1. Seeing Between the
Lines…of the Search
and the Click
What you will gain from this report
Search marketing is an intense and competitive
battlefield, and for those of us in the trenches it can
feel like being dropped in an unknown location
without a map or GPS to guide us.
To date, the ability to track actual consumer behavior
from a search to a click has been virtually non-existent.
Because search engine results pages (SERPs) are
different for every consumer based on past search
behavior, location and social connections, capturing
competitive intelligence is increasingly difficult. For
search marketers, this means little to no visibility into
what is happening on the SERP such as who is listed
first or what words were used to perform the search.
Using Compete Search Engine Results Page Analyzer
(SERPA) data, this report provides insight into the
potential impact of increasing search marketing ROI
by analyzing real, consumer engagement by exploring
paid vs organic listings, illustrating the importance
of position on the page, and understanding the
importance of ranking first.

2. The basics…
Search marketers have two approaches they can Spidering attempts to mimic real search activity by
take in order to help drive traffic to their site: (1) having a computer scrape the text of SERPs based on
optimize their site for search through a combination a pre-loaded list of search terms. The shortcomings
of relevant content, tags, and links to and from their with this approach are that it is limited to the quality of
site to leading sites in the industry (Search Engine the inputs (i.e., search terms) that were pre-populated
Optimization, or SEO), and (2) pay for ads on into the computer by the programmer and does not
search engines by bidding on search terms reflect actual search behavior performed by the
(Search Engine Marketing, or SEM). internet browsing population.
One downside of SEO is that your site is at the Compete’s approach to understanding consumer
mercy of search engines to define how relevant behavior in the search space leverages the actual
your site is to a particular search term as defined search behavior of its panel of consumers in order
by a ‘quality score’. Your quality score could be to capture the full breadth of terms people use
made better or worse based on the variables when searching. This report answers questions
the search engine is using in its algorithm, and such as:
unfortunately, marketers have limited control over • What share of SERPs have ads?
where their site appears in the results.
• What share of listings are organic?
Through SEM, search marketers manage a portfolio
• Where do the majority of people click on the SERP?
of terms, both branded and non-branded, in order
to help drive leads through search. Because most
bidding is blind, marketers have little visibility into
who their competitors are and how they stack up.
The traditional approaches to measuring your
brand’s search marketing effectiveness has been
through collecting information about the referrals to
your site through internal tools, and if one wanted
secondary research, to purchase data collected
through ‘spidering’.
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3. More than half of all SERPs have at least one ad
Compete analyzed 10s of millions of search engine The takeaway is that most searches performed by
results pages generated by actual consumers in people online are an opportunity for you or a
our U.S. panel in Q4 2011. We found that more competing brand to influence consumer behavior.
than half of all search engine result pages contained Search is a highly competitive market and if your
at least one paid ad somewhere on the SERP. brand is not aware of its standing in the market,
you may be missing out on thousands of potential
new customers to the competition.
Share of SERPs With and Without Ads
55%
45%
SERPs with at least 1 ad SERPs with no ads
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4. Organic is a fiercely competitive place to play
Looking at all of the listings displayed with the 10s A good organic search strategy should:
of millions of SERPs generated by Compete’s panel • i
nvolve good on-page SEO so search engines
we found the overwhelming majority of listings are can find you
organic (85%). The remaining 15% constituted
• i
nclude a blog that is updated often with insights
paid listings. If your brand is competing within
pertinent to your industry (in order to increase
organic listings alone, you are going to be in fierce
inbound links and the number of pages crawled
competition with the competing firms, publishers,
by search engines)
blogs, and the long tail of web content. Since the
vast majority of listings on a SERP are organic, • u
tilize site links and micro-sites to win more
real estate on SERPs
and the majority of clicks are on the first listing,
it’s imperative that brands strategy including A better strategy will use paid to complement
constantly monitoring results due to the ongoing organic to ensure coverage on the SERP and
evolution of search engine algorithms. to improve opportunities for clicks.
