• by Tanya Gazdik , Staff Writer, December 1, 2009

Advertisers love search stats, but maybe there's a better way to get ahead of the curve on consumers' actions. BlueKai thinks they have it nailed. The company is now issuing a quarterly index of consumer intent action across the Web. Dubbed BlueKai Pulse, the free report reflects data trends and insights from the BlueKai Data Exchange, which aggregates the anonymous intent data of over 145 million unique users on top-tier U.S. e-commerce, online travel agency and auto comparison sites. 

The intent actions include strictly low-funnel purchase activities such as price search by auto make and model, travel destination search by airport or city, or activity on price comparison sites. The depth of intent data is representative of 64 percent of the U.S. online population.

While search ads are frequently used by online marketers seeking to connect with consumers based on intent, in reality, consumers often begin their shopping experience with a search and leave other, more detailed signals of intent across e-commerce or shopping comparison sites before they make an actual purchase, according to BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakol.

"We feel that the BlueKai Pulse Report's initial insights into consumer intent actions provides a good measure of in-market shopping trends based on its correlation with actual sales data," Tawakol told OMMA. "With subsequent reports, we will look to explore deeper into each of the retail, auto and travel verticals to provide even more meaningful insights and trending analysis for marketers."

In the auto vertical, BlueKai data shows the continued popularity of Toyota, Ford, Chevrolet and Honda. When compared with actual auto sales, BlueKai seems to be on to something. And the correlation goes beyond the top makes; intent actions also correlate with actual sales at the model level.

However, there are two notable differences between BlueKai intent actions and actual sales of cars. BlueKai intent actions tend to pre-date sales activities by at least two months because cars are intended purchases. The second notable difference is that some sports models index slightly higher in intent actions than what is sold. For example, the Ford Mustang is on the top 10 list for models searched through BlueKai but not on the top list of actual models sold.

In the retail category, smartphones are dominating cell phone interest. All of the top five cell phones that users on the BlueKai Exchange researched were smartphones. The BlackBerry Curve and the Apple iPhone had the largest number of intent actions, with almost a third of all total intent actions. LG's models also proved popular. The BlueKai top five match up well with actual sales (during the latest period sales figures are available).

How is this data useful for advertisers? BlueKai tracks over 50 manufacturers and 700 car models, allowing advertisers to target users actively, considering specific auto models or manufacturers. The degree of correlation between intent actions and sales shows that influencing online intenders is the most effective way to target in-market consumers, says Tawakol.