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Issue #042: Conversion Comparison

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                    SearchReturn Discussion List
             "Understanding Internet Search Technology"
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Moderator:                                          Published by:
Disa Johnson                                       SearchReturn
               http://www.searchreturn.com
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February 28, 2006                         SearchReturn Issue #042
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                   .....IN THIS DIGEST.....

// -- FEATURED POST -- //

           "WebsideStory Release"
                     ~ Andrew Goodman

// -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- //

           "Yahoo! Stops Trademark Bids"

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// -- FEATURED POST -- //

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==> WEBSIDESTORY RELEASE

"My calculator is telling me that, in the same amount of elapsed
time, Google sent 400 buyers and AOL sent 6 buyers."

From: Andrew Goodman 

Classic post Mike! And so true! We I-Search (Return)'ers have
been debating these kinds of stats for years now. The 6 buyers
you received from AOL aren't going to buy you that 10,000-acre
ranch anytime soon. It won't even get you to Disney World.
Conversion rates matter, but a pristine conversion rate at
extremely low volume just "looks pretty." If you ask a guy on the
street if he'd like to buy a hot stereo, and he says "yes,"
that's 100% conversion.

Another very important point to make here is that the more
scrupulously a search company or media company weeds out
"non-buyers," the more they weed out *users* and *searchers.*
Their overall influence declines, while people turn to (eg.)
Google as their trusted solution for finding information. That's
how you build 60%+ market share.

Just imagine a phone system that whenever you picked up, it would
be a telemarketer, and only people who wanted sales calls from
telemarketers would subscribe to the service. The conversion rate
would be super high, but you probably wouldn't sell many phones
and you certainly wouldn't grow into a "global telecommunications
giant." I'm not sure you could even give those "phones" away.
Unless maybe you mailed them to every household for a few years
to the point where people began gluing them together and creating
modern art with them. But that would create a sizeable loss for
your company, and potentially annoy a lot of people who didn't
want to receive free phones in the mail.

Moderator Comment: How many folks out there made modern art with
their AOL mailers?

--
Andrew Goodman
www.page-zero.com
 

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// -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- //

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==> Yahoo! Stops Trademark Bids

http://directmag.com/news/2-27-06-Yahoo-trademark-bids

Essentials: Trademark woes have long plagued auction-style Search
Advertising services. With lawsuits now getting more prevalent
due in large part to the success of the Google AdWords platform,
Yahoo! decides to disallow bidding on registered marks.

 

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