Search Summit Takeaways: Search Fragments, But It’s Still Good To Be King

Between cryptoamp8217s futurism and capital marketsamp8217 current quarterism lie important trends affecting key industries at scale nowamp160amp160Tiptoe past the deflated blockchain bubbleheadsamp160 Elude the vexing vendorsamp160 Find experts trying to make the novel practicalIn the advertising market digital is where itamp8217s at and search advertising remains the largest part of the digital ad market roughly halfamp160 Search results remain the most broadly and clearly linked to the purchase path however more winding that path is becomingamp160amp160Despite consensus concern about the surging challenge from Amazon in search the outlook there for Google could surprise positively at least over the next yearamp160 A search exec from LEGO acknowledged onstage that Googleamp8217s budgets are amp8220under pressureamp8221 amp160Nevertheless a new ClickZ survey presented from the same stage showedamp160that brands largely lack a strategy for using Amazon and that the amp8220tangible ROIamp8221 of spending linked to measurable results remains Google searchamp8217s bulwark amp160To wit 63 of surveyed brands plan to increase spending on Google search but only 26 on Amazon amp160Only 28 of brands have an Amazon ad strategy up from 17 last year but still low amp160The bottom line is that brand performance budget increases look set to go largely to organic and paid search on GoogleThe ClickZ survey results also suggest that the threat from Amazon ofamp160displacing Google as the starting point in the consumer journey may be overstated amp160Per ClickZ when consumers know what they are looking for 50 start with a search engine and 50 start with an ecom retaileramp160 This compares to publicized figures in the past couple years that the majority start with Amazonamp160 Moreover when consumers do not know what they are looking for ie they only know the category to be searchedamp16062 start with a search engineA relative newbie as an advertising platform Amazon has ad loads with room to grow and they are doing soamp160amp160One presenter endorsed the view that the recommendation engine was transforming from a democracy to an amp8220advertocracyamp8221amp160 For example 8 of product views now come from sponsored ads up 2x in 6 monthsamp160 More recently Amazon has been adding ads at the bottom of the pageBlockchainamp8217s hype amp8220valuationamp8221 remains high as measured by the ratio of the size of promised market disruptions to actual usageamp160amp160Jeremy Epstein of Never Stop Marketing gave his usual crypto stemwinderamp160 Consider first just a sample of the media and marketing sectors which crypto projects are targeting for disruption social networks eg Steemit YouTube eg LBRY search eg Presearch ratings and reviews eg Chlu product market places eg OpenBazaaramp160and even data marketplaces eg IOTA Ocean Protocolamp160 Then come back to earth with the stat that the topfiveamp160crypto decentralized apps in aggregate have just 10000 daily active usersamp160 Steemit has paid 40m in incentives to users over the past two years which is charitably better than nothingamp160 The evangelistamp8217s view is that scaling is the big challenge for crypto to overcome leading to mass market adoption over the next five years Epstein saidamp160 The realistamp8217s view is that the selfimposed shackles of creaky infrastructure eg do you need the blockchain to offer contributors a better cut of economics than YouTube does are in service of achieving insufficiently compelling consumer benefitsFragmentation in search behavior is opening the door wider to competition in niche use casesamp160amp160People use different search engines for niche purposesamp160 The number of different purposes is increasing including image search and shopping by verticalamp160 Challenger amp8220search enginesamp8221 better compete in these niche use casesamp160 When users want to view imagery they are as likely to use Pinterest as Googleamp160 When users are shopping for electronics they are as likely to use Best Buy as AmazonAnother fragmentation affecting the incumbentsamp8217 hold on search is by interface in particular search by voice although voiceamp8217s impact on the path to purchase may take longer to be heard than expectedamp160amp160When users search by voice amp8202the summit stat was that half of searches would be by voice by 2020amp8202 amp8202they are using Amazon39s Alexa more than Google39samp160Homeamp160 However voice results do not lend themselves to ads Aamp160Hertz exec suggested that voice does not lend itself to purchasing at least not yetamp160 Advertisers may hesitate to restrain their search ad budgets unless and until they see a negative impact of voice on the return from those adsThe old saw that TV is best for building brands is out of key with recent counterexamples from the brandcentric FMCG verticalsamp160amp160The list of niche consumer brands built online shunning TV in their early days and then sold to large TVdependent FMCG companies grows longeramp160 It nowamp160includes Dollar Shave Club Harryamp8217samp160and Baiamp160 The market impact of these insurgents can be material for example Gilletteamp8217s market share dropped to 50 from 75 from 2010amp821116Finally data can come before distribution as online brands open brick andamp160mortar storesamp160amp160Casper Everlane and Warby Parker have opened physical retail outlets leveraging online data that legacy brick and mortar retailers lackClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Search Summit Takeaways: Search Fragments, But It’s Still Good To Be King

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James Dix

"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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Search Summit Takeaways: Search Fragments, But It’s Still Good To Be King

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James Dix

"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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