In the short time that has followed Google’s release of Instant search much has already been written about the possible ramifications for online marketing in general. Whilst it is certainly too early to assess the impact of giving users immediate feedback on their search queries, we can make an initial assessment of the considerations it raises for advertisers and affiliates.

It might seem obvious that as results now display instantaneously and change as the search terms are entered – without users having to hit enter after each search – it follows that users will refine their searches as they go, based on what they think of the instantaneously-served results.

However, it is not for certain that people know what it is they want to find before they start searching for it. Will users really continue refining their searches by using longer and longer search queries, or will they want to keep their options open and explore the web based on the results closest to a more limited string of terms?

For example, a user might know that they want to buy at 32 inch LCD TV, but beyond that they might not have a preference – or not have enough information to be able to decide – about the TV’s exact specification (brand, colour, serial number, etc). They might therefore decide to search on keywords related to ‘32 inch LCD TVs’, but not extend their Google search further than that. Any deeper comparisons may be done on the rest of the web, away from Google. If this is the case, we might wonder whether sites optimised for longer tail keywords are really in a better position following this change, as some have already argued.

Google’s attempt to predict with ever-greater accuracy what a user is looking for might be more effective on brand-led search terms than ones where generic terms lead. Compare the difference in results, for example, on ‘Comet sales’ against a generic term that is also related to a brand: ‘Low cost holidays’. The impact on sites that are dependent for their traffic on mis-spellings could be significant, but at the same time Google is good enough at predictive corrections to suggest results that have already anticipated the most common mis-spellings. Generic terms however are another matter. A company whose brand name incorporates a generic search term, such as ‘Low Cost Holidays’ or ‘Sports Shoes’ (or even part of a generic term), might find that users bypass the opportunity to click-through to their sites and opt to continue typing, refining their searches as Google automatically suggests results tailored to those generic terms and attempting more accurate and informed click-throughs. As such, Instant Search could potentially lead users further away from the advertiser quicker, and therefore it might be necessary for these advertisers to rank better for long-tail generic terms, or brand + generic long-tail terms (‘low cost holiday car rental’ or ‘low cost holiday travel insurance’, for instance).

Advertisers may find it necessary to look to affiliates to support them to a greater extent for long-tail keywords that follow common generic search queries. For example, at present Google returns results for Tesco, Curry’s and John Lewis on ‘LCD TV’; for Curry’s and Tesco on ‘LCD TV 32 inch’; but for none of these three on the longer tail ‘LCD TV 32 inch reviews’.

If we imagine a scenario in which users know roughly what they want – a TV, or travel insurance, for example – but not exactly what they want (or are not willing to search for exactly what they want) – a 32 inch Samsung LCD TV, for example – then searches are likely to stop somewhere ‘in the middle’: on a relatively short but nonetheless product- or service-specific search term. Users are unlikely to be satisfied with the results presented very early on in their Instant searches. A user beginning their search with the term ‘car’, for instance, does not necessarily want to shop at the first suggested results: Carphone Warehouse. Google’s Instant search results invite the user to extend their search far enough until Google has found an apt suggestion for their query. However, users may not wish to keep searching beyond what they are absolutely sure of looking for in case they miss potentially good offers or want to keep their options open.

We might compare this situation to an analogous one that has faced price comparison sites. As comparison sites have become more and more sophisticated, users are invited to refine their searches to an ever greater degree. It is no longer enough for a user to know they want an LCD TV, they are invited to go further and specify the brand, the colour, the dimensions and more in-depth specifications. As argued above however, it is not always clear that potential customers are yet aware of what they want to this extent, and even if they were, whether they would be willing to risk missing out on deals, offers, or similar products by going through a more in-depth search. One possible implication for affiliates might therefore be that the hard work of converting the sale would still take place on affiliates’ site, despite their route to this site from Google being slightly different, perhaps shorter.

There are however a few things that the appearance of Instant search makes more certain. One might be that the greater the use of Instant search the less important that below-the-fold results will be. This is likely in turn to privilege the paid results, which for most popular keywords with Instant search appear to be more prominent and more numerous than organic listings. Searches will be quicker, and so the impression times for each paid ad will be shorter, but the relative importance of the placement of these ads against the rest of the search results will be greater as the generic terms further down the page will get seen less. However, we might wonder whether people will still prefer to cast their eyes up and down the results page after each search, rather than only at the top few results with Instant search.

