How will a sour economy impact search engine marketing? Here are my five top predictions:
1. Keyword prices escalate.
Studies—like this one from e-Marketer—are already beginning to corroborate what a lot of us expected: when the economy goes south, marketers turn to search (and away from other marketing channels). That transition makes sense: search is accountable, efficient, and direct, which is exactly what marketers want when they need to be careful with their budgets.
But search’s popularity may have a downside: more search marketing activity may also mean greater competition over keywords—and an escalation of keyword prices.
2. Search goes mainstream.
As search becomes more essential to marketers as they slash budgets elsewhere, search will inevitably shift from the “new media” category, and into the heart of the standard ad mix.
Of course, this trend has been underway for the past decade. But I think the bad economy will give that shift its final push.
3. Behavioral targeting has its day.
This development will be created by the confluence of three very different forces:
- Marketers who are cash-strapped, and won’t bother with media that doesn’t reach their target customers
- Publishers, who need new ways to make money as advertisers pull budgets
- Site users, who are increasingly addicted to online content and activities—but are also increasingly unwilling to pay for subscriptions.
The combination is a perfect storm for a new growth of behaviorally targeted marketing. After all, behavioral targeting gives publishers the holy grail of targeting that advertisers have been looking for--allowing publishers, in turn, to deliver the content for which visitors won't pay.
It's the perfect solution for a lot of online recession woes.
That perfect storm is the reason a recession will lead our society to overlook a lot of old privacy hangups (for better or for worse), giving behavioral targeting its day. And as behavioral targeting gains ground across the Web, look to more behavioral targeting activity coming from both search agencies, and search engines.
4. Consideration-phase keywords get pricey.
As consumers become more reluctant to part with their money, they’ll do a lot more research before making purchases. As a result, research-stage keywords will become more critical for many search marketers. That will mean more competition over these terms--which, as in point 1, will mean rising prices.
5. The era of product search engines.
As more people search for online deals, product search engines, price comparison engines, and price aggregators will become more popular than ever. Will the product search engine habit stick once the economy bounces back? Quite possibly; but we’ll have to see.
Those are my five top predictions of how the recession will drastically impact the search landscape. But I’m genuinely curious to hear readers’ thoughts. If you have ideas of your own about search in a recession, feel free to post them below.
