1. Seeing Between the
Lines…oftheSearch
and the Click
What you will gain from this report
Search marketing is an intense and competitive
battlefield, and for those of us in the trenches it can
feel like being dropped in an unknown location
without a map or GPS to guide us.
To date, the ability to track actual consumer behavior
from a search to a click has been virtually non-existent.
Because search engine results pages (SERPs) are
different for every consumer based on past search
behavior, location and social connections, capturing
competitive intelligence is increasingly difficult. For
search marketers, this means little to no visibility into
what is happening on the SERP such as who is listed
first or what words were used to perform the search.
Using Compete Search Engine Results Page Analyzer
(SERPA) data, this report provides insight into the
potential impact of increasing search marketing ROI
by analyzing real, consumer engagement by exploring
paid vs organic listings, illustrating the importance
of position on the page, and understanding the
importance of ranking first.

2. 1
The basics…
Search marketers have two approaches they can
take in order to help drive traffic to their site: (1)
optimize their site for search through a combination
of relevant content, tags, and links to and from their
site to leading sites in the industry (Search Engine
Optimization, or SEO), and (2) pay for ads on
search engines by bidding on search terms
(Search Engine Marketing, or SEM).
One downside of SEO is that your site is at the
mercy of search engines to define how relevant
your site is to a particular search term as defined
by a ‘quality score’. Your quality score could be
made better or worse based on the variables
the search engine is using in its algorithm, and
unfortunately, marketers have limited control over
where their site appears in the results.
Through SEM, search marketers manage a portfolio
of terms, both branded and non-branded, in order
to help drive leads through search. Because most
bidding is blind, marketers have little visibility into
who their competitors are and how they stack up.
The traditional approaches to measuring your
brand’s search marketing effectiveness has been
through collecting information about the referrals to
your site through internal tools, and if one wanted
secondary research, to purchase data collected
through ‘spidering’.
Spidering attempts to mimic real search activity by
having a computer scrape the text of SERPs based on
a pre-loaded list of search terms. The shortcomings
with this approach are that it is limited to the quality of
the inputs (i.e., search terms) that were pre-populated
into the computer by the programmer and does not
reflect actual search behavior performed by the
internet browsing population.
Compete’s approach to understanding consumer
behavior in the search space leverages the actual
search behavior of its panel of consumers in order
to capture the full breadth of terms people use
when searching. This report answers questions
such as:
• What share of SERPs have ads?
• What share of listings are organic?
• Where do the majority of people click on the SERP?

3. SERPs with no adsSERPs with at least 1 ad
55%
45%
2
More than half of all SERPs have at least one ad
Compete analyzed 10s of millions of search engine
results pages generated by actual consumers in
our U.S. panel in Q4 2011. We found that more
than half of all search engine result pages contained
at least one paid ad somewhere on the SERP.
The takeaway is that most searches performed by
people online are an opportunity for you or a
competing brand to influence consumer behavior.
Search is a highly competitive market and if your
brand is not aware of its standing in the market,
you may be missing out on thousands of potential
new customers to the competition.
Share of SERPsWith andWithoutAds

4. 85%organic
15%paid
15%
6%
9%
4%5
4
3
2
1
Share of Listings by Type Share of Organic Clicks by Rank
53%first link
33
Organic is a fiercely competitive place to play
Looking at all of the listings displayed with the 10s
of millions of SERPs generated by Compete’s panel
we found the overwhelming majority of listings are
organic (85%). The remaining 15% constituted
paid listings. If your brand is competing within
organic listings alone, you are going to be in fierce
competition with the competing firms, publishers,
blogs, and the long tail of web content. Since the
vast majority of listings on a SERP are organic,
and the majority of clicks are on the first listing,
it’s imperative that brands strategy including
constantly monitoring results due to the ongoing
evolution of search engine algorithms.
A good organic search strategy should:
• involve good on-page SEO so search engines
can find you
• include a blog that is updated often with insights
pertinent to your industry (in order to increase
inbound links and the number of pages crawled
by search engines)
• utilize site links and micro-sites to win more
real estate on SERPs
A better strategy will use paid to complement
organic to ensure coverage on the SERP and
to improve opportunities for clicks.
Share of ListingTypes and Share of Clicks

