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Latest Research on UK Search Marketing!

Is Google the best Search Engine marketing solution?
Study about Search Engine marketing in United Kingdom
Author: Syed Mustajab Ali ZAIDI

Chapter 6

Findings from research and Analysis:

6.1: Introduction

The aim of this section is to clearly display the results of collected data. Primary data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were distributed to two groups of people via email. First group (G1) is consisting of search engine users, on the other hand, second group (G2) is consist of search engine marketers. Both of these groups were approached through a marketing website Pointsmoney.com. All the emails were sent to those people who opted in to receive this kind of online surveys. Only United Kingdom based respondent were considered during analysing the results of questionnaires. Interviews were conducted face-to-face and over the telephone. Internet, Books, journals, policy documents was major sources of secondary data. The analysis were carried out in number of different techniques, various graphs , observations from responses, relationship between data and other quantitative and qualitative techniques.

6.2: Finding and analysis of Questionnaires:


There were two types of questionnaires sent to two different domains of internet users. Group one (G1) is the people who are end users of internet and the other group is consisting of search engine marketers (G2). The views and ideas of both groups are very important for analysing the current status of search engine marketing and the future trends in the industry. People are less likely to fill in any random surveys they receive in email; spam emails and other scams have made people more conscious about their online privacy. Author was well aware of the situation, as author wanted to conduct this survey on large number of internet users, ‘email questionnaire’ seemed to be the best option. There are market research companies which conduct online surveys or online companies who have database of opt-in users. An opt-in email is an email that people specifically signed up to receive because the subject matter is something they are interested in. Pointsmoney.com, an online marketing opt-in email list provider, was contacted by the author and questionnaires were emailed to the opt-in subscribers of the website.


i) Findings from the questionnaire sent to Group 1 (Search engine users)

Survey questionnaire A (Appendix A) was sent to 2000 search engine users via email. Although it seems like a large number of emails to send but it took just few minutes with the help of pointsmoney.com bulk email sending program. After reasonable amount of time, unsurprisingly only less than 50% receivers actually filled in the questionnaire and sent it back to author. Total number of completed questionnaires received back for this survey is 878. Few of the questionnaires were rejected by the author on basis of many reasons like few were partially blank, few with wrong information filled in. All the participants were supposed to be United Kingdom based but author found out in results that many of them were not based in United Kingdom. In this study author is focusing on the United Kingdom based users only. Therefore, the first question in the survey was asked about the location of the search engine user.
In reply to Question number 1 in questionnaire A, out of 878, responses 737 were based in UK. This makes the 84% of total participants. Author considered the total number of participants as 737 because this research focuses on behavior of United Kingdom based search engine user. 737 responses were a good number although it is just 37% of total questionnaire emailed out.
In questions number 2, Author asked the respondents about their gender. This question is very important in understanding the demographics attitude and behavior toward search engine marketing. It came to knowledge of author that 68% participants of this survey were male. Figure 6.1 clearly indicated the division of gender among the respondents.

Figure 6.1

Figure shows that only 32% of female respondent took part in this research

 

Figure 6.2

The respondent fell into a variety of different age groups. As can be seen from figure 6.2



