What Makes Users Click? SEO vs Sponsored Search

For the search engine, paid search becomes profitable when the user clicks on a sponsored link. For the advertiser, however, it's the conversion that occurs after the click that monetizes the experience. Nevertheless, no conversions take place unless the user is first induced to click. So, what makes users click?

Whether paid search ads or natural listings, the primary reason 51.9% of users click on product information results is that the link "appeared to offer sources of trusted, unbiased information," according to Enquiro. The clear indication is that, in the short space available for a search listing, the description must strive to engender trust in the user. Oftentimes that means less pitch and more description.

Furthermore, 47.6% of search engine users say that they click on organic listings of consumer research sites first, with an additional 18.7% giving their first clicks to organic listings of generic buying sites. Only 23.1% of respondents choose to click on any type of sponsored link before an organic one.

However, while users might prefer organic listings to paid ads, 70% of respondents to a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project survey said they're okay with the concept of paid or sponsored results.

The Importance of Relevance

Next to trust in the search result, relevance is the next most important cause for a click, according to 23.6% of Enquiro respondents. A strong relationship between paid search ads and the keywords used to call them up helps create relevant results. And more than 70% of Internet users are ready to click on relevant sponsored search links, no matter if they're Google or non-Google users.

"We realized to have a long-term play, we had to have an SEO campaign." -Les Kruger, Senior Online Marketing Manager, AT&T Wireless; CMO Magazine

The importance of relevance and accuracy is reinforced by Pew Internet and American Life Project research, which shows how more than 90% of US adult Internet users consider those two attributes important or very important for search engines.

Similarly, US consumers cite relevant information and credible results (similar to "trust" in the Enquiro data above) as the two most important search engine features, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

Paid vs. Organic Search

Where relevance and trust that the information is unbiased come together is at the moment search engine users decide whether or not to click. And simply because organic search listings are not advertising, six out of 10 Internet users deem such results most relevant, according to iProspect.

With that caveat in mind, note that no matter how the data is sliced, US Internet users perceive organic search results as more relevant than paid search advertisements. The more experienced the user, for instance, the more likely he or she will choose organic over paid search listings.

And on the most popular search engine, Google, seven out of 10 cite natural search listings as more relevant than paid ads. However, with paid search ads more popular than organic search on MSN, for example, that site becomes a logical choice for certain search marketing campaigns.

However, Internet users may not be as aware of sponsored links as the engines and advertisers might believe. When presented with a sample search page containing five such links, nearly 27% of Google users and over 42% of non-Google users are either not aware or uncertain of any sponsored links.

Such results offer positive implications for paid search advertisers, since they might want users to perceive sponsored links as no different than organic listings.

In the end, as shown at the start of this report, marketers who reallocate a small portion of their paid search budgets toward SEO efforts will tend to get higher conversion rates, since users tend to prefer organic listings over advertising. Therefore, with the user as the manager of the search link's destiny, enhancing organic rankings will tend to harvest more responses than putting the vast majority of a search marketing budget into paid advertising-over 80%, as is currently the case.

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With an understanding that detail matters and the experience to back it up, we at WhyZoom welcome the opportunity to work with you.

If you are interrested in advertising on one of our web properties or you have consulting needs, Please contact Chris or Tracey.