How To Use Paid Search To Target Buyers By Stage

For 2 years running now TechTarget and Google have combined to produce a behavioral research study for B2B Marketers on the search behavior of IT Buyers. The study shows that there are specific keyword combinations used dependent upon the buying stage of the person searching on Google.

While this study was focused on IT Buyers, the implications for the B2B Marketer should be relevant across the prospect universe no matter which industries you serve. In this post, I will provide an overview of the study and summarize the key actions you should take as a B2B Marketer responsible for driving leads for your business.

Background

This study is the 2^nd phase of a research project by both TechTarget and Google. In phase 1, the 2 companies relied on a Question and Answer format to determine the impact of buying stage on the keyword combinations used by IT buyers. In this 2^nd phase, released in September, 2009, the companies partnered with research firm OTX to validate their findings but this time they presented the survey respondents with actual search engine results pages. This allowed the research to quantify very few differences in actual behavior vs. reported behavior.

The search queries were clustered into 4 groups: Brand, Issue, Solution and Comparison. The research then tracked these search queries across “Awareness,” “Consideration” and “Decision” buying stages. So for example, “issue” searches, when the buyer is doing more research of the problems they are facing, were used primarily in the awareness phase and “brand” searches when a buyer is close to a decision are used more in the decision phase.

(Source: The Google/TechTarget Behavioral Research Project: Phase 2)

Results

• Brand and solution searches are highest in both the consideration and the decision phase of the buying process.
• Almost 50% of the users in this study withheld accurate contact details. CIOs and Directors were more willing to provide phone numbers and contact details than were lower-level buyers and CIOs were more likely to provide accurate contact details.  Email address was most likely to be accurate while phone number was least likely to be accurate.
• Title and topic of content influenced searches more so than content types. In fact, the top placed listings did not always receive the largest number of clicks.
• More than 80% of buyers skim the entire search engine page before clicking and 33% of buyers click on paid search ads.

(Source: The Google/TechTarget Behavioral Research Project: Phase 2)

Key Takeaways:

1. Spend more budget and time optimizing brand and solution keywords and less time on more generic keywords.
2. Organize your keywords, ads and content/landing pages based on the various buying stages. Test the combinations across all 4 types of keyword searches (brand, issue, solution and comparison).
3. Focus on a great title, a strong value statement and clear summaries for your content and ads used in search. While this sounds obvious, this is one area that a little time and focus can go a long way.
4. Based upon the quality of registration data, consider email nurturing techniques to “earn the right” for gaining a contact’s phone number and other contact details.

For more questions or information about this study contact:

Marilou Barsam

TechTarget

117 Kendrick Street

Needham, MA 02494

mbarsam@TechTarget.com

www.TechTarget.com

by Michael Brenner, July 21, 2010