Tag Archives: Google Adwords
BP Hijacks Adwords to Fight Oily Mess
Can throwing big bucks at search engine marketing smooth over a corporate crisis? BP thinks so. A quick “oil spill” search puts the embattled oil giant’s tailored messages above organic search results on Google, Bing and Yahoo.
BP’s PR strategy for the bad press is no shocker. One study showed that nearly 30 percent of people will click a sponsored link before genuine search results.
Google’s AdWords program lets companies purchase sponsored links that appear above normal search results depending on the company’s budget.
Terms that also trigger BP’s response website include “oil spill claims,” “oil spill disaster” and “oil spill cleanup.” BP may be paying $10,000 daily to stay at the top of search results, according to ABC News.
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Case Study: Social Media Clobbers Adwords
- The conversion ratio for social media was 96% higher than Adwords.
- The cost per conversion for social media was 27% less.
- Social media pushed about 16% more traffic to the site than the Adwords campaign.
- Social media visitors were more engaged, viewing 30% more pages than their Adword brethren.
- After 6 weeks, the search campaign was shutdown with only a slight impact on website traffic, and none on conversions.
Does this mean you should pull the plug on your search campaigns? No! The efficacy of social media will depend on your market situation and ability to deliver the goods. Ideally, search marketing and social media should complement each other.