There was a broad age range among the respondents, irrespective of their gender. It is clear that the highest percentage of the respondents (35%) fell into 20-29 year old age group. The other major age group (32%) is 30-40 years olds. There is not high percentage of teenage respondents (9%) as teenagers are less likely to respond to these types of questionnaires. Literature shows that teenage people are the most active age group on internet but they are less likely to respond to research surveys. Middle age people (40-49 years) old were also responded in good numbers (132) which makes them 18% of total respondents. 50 years plus age groups were just 6% of total respondent. Figure 6.2 shows that the results have representations of all the age groups of search engine users. The most dominate demographics are 20-29 years old male search engine users.
Question number 4 is there to make sure that respondent is a regular user of search engine. Almost the entire respondent (732 out of 737) said they use search engines to find information and data on internet. This does prove the theory in literature that most of the internet users are also search engine users. The question number 4 is stressing on the regular use, which make sure that search engines are the primary source for internet users to find data, products, services and information. This response also proves authors first hypothesis statement which says ‘H1: Search Engine marketing could give marketers access to large number of consumers’. This research clearly indicates that very high percentage of internet users are also the search engine users, marketers can use search engines to access very large and vast user base.
Next question in the questionnaire is to support the hypothesis H7: (Google is the mostly used search engine in industry) When asked the search engine users that which search engine they use most often to find required information, majority of respondents mentioned that Google is their choice of search engine. Google has always been user’s favorite, not only in United Kingdom but all over the world. As can be seen in figure 6.3, more than 80% of respondent use Google as their primary source of searching over the internet, however, 13% preferred Yahoo over Google which indicate that Yahoo is pushing hard to close the gap. Although Yahoo has bigger user base because of its wide range of contents like chat rooms and user homepages (geocitoes.com). Author came across few interesting facts during the research. Like, almost all the female respondent of questionnaire use Google as their primary search engine and 70% of respondents who used Yahoo were under 20 years of age. These stats could be beneficial while marketing any products or services to the specific demographics. Research also indicates that MSN, ASK and other search engines need to do more to get regular searchers as they were choice of only 4%, 1% and 1.5% respondents respectively.

Figure 6.3

Google is choice of most of the respondents.

To cement the conclusion that Google is searcher’s first choice, Author asked in question number 10 that if users rank Google above the rest of available search engines. [Q10: Do you rank Google above the other search engines?] Astonishingly 84% respondents said they believe Google is better than its competitor. This is another proof of Google’s dominance. People just love Google and it is not just the brand name but more than that to them. One respondent wrote a small note instead of just saying YES, which explained her love and loyalty to Google. This out come of questions also reflects the strong brand recognition and loyalty for Google in the market.
Question number 6 asks respondents if they know the meanings of term ‘search engine marketing’. This question is there to gauge the awareness of a common search engine user about this fast growing industry. Surprisingly, 670 (91%) of total respondents chose the answer ‘Yes’. This clearly indicates that most of the searchers are aware of this relatively new aspect of marketing which is a positive sign for the ‘search industry’ growth. Only 66 respondents showed ignorance toward search engine marketing, many of them (12%) were teenage women and middle aged men.
Although theory (Goodman, 2005) suggests that many searchers don’t like paid ads on search engines, some searchers prefer them, especially for certain types of queries. Others relied on organic listings. For example, asked in question number 11, that when a person is more likely to visit sponsored links on the search engines listings? A soaring number of 362 respondents selected the ‘option b’ which says ‘Only if they look relevant’. This clearly indicates that 50% of people involved in the research tend to click on paid ads on search engines if a marketer uses the right keywords and suitable title and description in advert. 8% said they never clicked on a paid advert. 23% said they always check the paid adverts. 19% respondent said that they would check the paid listing when the natural results are not enough. Looking more closely at the preferences of users of particular search engines, however, and a dramatic difference in opinion appears.
Google users especially said they found paid listings more relevant to their needs, with 72 percent favoring them, with 8% preferring not to visit sponsored listings. MSN users said that paid listings were more useful when natural results were not giving the required information (71 percent). The reason could be the look and feel of Google's sponsored listings looking more like "normal" results helped. In other words ads at Google were very relevant because they don't look like regular results, and title and description more to-the-point.
In other findings, both men (65%) and women (57%) visited paid links all the time, though the 43% of women who said they only visit paid listings when they look relevant suggest that they find there required information in paid adverts. Other demographic breakdowns showed a similar preference for organic over paid search listings, but with important differences within each group, another interesting fact is that less experience searcher like teenage and over 50 years old are more likely to visit paid links. 81% of the entire teenager and 79% of over 50 years said they always check paid ads.
Question number 13 [Have you ever bought something through sponsored links on search engines?] enquire about peoples buying habits. The response to this question was mixed as 52% said they never bought anything through Sponsored links. On the other hand, encouraging number 48% did admit that they have made a sale through paid links.
The findings of this questionnaire were vital as they facilitate author to prove some important hypotheses. Author realized some important fact about the consumer behavior which was helpful in making some important recommendations.

