Commentary

Atkins Demonstrates Connection Between Television, Search Advertising

by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, September 30, 2015

Second-screen searchers, those who use their mobile device while watching television, present a huge opportunity for marketers. These consumers don't passively follow a conversation. They lean forward and look for more information and answers to learn and take action.

Data and metrics prove the connection for television ads and search engine advertising and marketing. For example, weight loss specialist Atkins Nutritionals recently synchronized its national TV advertising campaign featuring Sharon Osborne with paid search campaigns.

Working with TV sync ad technology company wywy, and digital marketing and analytics agency Rise Interactive, Atkins synchronized its TV story across multiple screens, resulting in an increase in online searches for its products.

The TV commercial urged viewers to visit Atkins.com& to claim a promotional coupon for the products. When the Atkins TV commercial aired, wywy's technology synchronized keywords from the TV ad with Google search in real time. The synchronized campaign allowed Atkins to appear as the number one search result during and immediately after the commercial was broadcast.

Post-campaign analysis results show synchronizing TV and paid search generated an increase in engagement. TV-inspired viewers searching for the Atkins products had a lower bounce rate of -33%. Consumers visited more pages, up 34%, in pages per visit, and spent 47% more time on Atkins' site, compared with regular search users.

The connection also exists for television shows and search.

Gearing up for fall TV, Google took a look back at search patterns from this past year to see the kinds of TV moments that drove searches and what brands can learn from them.

More than twice as many second screen TV watchers search for show-related information on engines as read about it on social media. Marketers create compelling campaigns by amplifying and adding value to what people search for on the second screen.

Leading up to the 2015 Oscars, the Google Play team looked at search behavior from previous award shows and found searches for winning movies in each category peaked instantly, with heightened search interest lasting 15 minutes following the win. During that time, Google Play served dynamic, real-time ads congratulating each winner. Using second-screen search insights as a starting point, the campaign saw a 19% increase in click-through rates for the real-time ads compared with controlled ads.

paid search, search, seo, television

2 comments about "Atkins Demonstrates Connection Between Television, Search Advertising".

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Matt Silk from Waterfall, September 30, 2015 at 5:56 p.m.
"When the Atkins TV commercial aired, wywy's technology synchronized keywords from the TV ad with Google search in real time."

This sounds like a lot of work. Why not add a simple text call-to-action and drive people directly to the site and give them a coupon code. Can even add people to a subscription list if you want to do future sales and marketing to your opt-in list. Text ATKINS to 55155
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Andreas Schroeter from wywy replied, October 1, 2015 at 3:14 a.m.

Matt,
Your suggestion is a valid option, similar to displaying the URL where they can get the offer. That said, many viewers just turn to Google search instead of going to the website - for whatever reason. A recent IAB study found that 37% of viewers looked up product information online after seeing a TV ad (source: http://www.iab.net/media/file/TheChangingTVExperience.pdf).

The idea of syncing TV and paid search is to have all potential ways of people interacting with the TV ad covered, be it search, the website, or even texting.

Google just published some results on how TV influences the number of searches based on a Nest TV campaign: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/second-screen-searches-crucial-i-want-to-know-moments-for-brands.html

And finally, it's not really a lot of work as the entire synchronization is done automatically once you set up the campaign. Here's a video that explains the entire process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvVBAb27CK4

Hope that helps.