There is a final consideration to think about. If Google is expecting that users are more likely to continue searching for something until they find results which offer them what they are looking for, exposure to paid ads is going to be far greater, even if they are not clicked on precisely because the paid ads change as the queries change. For example, suppose a user wants to search for ‘mobile phone exchange’ with the intention of getting cashback on their old handset. The keyword ‘mobile’ might return paid ads for Carphone Warehouse, as might the extension to ‘mobile phone’. Finally, if the full search term, ‘mobile phone exchange’, also shows a paid ad for Carphone Warehouse the user will have been exposed to Carphone Warehouse ads at every stage of their search – essentially, for three different search terms. Surely this would increase the chance of them clicking the Carphone Warehouse ad, even if its position was lower than a competitor’s – such as Mobile Phone Xchange’s – given the likelihood that the user now has the impression that Carphone Warehouse is the best possible result for their mobile-related query? Carphone Warehouse could be embedded in the user’s mind as synonymous with mobiles.

Search habits and attitudes vary from person to person, as does the way we interact with our computers when we search. Think, for example, of the difference in user experience for someone who touch-types and can look at a page of results at the same time as they search, compared to someone who looks from the keyboard to the screen alternately. The introduction of Instant search by Google might be seen as a part of its wider strategy to bridge the gap between what the user looks for and what they find, and therefore an attempt to keep users on Google and diminish the time spent hopping around the rest of the web. We will have to wait and see however to what extent users adopt the new service or reject it, and how affiliates and advertisers adapt to this new way of conducting search.

Owen Hewitson

Client Strategist

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Written by: Beau Blackwell, Community Manager

In the ultra-competitive affiliate marketing landscape, it’s a good idea to always be on the lookout for new and innovative ways to promote products. Somewhat ironically, a great new space for affiliate promotions is actually an advertising medium that’s been around a long time: television.

Up to now, advertising on TV was far too expensive and complicated for the average marketer. However, Google recently introduced Google TV, which allows practically anyone to create TV spots within their AdWords account and run them on national cable TV. One of the most amazing parts is the low cost- as low as $20 for an ad spot!

Considering the huge potential reach of television, this can be a great way to advertise your own product or separate yourself from other affiliates who are promoting the same product. And considering how powerful and relatively inexpensive video creation tools and software packages are today, it’s reasonable for almost anyone to create a simple TV ad they can test out.

If you’re not sure you’re capable of creating an effective TV ad, check out this Copyblogger post on the topic. It’s written from the perspective of promoting a blog, but the same idea applies to ClickBank products or affiliate websites. It has some great advice on making your ad compelling to viewers.

One important thing to remember is that if you’re an affiliate who’s using this service, you shouldn’t try to promote a basic HopLink, since advertising on TV requires that viewers be able to remember the website so they can type it in. HopLink URLs are too complicated for this purpose, so your best bet is to send traffic to an affiliate landing page, such as a review site, blog, or other content-based site, where you then recommend one or more ClickBank products to your visitors. Try to keep the URL of your site as simple and memorable as possible. If you’re a vendor and want to send traffic to your own site, you can just send people directly to your Pitch Page URL.

If you’ve been struggling to make AdWords work for you due to the level of competition or pricing, it’s worth checking out Google TV to see if it could be an effective new way to promote products. Some of the best strategies for affiliate marketing success are testing out new promotional techniques and being an early entrant into new marketing spaces before they get overcrowded and too competitive. Who knows- you could end up being the next advertising mogul!

Do you think TV ads could work for your promotional efforts? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

Take a look at these related posts:

1. Advertising Strategy: Daypart Bidding
2. New Advertising Opportunities for Publishers
3. Google Gives Advertisers the Power of Remarketing

Written by: Beau Blackwell, Community Manager

Successful marketers have known for a long time that the more often you can get your product in front of potential customers, the more likely they are to buy. For traditional marketers, this has usually been accomplished by methods such as print, radio, or TV advertising.

In a move that should benefit affiliate marketers and vendors, Google announced yesterday that they’ve brought this same ability to remarket to customers to PPC advertising.

