Recessionary Math: Making 1+1 Equal 3

As part of our ongoing webinar series, Covario aired a session this morning called “Recessionary Math for Marketers”.  Content was presented by Craig Macdonald and Dema Zlotin, both of Covario.  Links to download the presentation and podcast are at the end of this post.

“Recessionary Math for Marketers” is about identifying and capitalizing on the synergy between on- and off-line channels to drive better performance at a lower cost.  Three areas were discussed in detail during today’s session:  (1) Paid and Organic Search Interaction, (2) Branded Keywords and Affiliate Control, and (3) Search and Display Correlations

Here are some ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS from the session:

- Owning as much of the real estate on a given Search Engine Results Page (SERP) by ranking organically and buying paid search advertisements does not always make good business sense.

- Measuring the change of total click-thrus (on a given SERP for a specific keyword or phrase) by  altering the position for your paid search ad provides a solid measure of paid and organic synergy without requiring the advertiser to shut down or “go dark” on their paid search advertising program.

- There is often a marked difference in paid and organic synergies for keywords depending on how competitive they are, whether channel partners or affiliates are involved, and a number of other factors (cyclical patterns, economy, weather, geography, etc.).  Analysis must be done at the keyword level.

- A new measure of value, which Covario calls “Incremental ROI,” should be used to evaluate the contribution(s) of paid and organic listings.

- Managing channel and affiliate presence on SERPs for branded terms is critical.  A Covario case study of Lenovo was cited.  Results from restricting affiliate bidding on branded terms yielded (1) a 50% revenue increase, and (2) a 34% increase in conversion rates.

- Evaluating the synergy between paid search advertising and display advertising requires common metrics and the key to accuracy is employing the appropriate attribution model which in Covario’s experience is a model with configurable attribution rules.  An example is illustrated below:

E.g. 50% to last (N), 25% to N-1, 15% to N-2, 10% to N-3

To download the podcast and/or presentation from this session, please go to:  http://www.covario.com/podcasts_webinars/032009-MathforMarketers.shtml

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