5. 24%
15%
61%right
top
Where Advertisers Appear Where Consumers Click
Share of paid listings Share of paid clicks
bottom
85%
2%
13%right
top
bottom
4
When it comes to paid...you want to be on top
How important is paid position (either Top, Right,
or Bottom) for capturing clicks? The right hand side
of the SERP is where the majority of paid listings
are served (61%) versus approximately 1 in 4 paid
listings on the top of the page. However, despite the
right side owning the majority of paid listings, it is
the top of the page that wins on clicks.
The overwhelming majority of paid clicks occur
on top paid listings (85%) versus only 13% of
paid clicks occurring on the right hand side.
The majority of marketers are conceding the top
spot through less aggressive bidding and ad
relevancy, but should be aware they are losing out
on the most valuable SERP position (5x more clicks
than the right and bottom combined).
Distribution of Paid Listings vs Paid Clicks

6. 15%
9%
4%
3%
2%
1%
1%
1%
59%first link
Distribution of Paid Clicks by Position and Rank
Top
Right
Bottom
1
2
3
1
2
1
2
3
4
Position and Rank Click Distribution
55
Being first matters too
While being in the top position is vital for receiving
clicks, it’s also important to be ranked first regardless
of position on the page. Of all paid clicks, 59% occur
on the first listing on the top of the page while only
15% are on the second listing on the top. While it’s
better to appear first on the right (4% of all paid clicks)
versus second on the right (3%), the third listing in the
top position is better than any on the right (9%).

7. 6
Looking ahead
There is a strategic battle going on in SERPs and every decision has a dramatic impact on results. Most, if not
all, search marketing efforts need to prove a ROI as there is a very definite spend, whether it is SEO or SEM.
Compete’s new Search Engine Page Results Analyzer (SERPA) allows an advertiser to better understand who
they are competing against and gives them a better idea of what their potential ROI would be on upping their
bids. This allows search marketers to come to the table with better competitive information and in turn make
better decisions and tactical changes to their search strategies on an ongoing basis. You don’t have to wonder
whether your competitor is outperforming you, you’ll know. By capturing millions of individual search listings
per day including natural and paid listings across the major search engines to accurately represent consumer
search behavior, SERPA can help answer questions like:
Competitive Intelligence:
• Measure which advertisers own the greatest amount of SERP real estate
• Understand which keywords your competitors are focused on
• Understand whether your competitor is strong in SEM, SEO, or both
• Compare ad copies to see what differentiates your campaigns from others and the results competitors
are getting from their campaigns
• Quantify the impact to your organization when you are not running a paid campaign or do not serve
a paid ad on a keyword set and your competitors are
Benchmark Performance:
• View paid and natural performance and gain insight into the effectiveness of SEM and SEO
• Analyze share of click-throughs across all SERP pages
• Understand how % of SERP listings and # of listings affect clickthrough rate (CTR)
• Benchmark your CTR vs. competitors
• Contrast performance on Google vs. other search engines
• Evaluate consumer engagement
Trend Performance:
• Ability to see how performance across key search performance indicators trends through seasonal high and
low points, as well as what competitors may be doing to improve performance through troughs and capitalize
on peaks in search activity

8. 7
About Kantar Media Compete
Kantar Media Compete is passionate about understanding consumers to inspire great marketing. Kantar
Media Compete helps the world’s top brands improve their marketing based on the online behavior of millions
of consumers. Leading advertisers, agencies and publishers rely on Kantar Media Compete’s products and
services to create engaging online experiences and highly profitable advertising campaigns. Kantar Media
Compete’s online panel-the largest in the industry-makes the web as ingrained in marketing as it is in people’s
lives. Kantar Media Compete is located in Boston, MA, with offices across the US, UK and France. For more
information, please visit http://www.compete.com/.
Learn more
For more information about Compete’s role in advancing the online marketing effectiveness
in online services, please contact:
Ranjan (RJ) Butaney
Senior Director of Business Development,
Agency Publisher Solutions
rbutaney@compete.com
617.933.5620
Matt Redmond
Client Services Director, Agency Publisher Solutions
mredmond@compete.com
617.933.5675
David Weigner-Lodahl
Senior Associate, Agency Publisher Solutions
dweigner@compete.com
617.933.5750
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