Search engines help purchase decisions

Saturday September 19, 2009
Search engines help purchase decisions
By EILEEN HEE

ADVERTISING money should “follow the eyeballs” of online consumers as they are more sophisticated in their use of the Internet than most marketers realise.
According to Google South-East Asia head of online and reseller sales, Charif El Ansari, a survey of active online consumers reveal that there are sweeping changes in the behaviour of Internet consumers as they increasingly use search engines to help them decide on product purchases.
Charif El Ansari ...’Marketers should adjust their advertising to fit that growing interactive mode.’
“59% cite search engines as a specific source for researching their new product,” he says, adding that 79% use the Internet during the purchase process.
He says digital lifestyle consumers – those who have bought a digital lifestyle product (like a notebook PC, digital camera or DVD) in the past six months – allocate a greater share of influence to the Internet than any other source.
“The Internet is also higher than any other source in terms of overall share of time spent to research a product purchase,” he says.
Charif points out that out of the 3.9 hours spent on researching a product, 60 minutes is more likely to be spent online while friends, sales staff at stores and in house display and promotions take a backseat. In line with this, he says, marketers should adjust their advertising to fit that growing interactive mode.
“People are watching TV and reading the newspaper online. Soon there will no longer be a comparison between online and offline,” he says.
He says there is also a growing trend where local advertisers focus on the local market.
“The first wave of online advertising we saw was small and medium enterprises and exporters trying to find international users,” he tells StarBizWeek.
He says online advertising/search engine marketing is becoming more relevant for local businesses targeting the domestic economy as more and more Malaysians are searching online for local products and services.
“Its not only about advertising. It’s about having a Web presence,” he adds.
Charif reveals domestic companies that have benefited from online advertising via Google AdWords platform.
“Through Google AdWords platform, SHL Cares, which does confinement services, has seen online traffic to its site jump by 200%. The company’s return on investment is 140 times for every ringgit it spends,” he said.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/19/business/4658786&sec=business