How Offline Messages Influence Online Behavior - Keywords Used, Items Bought
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So what kinds of keywords are used for these searches? iProspect thought that about half of those performing searches that were inspired by offline messages would use “branded” keywords – keywords that contain either the company name or the name of one of its products or services. Once again, they underestimated. Fully 44 percent of searchers used all or part of a company name, and an additional 24 percent used all or part of a product or service name – for a total of 68 percent! Obviously, brand names are very influential when it comes to online searchers (a point we’ll return to later).
So far we’ve talked about what channels drive search engine users to satisfy their curiosity online, and what keywords they use to search. Let’s get to the bottom line: how many online searchers, after being influenced by offline advertising messages to perform searches, actually make a purchase? iProspect predicted that one in four, or 25 percent, would be motivated to buy something from the company they researched.
And once again, in what is becoming a strangely common theme, they underestimated. Fully 39 percent of online searchers actually went on to make a purchase. The offline channels that were most likely to result in a purchase after driving users to make a search were magazine/newspaper ads and word of mouth (30 percent for each). Obviously, iProspect asked this question only of the portion of their sample that said they had been influenced to perform a search after seeing an advertising message offline.
One conclusion we can draw from this data is the importance of both online and offline factors when it comes to selling a product or service. It seems clear that a person is more likely to buy something when they’re exposed to it in more than one media – and especially when they’re curious enough and motivated enough to seek it out themselves via a search engine. Some other very important implications can be drawn from this survey as well, as you’ll see in the next section.
Next: Implications of the Survey >>
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