10
Sep
2010
by Daniel Rowles
If you haven't come across it yet I'm sure you will very soon. Google Instant is the biggest change to Google search results in many years and will change how many people will use Google. That means that that there are some big implications for anyone running any type of search campaign.
Just to clarify what we are talking about, in many of the larger international versions of Google, including the US and, at the time of writing, 6 major European countries, Google now gives you search results as you are typing. The search results are based on what you have typed so far, and Googles predictions of what you are interested in. There is some discussion about how these predictions are made, and no doubt this will change over time, but it will change how we search.
How do we Search?
If we start by taking a step back, consider how you search now. You enter some words, press enter and see what Google comes back with. At this point you either click on a link, or, you add some word words to your search query and try to refine your results. A few of us might go to page two of the results, but very few.
Most of us search like this and Google has realised this and believes that Instant will speed up our searches by an average of 2-5 seconds. That will further Googles ability to be the fastest search engine out there, and with Microsofts search engine Bing doing their best to innovate their way into catching up with Google, Google will be happy to see the distance between the two engines increasing.
The reason we search in the way we do, is that we have learnt how Google works and know how to get the most from it. If we leave Google instant switched on, and you can turn it off, we are going to learn how to search in a different way. Different search behaviour means different approaches to search campaigns.
Everybody is learning
Over the coming days and weeks the real impact of Google instant will start to become apparent. If nothing else it will keep the focus on Google, even if some of the feedback they get is negative and that we realise we are all, including Google, learning as we are using.
The reason I say that Google will also be learning is that all the testing and modelling in the world will not ever tell you how billions of users are going to act in the real world. Google seem to be admitting this fairly openly when they mention the impact the new technology will have on Pay Per Click(PPC) campaigns. Within their own Adwords system Google currently say "It's possible that this feature may increase or decrease your overall impression levels." meaning they aren't quite sure what the real impact will be either.
What will Google Instant Change?
PPC ads will most likely get more impressions (your ads will be shown more) because Google sends multiple pages of results as you type, including PPC ads. Worst case scenario, this could diminish click through rates and increase the overall costs of campaigns. For some more detail you can see more on how things are calculated at The PPC Blog. It will also mean some new opportunities, so keep monitoring blogs, Twitter and monitor how your own search behaviour changes.
The new interface means that less search results are shown on the page because there's less room. Being in the top 3 just got even more important.
Agencies and Search companies are already adopting new strategies to take advantage of these changes. Our campaigns will need to adopt to take advantage or at the very least to prevent diminishing returns.
Wether you like it or not, Google Instant has changed things, and as ever we need to react to the marketplace to get the most from our budgets.
Keep an eye on the Google Blog for the official line on what they are doing.