source: JupiterResearch Executive Survey, August 2005 (US Search Marketers only)

17. SEA (mini-)Case Study: Coradirect.be
10/13/2006

18. Situation
During the 2nd Quarter of 2006, Cora planned
to launch ‘Coradirect.be’, a web site aiming
to sell top-of-the-range electro-domestic products.
This e-commerce site has a particular way of working:
• The client selects one of the special promotion
products and requests Coradirect’s best price offer.
• His/her Cora retailer informs him/her of the unbeatable price, product
availability and the delivery period of the selection.
• The client has then to confirm his/her reservation and makes an
appointment to pickup the order at the Cora store of his/her choice.
Emakina, their web agency, contacted Extenseo (Emakina SEM partner)
to see how to best promote this atypical website and quickly generate sales.

19. Challenges
Coradirect.be was looking
for immediate results as soon as
the website would be launched.
Available resources (time and budget)
were very limited...
The e-shop would only allow in the test phase
to book and pickup products in the Cora store
of Woluwe (Brussels).

20. Solution
• Search Engine Advertising (SEA) has directly be selected
as this strategy is perfect for:
– quick campaign launch
– low involvement from the client
– easy budget control
• Google AdWords has of course been chosen as advertising
network as it:
– covers 90-95% of the search engine traffic in Belgium
– allows Geotargeting on a regional level

21. Results, ROI & Findings
Avg. Conversion Cost /
Month Impressions Clicks CTR Avg. CPC Cost Transactions
Position Rate Transaction
May 2006 169.688 4.593 2,70% €0,07 €331,55 4,5 65 1,42% €5,10
Jun 2006 183.660 5.210 2,80% €0,04 €210,22 5,1 68 1,31% €3,09
Jul 2006 162.043 4.757 2,90% €0,04 €197,07 5,1 44 0,92% €4,48
Aug 2006 168.099 4.700 2,80% €0,04 €188,50 5,2 70 1,49% €2,69
Sep 2006 163.113 4.021 2,50% €0,04 €166,64 5,5 27 0,67% €6,17
Totals 846.603 23.281 2,70% €0,05 €1.093,98 5,1 274 1,18% €3,99
• Even with a maximum cost-per-click of 0,05 EUR in a highly competitive sector:
– the position was ‘good’ (avg. position 5,1)
– the click-through (2,7%) can be considered as ‘very good’ (for such positions).
• For a media budget of 1.093,98 EUR spent on Google AdWords, the 5-months
campaign generated:
– 23.281 qualified visitors (= 0,05 EUR per visitor)
– 274 highly qualified leads (= 3,99 EUR per lead)
Which other strategy can generate such results for about 1.000 EUR media budget?!?

22. SEM (SEO+SEA) Case Study: Ethias.be
10/13/2006

23. Situation
Ethias Bank & Insurance is the 2nd insurer
in Belgium, with more than 1.000.000 customers.
In 2005, more than 1.000.000 quotes have been
calculated on Ethias.be, leading to 39.000 new
contracts through the web.
Although they launched their first website in 1996 and won
the “Inside Internet e-commerce Awards” in 2003, Ethias
hadn’t any experience yet in Search Engine Marketing.
Looking to complete their e-marketing strategy, Ethias selected in June 2003
Extenseo as their SEM agency, based on Extenseo’s reputation and its
experience in the insurance sector.

24. Challenges
• Ethias Bank & Insurance has
a lot of products to promote, leading
to hundreds of keywords to manage.
• The Ethias.be domain name had not
that much external links since the
brand change (OMOB/SMAP -> Ethias)
in December 2003.
• A new site had to be launched end 2005,
involving multiple teams:
– Marketing (Ethias)
– Design & IT (NRB)
– SEM agency (Extenseo)

25. Solution
• Chosen to:
– continue with SEO (good results achieved in the past),
– start with SEA (still unknown to Ethias).
• SEO approach for the new site:
– optimize the new site structure since the beginning
– optimize every (relevant) internal page of the new site (HTML
Templates, Copywriting, Internal Links, etc.)
in collaboration with the different teams, mainly by giving Training’s &
Consulting, and a strict follow-up on the project.
• SEA:
– Test with a time-limited (2 months) Google AdWords campaign.

26. Results > SEO Positions in Google.be
• On the 160 strategic keywords/pages, more than 100 keywords are now
ranked on the 1st page, with most of them in the top 3 results!
September 13, 2006

27. Results > Global Traffic
• Since the collaboration with Extenseo, the search engine traffic evolved
from 1-4% to 13%-17% of the global traffic.
Ethias.be: Traffic (Global & Search Engines)
400.000
350.000
300.000
250.000
Visitors
Total Visitors
200.000
SEO+SEA Visitors
150.000
100.000
50.000
0
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
05
07
09
11
01
03
05
07
09
11
01
03
05
07

28. Results > Search Engine Traffic
• In addition to SEO, the SEA campaigns:
– allow to get visibility on competitive terms,
– reinforce the brand visibility on well ranked SEO keywords.
Ethias.be: Search Engine Traffic (Split SEO/SEA)
60.000
50.000
40.000
Visitors
SEA Visitors
30.000
SEO Visitors
20.000
10.000
0
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
05
07
09
11
01
03
05
07
09
11
01
03
05
07

29. Results > SEO Traffic
• Depending on the life of the site and the level of optimization, the SEO
traffic can quickly evolve.
Ethias.be: SEO Traffic
Results of the in-depth
45.000
optimization of the new site.
40.000
Results of a major
35.000
re-optimization
30.000
Visitors
25.000
20.000 Results of the
1st optimization
15.000
10.000
5.000
New site launched
0
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
05
07
09
11
01
03
05
07
09
11
01
03
05
07

30. Results > SEA Traffic
• Q2/2005: launch of the 1st Google AdWords campaign (2 months period)
• Q2/2006: launch of a permanent & global Google AdWords campaign
Ethias.be: SEA Traffic
16.000
14.000
12.000
10.000
Visitors
8.000
6.000
4.000
2.000
0
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08

31. Results > ROI
The power of search engines was initially underestimated by some
persons at Ethias… but results are in fact impressive.
• 5% of the Ethias e-marketing budget are dedicated to SEM (SEO+SEA).
• More than 100 strategic keywords are ranked on the 1st page.
• Search engines generate 13-17% of the Ethias.be global traffic.
• 300% increase of the search engine traffic in 1 year,
500% in 2 years.
• More than 40% of the SEA visitors request an online quote.
• SEO & SEA have:
– the lowest acquisition cost
– & the highest conversion rates
among the different e-marketing techniques used by Ethias.

32. Findings & Conclusion
• Google generates 94% of the Ethias.be search engine traffic.
• Search engines generate today 13-17% of the global traffic,
with SEO generating 3 times more traffic than SEA.
• SEO and SEA are 100% complementary.
• SEO is at least 2 times more profitable than SEA.
• SEO Link building takes time, but is really worth it!
• Due to the very good results, Ethias will continue to invest time &
budgets in the coming months on its SEM Strategy.