"Are we done with the interview now? Got five minutes?" asked Seth Brenzel at Atomz after we chatted for my new Case Study on his marketing. "Let me show you something."
It was *so* cool.
Seth's testing adding his own relevant text-ads at the top of his own site's search results. It's like taking the paid listings you're putting on outside search engines such as Google, and putting them on your own site's search function too.
Three data points make me suspect this will be a successful test:
#1. A certain segment of the Net population invariably use sites' search functions to navigate. They don't use your nav bar or your lovely merchandise graphics. They skip that stuff and go straight for your search box. If the results don't please them, they bail on your site.
#2. Most sites' search results alone aren't all that great. It's like the marketer assumed everyone would use regular navigation and search is an afterthought. The chances visitors will find useful results can be slim.
#3. About 22% of all clicks generated from search results on Google and Yahoo are from searches clicking on paid text listings. That means almost one out of every four searchers is happier to click on the sponsored link instead of the actual search results.
Put those three facts together and you've got a strong case for sticking little text-listings in your own site's search results. I know we'll be testing it in a few weeks ourselves.