Share of Listing Types and Share of Clicks
Share of Listings by Type Share of Organic Clicks by Rank
1 53%
15% first link
paid 2 15%
3 9%
85%
organic 4 6%
5 4%
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5. When it comes to paid...you want to be on top
How important is paid position (either Top, Right, The overwhelming majority of paid clicks occur
or Bottom) for capturing clicks? The right hand side on top paid listings (85%) versus only 13% of
of the SERP is where the majority of paid listings paid clicks occurring on the right hand side.
are served (61%) versus approximately 1 in 4 paid The majority of marketers are conceding the top
listings on the top of the page. However, despite the spot through less aggressive bidding and ad
right side owning the majority of paid listings, it is relevancy, but should be aware they are losing out
the top of the page that wins on clicks. on the most valuable SERP position (5x more clicks
than the right and bottom combined).
Distribution of Paid Listings vs Paid Clicks
Where Advertisers Appear Where Consumers Click
24% top 85% top
61%
right
13%
right
15% bottom 2% bottom
Share of paid listings Share of paid clicks
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6. Being first matters too
While being in the top position is vital for receiving 15% are on the second listing on the top. While it’s
clicks, it’s also important to be ranked first regardless better to appear first on the right (4% of all paid clicks)
of position on the page. Of all paid clicks, 59% occur versus second on the right (3%), the third listing in the
on the first listing on the top of the page while only top position is better than any on the right (9%).
Position and Rank Click Distribution
Distribution of Paid Clicks by Position and Rank
1
59%
first link
Top 2
15%
3
9%
1
4%
3%
2
Right
3
2%
4
1%
Bottom
1
1%
2
1%
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7. Looking ahead
There is a strategic battle going on in SERPs and every decision has a dramatic impact on results. Most, if not
all, search marketing efforts need to prove a ROI as there is a very definite spend, whether it is SEO or SEM.
Compete’s new Search Engine Page Results Analyzer (SERPA) allows an advertiser to better understand who
they are competing against and gives them a better idea of what their potential ROI would be on upping their
bids. This allows search marketers to come to the table with better competitive information and in turn make
better decisions and tactical changes to their search strategies on an ongoing basis. You don’t have to wonder
whether your competitor is outperforming you, you’ll know. By capturing millions of individual search listings
per day including natural and paid listings across the major search engines to accurately represent consumer
search behavior, SERPA can help answer questions like:
Competitive Intelligence:
• Measure which advertisers own the greatest amount of SERP real estate
• Understand which keywords your competitors are focused on
• Understand whether your competitor is strong in SEM, SEO, or both
• C
ompare ad copies to see what differentiates your campaigns from others and the results competitors
are getting from their campaigns
• Q
uantify the impact to your organization when you are not running a paid campaign or do not serve
a paid ad on a keyword set and your competitors are
Benchmark Performance:
• View paid and natural performance and gain insight into the effectiveness of SEM and SEO
• Analyze share of click-throughs across all SERP pages
• Understand how % of SERP listings and # of listings affect clickthrough rate (CTR)
• Benchmark your CTR vs. competitors
• Contrast performance on Google vs. other search engines
• Evaluate consumer engagement
Trend Performance:
• A
bility to see how performance across key search performance indicators trends through seasonal high and
low points, as well as what competitors may be doing to improve performance through troughs and capitalize
on peaks in search activity
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8. About Kantar Media Compete
Kantar Media Compete is passionate about understanding consumers to inspire great marketing. Kantar
Media Compete helps the world’s top brands improve their marketing based on the online behavior of millions
of consumers. Leading advertisers, agencies and publishers rely on Kantar Media Compete’s products and
services to create engaging online experiences and highly profitable advertising campaigns. Kantar Media
Compete’s online panel-the largest in the industry-makes the web as ingrained in marketing as it is in people’s
lives. Kantar Media Compete is located in Boston, MA, with offices across the US, UK and France. For more
information, please visit http://www.compete.com/.
Learn more
For more information about Compete’s role in advancing the online marketing effectiveness
in online services, please contact:
Ranjan (RJ) Butaney David Weigner-Lodahl
Senior Director of Business Development, Senior Associate, Agency Publisher Solutions
Agency Publisher Solutions dweigner@compete.com
rbutaney@compete.com 617.933.5750
617.933.5620
Matt Redmond
Client Services Director, Agency Publisher Solutions
mredmond@compete.com
617.933.5675
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