Seth Godin has an interesting take on Google and Adwords marketing:
“Every day, hundreds of millions of people do hundreds of millions of searches on Google. Each search is its own “channel.” Each search represents a distinct marketing vehicle, a chance for an individual to directly connect with a marketer.”
Remember the pages-and-pages of classified advertising in your local rag? At a fundamental level, it’s very much the same thing.
Most folks are selective readers by default. We seldom read every single word of every single page in a magazine or paper. Rather, we’ll skim over less self-relevant information and focus on that which actually interests us. One wouldn’t necessarily read all job placements if one is after a motor vehicle, for example.
Google has simply added contextual search to help facilitate and speed the ’selective read’ tendency. Multiply that over millions of searches a day and you have a wining formula that pits one advertiser against the next for front-page billing.
The problem for the end user however — which can lead to no end of frustration — is that as far as Google is concerned results do not necessarily have to be correct on a contextual level, rather they merely have to exist at all. Yes, Google helps you spell. So obviously they care about correct results, surely?
The built in spell check is a wonderful example of how to improve viewer retention and gain repeat custom. Misspelled searches will still frequently yield corrected results as Google will attempt to include the corrected spelling as part of the search algorithm. They are, none-the-less, counting on you to spot your error and re-submit the corrected search, regardless, which will provide very similar results.
In doing so, you have provided not one, but two distinct opportunities have Adwords presented.
≡ This is a brief remainders entry relating to the topics of advertising, google, internet, reading and written in response to an external article, comment or opinion — refer linked article for completeness and context.
Brendan Borlase is a Systems and Network Administrator living in Adelaide, Australia, having lived, worked and breathed Information Technology for over 12 years. Learn more.
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