Search Engine Marketing: Ok for End-Users, Horrible for Advertisers
Google, as one half of the "Digital Duopoly" (a term describing the facebook/google domination of the industry), obviously has something good going for it in the ad industry. Like Facebook, the ability to track behavior in Chrome and via Google searches puts Google in the best place to target based on previous behaviors.
Search Engine Marketing is in my professional opinion one of the best ways to reach your audience. Unlike some of the more "stalk-y" available tools like AdWords, Paid search serves you to users actively looking for what you have to offer. Because users were already looking, the engagement rate is much higher and you're much more likely to convert, resulting in a higher ROI than display.
By doing paid search well, you can ensure that your ad is relevant and therefore less obnoxious. It becomes almost helpful, if done correctly.
However, your search ad is still an ad, marked "sponsored". It's still considered an ad to the end-user. And this is reflected in the Click Through Rate. At 2% CTR, Search ads are MUCH better than display (.02$ average), but not enough for there to be anything truly revolutionary going on.
And as you can see, above, text search has some major drawbacks. Sometimes it's not easy to know what someone is looking for based on what the user's put into the engine. This means that advertisers are constantly working to choose the correct keywords to put into their strategies. Sometimes there are thousands of keywords to place, which is a waste of time and talent.
Wayfare Units use Parameter-Based Search. No keywords, no wasted time. Granular targeting can be set up within minutes. It's a completely different experience for the advertiser.
It's also a much better experience of the user, who is given the unit as a tool, not an advertisement.
Search ads are not terrible options for advertisers. There are may benefits to using search ads.
However, it is important to look at other options. A financial adviser wouldn't tell you to put all you have into two companies. Maybe it's time to diversify your digital marketing spend.
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