ii) Findings from the questionnaire sent to Group 2 (Search Engine Marketers)

Questionnaire B (Appendix B) is for more advanced users of search engines, people who are involved in search engine marketing activities in commercial sector. This questionnaire is also consisting of closed ended questions. Questionnaire sent to 80 search engines marketers. Ideally author wanted to send this questionnaire to more than 1000 search engine marketer but because of lack of availability of UK based contacts, only 80 emails had been sent. Pointsmoney.com provided the opt-in search engine marketer list. 41 completed questionnaires were received back to author.

Question number 1 in questionnaire B is about the location of marketer, 33 out of 41 were based in United Kingdom. Author used the 33 as total number of respondent to focus on United Kingdom market.

Question number 2 focuses on proving an important hypothesis statement (H4: Only companies having more than 10 employees are involved in Search Engine Marketing). Size of the organizations had been asked in this question. 19 (56%) of total respondent said their company is having less than 10 employees.11 respondent (33%) said they have employees between 11-50. only few (4%) mentioned that their companies have more than 200 employees. There were 2 respondents working for the companies having 50-200 employees. With respect to the limitations of research, author believes that above hypothesis statement has proven wrong. It is clearly visible that smaller companies are as keen on search marketing as large corporations. Author also took in account the fact that large number of small organizations was represented in survey, it may be because marketers on larger organizations are less likely to subscribe a relatively less-known website pointsmoney.com. Research shows that it is not true that only companies having more than 10 employees are involved in Search Engine Marketing. Hence, H4 is not true.


Theory suggests that business from all the sectors are using search engine marketing, to explore this subject, question number 3 ask respondents about their industry sector. 20 out of 33 (60%) marketers said Business-to-Consumer. Business-to-business (25%) was more represented than Consumer-to-Consumer (10%) and Consumer –to-Business (5%). Surprisingly, research shows that Business-to-Consumer type of businesses use search marketing more than any other type of business. This does make sense that most of the businesses target the end user on the search engine.

Figure 6.4

Large number of respondents in survey was involved in Business-to-Consumer trade.

In question number 4 & 5 author asked respondents about their role in the company and if they are currently involved in any of three main type of search marketing. Majority of respondents were webmasters of their website (57%) 5 were CEO of the companies, 3 were e-marketing managers and 4 were web developers 2 were having other roles with in the organization. For question 5 understandably, 32 out of 33 which is about 97% said that they are involved in some kind of search engine marketing weather it is SEO, Paid inclusion or sponsored ads.

In next question author asked the key purpose behind respondents search engine marketing activities, which suggested that 57% use it for generating sales, 23% do it for brand awareness and 15% for generating leads. Only 5% used it for promoting non commercial products. Keeping the fact in mind that smaller organizations are major part of this survey, Author agree with the results that smaller companies do tend to increase sales and profits rather than only promoting brand and achieving more long term benefits. Author noticed an interesting fact that all the Chief Executives said that the main aim behind the search engine marketing is spreading brand awareness.

Question no. 7 helped to prove a hypothesis statement (H8: Adwords is the mostly used Search Engine marketing tool) as 70% respondents said they use Adwords as their major pay-per-click network. Adwords is without any doubt is most popular pay-per-click network in the industry. Simplicity and effectiveness make it popular among the small and large organizations.

Respondents were almost equally divided when asked if they were satisfied with the current cost structure of pay-per-click marketing. 49% respondents were happy however, 51% said NO. Cost is different for different sectors. Research found out that 80% of Business-to-Business companies were happy with current cost plans.
There are few more useful findings from the research:

 80% of respondent said that their senior management is very keen on Search engine Marketing.

