Last week we were thrilled to host our second virtual event of 2021 – Seamless Search; Ask Us Anything. Incubeta’s Senior Commercial Manager, Sophie Dixon was joined by our Director of Strategy Damien Bennett, to discuss our new proprietary technology – expanding on the methods by which brands can use Seamless Search to achieve the best results possible for their business.
Since our launch event in September, Seamless Search has been recognised as “Best Martech Solution” at the Wires, and “Best SEM Solution” at the Martech Breakthrough awards. And we’re grateful for the recognition of the results that Seamless Search drives.
Our ‘Ask Us Anything’ session took a deep-dive into Seamless Search itself, answering a range of questions from the audience, to provide more of an understanding of Seamless Search’s capabilities, and how it can solve key business challenges.
The Origins of Seamless Search
The concept of Seamless Search is very much an idea that’s always been in the background. For many years we’ve had clients asking how incremental their paid search activity is – particularly focusing on the true incremental value of their search activity once you remove the cannibalization of their organic coverage performance. While the market was somewhat saturated with tests trying to assess this impact, none of the tests were optimal. Most weren’t comprehensive – running on a broad range of keywords, with many keywords within these sets producing remarkably different behaviours, which ultimately impacted the accuracy of the results. We realised that, using advancements in machine learning, we could produce a comprehensive and confident answer to whether or not you should pay to appear for keywords that you already hold a high organic position for.
Initially Seamless Search started as a project to develop and run an advanced and accurate incrementality test, however, what it ended up becoming was much more comprehensive. As we started building out the test methodology, we considered the benefits of automation – making the insights derived from the test actionable through bid adjustments based on the incrementality of the two channels.
Seamless & Search Ads 360
It’s important to stress that Seamless Search is an extension of SA360, not a replacement. Platforms such as SA360 are there to manage the scale of paid search activity, whereas Seamless Search is there for specific keywords that have a question mark around the incremental value of paying for them. Seamless Search acts as a complementary platform to the existing paid search software that advertisers are already using.
Bidding
When one assesses the interplay between paid and organic search, there’s multiple factors that can impact incrementality – which can be split into external and internal:
- Internal factors are those that you can control, such as; current paid position, current organic position and promotions.
- External factors are those outside of your control, such as; competitor paid coverage, competitor organic coverage and wider marketing activity.
Seamless Search takes all these factors into account, using ML to understand the different combinations which produce an incremental click. Once identifying the optimal position to appear in a paid perspective a bid adjustment is then made.
Seamless Search & Google Ads
When discussing the difference between Seamless Search and Google Ads/Organic reporting it’s important to remember that Google Ads/Organic Reporting are looking at a single channel, whereas Seamless Search looks at the revenue attributed to that channel, minus the cannibalisation. Seamless Search handles the reporting and actioning on a basis that would not be possible through Google Ads or Search Console.
ROI Uplift
The best way to witness the ROI driven by Seamless Search is to analyse what happens when you add the two channels together. As it stands, using data from existing Seamless Search clients, we’re seeing the best of both worlds. Advertisers are seeing both an increase in revenue and an increase in ROI, as Seamless Search is finding areas where the advertiser can increase their coverage, and also identifying areas where the advertiser can create efficiencies..
Forecasting
Aware that Seamless Search is a new platform to market, we’re helping all prospect clients build a business case by providing them with a projection of the likely impact that Seamless Search will have on their overall search results. This helps businesses decide whether or not the platform is the right fit for them. Click here to request your Incremental Revenue Forecast.
During the onboarding process, you will be provided with specialist led guidance which will comprises of two sessions to enable the use of the Platform: i) Session one: A demo covering the platform functionality ii) Session two: An open Q&A session with the team which will be scheduled the following week. Pre Recorded videos providing an overview of the platform and its basic functionalities will also be available to support the users. There is also an option to opt for customised training on the more advanced uses of the platform, although this comes at an additional cost.
