• by Staff Writers , August 24, 2006

Online media plans hinge on keyword search campaigns, so getting the copy just right is critical.

Reprise Media

USA Network

Reprise Media: Eric Friedman, Client Services Manager; Jocelyn Bourguignon, Associate Media Manager; John Chan, Associate Media Director

Starlink: Mike Horowitz, Associate Media Director; Rupal Amin, Media Associate

For the premiere of USA Network's original series "Psych," Reprise built a search marketing campaign on the buzz generated by USA's launch promotion, unlocking latent demand for the show. Thousands of visitors landed at a minisite in the weeks leading up to the premiere, which helped "Psych" generate a high 6.1 rating.

Reprise used keywords like "USA television shows" and "detective series." Names of cast members with fan bases appeared in search results pages and in contextual ads on blogs. Plot points also became search terms ("photographic memory" and "magic 8-ball").

Click here to view Reprise's brief.

Outrider

Sears.com

Outrider: Jada King, Client Service Lead; Mike Wachsnicht, Senior Account Manager

Sears: Colleen Cassell, Director, Customer Direct Marketing; Gayle deDie, Marketing Manager, Customer Direct

The search campaign for Sears.com integrated promotions and messaging from Sears' weekly national print circulars, informing shoppers about general sales, discounted products, free-shipping offers, and online purchase/in-store pickup options, delivering more relevant results to users.

The campaign's success relied on frequent and dynamic analytics to determine which factors drove click-throughs and conversions, with adjustments in real time. Outrider leveraged a Yahoo tool to manage timing and placement of ads on the search engine to coincide with Sears' weekly promotional schedule. Sears.com achieved a click-through rate increase of 200 to 300 percent, aided by real-time analytics.

Click here to view Outrider's brief.

Outrider

Sears Home Services

Outrider: Mike Wachsnicht, Client Service Lead; Kersten Rohrbach, Search Specialist

Sears: Walt Hilker, Sales and Marketing Manager, Sears Home Services

The campaign built on basic awareness of Sears' in-home repair service. To increase click-through rate conversions, Outrider focused on a call to action and keyword queries that highlighted consumers' behavior via keyword usage.

Going beyond optimizing landing pages to expand keyword lists based on consumer usage data, Outrider added online scheduling to the creative and communicated that it was the official Sears site. Both strategies helped drive conversions. The agency also added dynamic keyword insertion.

Search marketing  increased the number of in-home estimates for Sears  by 856 percent, while costs have only increased 181 percent. Results have driven a budget increase of 146 percent over Sears' 2003 baseline year, and the click-through rate has increased 93 percent over baseline, with a 280 percent increase in conversions.

Click here to view Outrider's brief.

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