 87% respondent said that they will spend more next year on SEM than this year.

 75% companies do not use services of search engine marketing agencies.

 13: 76% of respondent are satisfied with the out come of their search engine marketing campaigns.


The last question in this questionnaire is that if search engine marketers perceive click fraud as major threat to search engine industry. Most importantly, 93% respondent said that click fraud is a threat to search engine marketing. This simply reflects that marketers are very much concerned about click fraud. Search marketers from all the demographics and all industry sectors were concerned about this problem. With reference to this finding lets have a look at the results of question number 14 in questionnaire A [Have you ever clicked on a sponsored link without any interest in company products or services?]. A shocking 30% respondent said that have clicked on the paid links without any interest in advertiser. Author comes to conclude that click fraud is not have to be organized but low-quality clicks and clicks from irrelevant locations can be as harmful to search campaign as organized click fraud.

6.3: Finding and analysis of interviews:


Two search engine marketers were interviewed by author; both are based in United Kingdom and are active search engine marketers. Both interviewees approached were happy to take part in the study and answer the writer’s interview questions.
Mr. Naveed Yahya is 26 years old, CEO and E-marketing manager of Webcots.com. A detailed faced to-to-face interview was conducted to get his views and ideas on the issue. Webcots is a website hosting Provider Company; Mr. Yahya has been managing all the search marketing for company for last 2 years. The other gentleman is Mr. Waseem Hashmi of freemall.co.uk. Mr. Hashmi is 32 years old, experienced professional, he keeps interest in all areas of e-marketing. Meetings and discussions with these two gentlemen were held at their residences in Bradford.

Testing the hypothesis statements was the one of the motive behind these face-to-face meetings. Author wanted to interview more search engine marketing experts but many of them were not in local area of author, so author conducted telephonic interviews with three search engine marketers, Mr. Ali Zain of Mypaypal.co.uk, Mr. Dean Davies of Freemall.co.uk and Mr. Tanveer Ahmad of pointsmoney.co.uk. Mr. Ali Zain and Mr. Tanveer Ahmad were not present in the country at the time author approached them, therefore telephone interviews were conducted to obtain their responses. Mr. Dean Davis live far from author (London) therefore he was contacted through telephone.

These interviews were brief but very useful, all respondent were very cooperative and helpful. Questions about their approach to current Search Engine Marketing and their future perception of the market were asked. All five men are responsible of Search marketing related activities in their respected companies and were able to comment on their company polices. These interviews were held in February - March 2006.
All the interviewees are working for online companies; they are directly or indirectly involved in search engine related activities. Author asked about the approach of higher management of the interviewee’s companies. Almost all the interviewee’s said that their higher management is keen on search marketing. Mr. Tanveer Ahmad explained that search engine marketing is part of their company’s long term vision and board of directors and investors are more than happy to allocated major amount of marketing money for search marketing. Mr. Ahmad said that the management is planning to spend more on search marketing. He mentioned that every pound they spent on search marketing last year brought 50 pounds business to company, this is phenomenal return on investment. When asked about if they use search engine marketing companies only Mr. Ali Zain mentioned the use of a search engine optimization agency (Bitwords.com) other interviewees said they implement SEM strategies in house.
Relationship marketing is another factor interviewee stressed on. When asked that if search marketing helps to develop a relationship with customer, Mr. Yahya (Appendix C)
recognized that it is the best way to make customer feel valuable. He said that the real relationship building process starts when customer gets on you site. E further stressed on not bombarded customer with unwanted information and never deceive customer with inappropriate keyword of ad contents. He concludes that presence on search engine doesn't mean your work of creating a business relationship is done. What happens on your site is vital to that relationship. All the interviewees were satisfied if not extremely happy with their search marketing results.


Next : Conclusion

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Literature review
Chapter 3 Search Engine Marketing in United Kingdom
Chapter 4 Hypothesis
Chapter 5 Methodology
Chapter 6 Findings from Research and Analysis
Chapter 7 Conclusion


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