Basically, in your Google AdWords account, you can specify that you want to display ads for your products or site to people who have already visited your site from a paid click. Your subsequent ads will be shown to them in the Google Content Network, when they’re browsing other sites related to your product. This gives you a great opportunity to remind people of the benefits of your product, or offer them a reason to come back and check out your site again. It’s possible that the first time they visited your site, they just weren’t ready to buy, but after browsing around online, a well-written ad could be just what it takes to get them to come back and buy this time.

If you do AdWords advertising, be sure to check it out!

Take a look at these related posts:

1. A New Advertising Frontier for Affiliate Marketers: TV Ads?
2. The Next Google?
3. Advertising Strategy: Daypart Bidding

Written by: Charles Kirkland, Guest Blogger

This is Part 1 of a three-part series.

With numerous opportunities to make money online available worldwide, one of the most popular methods these days is affiliate marketing. There are several approaches to affiliate marketing, but most marketers agree that the fastest way to start making money immediately is through Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing. Unfortunately, this is also one of the fastest ways to lose a lot of money if you do not plan properly.

In this guide, we will take a look at three critical factors that every affiliate marketer must be aware of in order to successfully turn a profit using PPC marketing without the risk of losing a large amount of money.

Factor 1 – Discovering a Profitable Offer

Generating an exceptional profit using ClickBank is still highly possible at the moment. Having said that, there is such a large variety of products and niches that it might be tough to choose the most effective income generating products on ClickBank to advertise. So what’s the easiest way to determine which products are ideal to promote so that you can make the most money without having to waste your time.

Let’s take a look at a handful of tips that when followed should put you on the right track to uncovering some of the most successful ClickBank products.

1. Pay attention to exactly how well other affiliate marketers are doing in promoting the product

It’s possible to understand a great deal about whether or not a product is profitable by looking at the sales statistics of others. A product is without doubt selling very well if there are a high number of affiliates advertising it. ClickBank has a sales statistic known as gravity, which is a number that represents the percentage of online marketers successfully promoting a specific product.

You shouldn’t make a judgment based solely on gravity, but it is useful data that ClickBank provides and can be an excellent tool in selecting a income generating product to advertise. Choosing virtually any product with gravity between 10 and 100 is usually a great start.  If the gravity is less than 10, odds are it isn’t selling very well. Likewise, if the gravity is more than 100 it may be an indication that the marketplace is saturated, although that is not always the case.

2. Monitor products that are rising in popularity

To discover successful products, it is helpful to pick one with statistics that are climbing. Restrict your choice of products to roughly 10 and track them for at least a week or two. Should you note that other affiliates are choosing one product a lot quicker than the others, then that could be a successful affiliate product.

3. Estimate the return rate

One crucial factor you should consider when choosing the top ClickBank products is the return percentage rate. When return rates are high, then a product sales rate is not indicative of your potential success with a product since you will likely end up returning your earnings in the future. Virtually any product with return rates higher than 15% probably should not be considered, irrespective of sales rates.

The only way to truly gauge return rates is to promote a product for a while and keep a close eye on the return rate. However, if you want to get a rough estimate of the potential return rate before you start promoting a product, you can do Google searches for these kinds of phrases:

“What is your opinion about PRODUCT TITLE?”

“Did you like PRODUCT TITLE?”

“Did anybody buy PRODUCT TITLE?”

The results for these searches will often give you a good overview of the quality of the product and what the general customer opinion of it may be.

4. Examine the size of the market

After you have narrowed down the products a bit more by crossing out products with high return rates, you should then check out the market size. For example, suppose you have found four different niches. Use the Google keyword tool and research the variety of keywords for each niche and determine the search volume. Google Trends is also a useful tool for analyzing the developments of a niche immediately and over time. The best scenario is to find a product with few competitors and high demand from customers.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for Part 2, where we’ll discuss how to build a great landing page where you can send your PPC advertising traffic.

About the Author

You can read about Charles Kirkland and his adventures and misadventures in affiliate marketing at his blog. He also provides free affiliate training and videos for marketers at any level there as well.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. The Low-Cost Guide to Getting Started in PPC Marketing: Part 3
2. The Low-Cost Guide to Getting Started in PPC Marketing: Part 2
3. Sort Your Way to Success