Commentary

Study: Display Provides Lift To Search

by Rob Garner , September 2, 2009

The company I work for recently completed a detailed test and analysis of the impact of online display ads for both paid and natural search metrics, and concluded that search traffic does indeed increase through the brand awareness, brand recognition, and brand preference aspects of display campaigns. The study differs from others on the topic in that it was focused on actual client data that was managed across multiple channels, and it focused on both natural and paid search. The short story is that overall lift to paid and natural search visits with display campaigns running was increased by almost 14%.

The impetus for the study was a number of client questions about the effects of display on search traffic, as well as some varying opinions on display lift among digital experts that only considered search from the paid perspective. One of the most commonly cited studies, "The Combined Impact of Search and Display Advertising" (Atlas Institute, 2006), defines "search" as being PPC-only, and did not include consideration for natural search.

For this analysis, a single subject was chosen (a global travel client), and the dataset was separated between periods of "before," "during," and "after" display advertising. The study was also built on the premise and general acceptance that display advertising increases brand awareness and purchase intent. There were four separate periods observed, beginning Jan 1, 2008, though Feb. 28, 2009:

Period 1: No display campaigns

Period 2: Display campaign run for the subject, controlled by our analysts

Period 3: Display campaign running, but run by an outside party

Period 4: No display campaigns

Given the time period, it is worth noting that some of the shifts observed may also be attributed to major shifts in online behavior as a result of the economy.
Here is a short list of highlights and findings from the report:

- As mentioned above, search traffic increased by 13.7% with an optimized display campaign running.

- A third-party display campaign ran in contrast to our own campaign in a separate period, and CPCs and CTR metrics reached all-time lows during this period.

- Search visits decreased by -30.8% when the optimized display campaign was not running (again, keep in mind that this gap may be partially attributed to the change in the economy over the time period surveyed).

- Daily unique visitors to the subject site increased by 2.5% in the second period, with an optimized display campaign running.

- Online users who viewed the display ads likely remembered the client's brand after seeing the display ads, which translated to higher clicks and recognition when performing a search.

- With the optimized display campaign running, paid search click-throughs increased 14.87%, and costs-per-click decreased by 11.22%.

- ROI also increased with the optimized display campaign running.

Overall, the findings make a compelling case for attributing display to the added efficiency on both natural and paid search campaigns. To get the full study, send an email to findout@icrossing.com.

display, search

5 comments about "Study: Display Provides Lift To Search ".

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Keary Phillips from Angie's List, September 2, 2009 at 11:04 a.m.
I would be curious to see what the distribution of paid vs. organic click-through activity was between the exposed and control groups. Did it maintain the rough 70/30 split organic to paid?
Reply

Kaylan Malm from iCrossing, September 2, 2009 at 12:53 p.m.

Hi Keary, I am Kaylan Malm, one of the analysts on the initial report. This is a great question, thanks for your interest!

For this client, we typically see a search mix of 30/70 to 35/65 for paid/organic. During the time periods analyzed, we continued to see the same trend with the % paid ranging from 31-35%.

David Lawson from 5th Finger, September 2, 2009 at 3:42 p.m.

I've been aggregating my own anecdotal evidence from partners and clients over the past years on this exact subject and it absolutely supports your findings. In many cases, the advertiser hadn't run display for months or years even but had invested consistently and heavily in SEM and SEO for many years so they had a good baseline. When display is introduced, the average anecdotal uptick has been consistently 10-15% month over month for 3 months. Landing page activity reflected the same. When display was pulled, the following month shows a direct 30% decline. Would love to hear if anyone else has seen similar results outside of a testing environment like this...

R.J. Lewis from e-Healthcare Solutions, LLC, September 4, 2009 at 3:41 p.m.

Perhaps Google's known this all along. After all they did buy Doubleclick to get into display.

Cezanne Huq from Bluekettle, May 3, 2010 at 7:27 p.m.

Obviously this piece is a tad old but I generally agree with the findings where brand reliance and specific verticals are studied. Where I think I'd need more clarity though is whether the lift in paid and natural were solely seen on branded terms, which I think is the case? When there's a heavy reliance on brand, I believe Display and DRTV can generate demand but search nets and closes. Where a business doesn't rely heavily on brand, I doubt there's any impact at all from display and DRTV.