Search for your
TV show using Google? The big Internet media company would like you to know that TV networks and programmers get more bang for their buck when adding in paid search advertising.
Pure organic search is where viewers are just voluntarily looking for keywords--or in this case, names of TV shows--on their own. Google says that when TV programmers pay for a search ad link--which
usually appears above the organic results, or to the right of the organic results--there is a 25% increase in the likelihood that viewers will tune in to a new show. Google says there is a 20% lift
for any existing show.
Program awareness levels also shot up--57%, according to the survey. In conjunction with this, Google said there is a 45% decline in awareness when it comes to those
time-slot competitors. In this awareness result, respondents were first asked to search--or query-- a single network. After this, they were asked the question: "When you think about TV, what's the
first show that comes to mind?"
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Currently, a search for ABC's upcoming "Dancing with the Stars" has ABC is running a paid search link. Google says, however, that this was not part of the survey
that was completed last quarter among 12,000 respondents and looks at a broad range of broadcast and cable shows. Google partnered with research company Ipsos on the study.
Adam Stewart, industry
director of media and entertainment for Google, says: "What we have here is [positive results in how] paid search impacts whether to view content."
In addition, Stewart says that when it comes to
networks' related branded sites there is a 12% lift when it comes to new shows, and a 49% hike on existing shows, when TV programmers place paid search ads.
Although Google has a separate deal
with Dish Network as well as other cable operators, when it comes to set-top box data of actual viewing of TV shows, Stewart notes this was not part of its survey.