Part of my job is to look through various data from comScore and Nielsen on a regular basis, and over the last few months, I've noticed some interesting points about the value of organic and paid search links for consumer interaction.
What the figures show fairly consistently is that when we look at all website visits that originate from a search engine, those coming through paid search links (i.e. search ads) are more likely to convert than those coming from organic (algorithmic) search results.
So this would seem to suggest that people coming to your website through search ads are more valuable than those coming through organic links. The reason why this might be true is to do with how people search, and it has some interesting implications for site owners.
First of all, we would expect that searches to do with entertainment, sports news and so on would be less likely to result in a purchase, and are more likely to use organic than paid links. In contrast, searchers looking for the best price for a particular pair of shoes, or a specific mp3 player, are more receptive to appropriate paid search links, perhaps with the model name or a specific price mentioned.
To get more insight, we then looked at search clicks within specific categories - so all searches in the travel sector, all those to do with retail and so on. Interestingly, the figures show that even within a particular category, clicks on paid search links were still more likely to convert than those on organic links.
Broadly, we can see that this again relates to the kind of search that results in a click on each kind of link. Informational searches are more 'browsing'-led, looking for updates, the most recent breaking news and so on. In this context, a paid search ad can't necessarily offer a very compelling proposition - 'more accurate information', anyone?! When it comes to searches relating to purchase, however, it's more results-led. Paid links are much more relevant, and consumers are more receptive to them. In particular, if we think of people looking for the best price on a particular product, search ads by their nature can be more compelling, particularly those that have a specific price on them, and searchers are more likely to be swayed by what they offer.
What does this mean for you? Well, ultimately it goes back to the well-known point about what role search ads play. Organic links are preferred for gathering information, bringing people to your website and so on; but if you're looking for converting customers, you have to remember that searchers are more easily swayed by paid links when looking to buy, and so being present in the ad listings is an important part of your ideal search strategy.
(Nielsen data allows us to see what proportion of all search referrals result in a secure session on the destination site, and sites such as Amazon and banking websites illustrate that this is a pretty good indicator of transactions or conversions taking place on the site).
All figures are from NNR search data, October to December '09. UK data used in this post; French data reflect the same patterns.