Google CPG blog - News and Notes from Google"s CPG Vertical

Moms Give Up High Heeled Shoes and Lipstick For Search

Wednesday, December 09, 2009



Moms are a hot target audience for many marketers, given that they are often the primary household decision maker.

Moms make choices involving their family's health, well-being and livelihood and this transcends across various different categories including health, grocery needs, mealtime choices, auto, apparel and even travel.

According to
BabyCenter's 21st Century Moms Report, a new mom is born every 7 seconds!

It's no wonder, then, that this year, we saw a flurry of research reports including
The Rise of the Real Mom published by AdAge, Power Moms by Nielsen, and eMarketer's Moms Online: More Influential Than Ever. These new reports speak to the powerful influence of Moms and the growing importance of the internet and social media in their lives.

As a search expert with Mom on the brain, Google was curious to learn more specifically about Moms and Search. To accomplish this, we partnered with
BabyCenter, a Moms expert, on a joint research study designed to take a look into the mindset and motivations behind decision-making Moms.

Just days ago, we released the findings from our new study, conducted with OTX Research and Sterling Brands, titled, "
The Four Truths About Moms and Search". Here are some highlights:

Truth 1 of 4: The Stork Delivers Search
  • Mothers conduct nearly twice as many searches as non-mothers: the study showed that before becoming a Mother, participants averaged 11 searches per week -- while Mothers averaged 21 searches per week.
  • Searching is now the number one activity conducted by Moms online, surpassing e-mail.

Truth 2 of 4: Moms Become Black Belts in Search
  • 3 out of 4 Moms believe that they have become better at searching versus a year ago.
  • More than 1/3 of Moms don't make it past the top section of the first page of search results, which includes both paid and organic results.
  • More than half of Moms actually search via full sentence queries, such as, "What should baby poop look like?" to zoom in on more specific results.

Truth 3 of 4: Search is Mom's GPS to Store
  • Moms use search engines throughout their purchase decision making process; half of the Mothers surveyed use search during the awareness, familiarity and consideration stage of this process.
  • Expecting Moms and Moms with Teens are even more likely than the average mom to use Search Engines during the loyalty stage: to stay in touch with a brand and keep up to date with new offers and products.
  • 53% of Moms say they have every expectation of seeing well-known brands highlighted within a sponsored link, and 59% of Moms say they would click on a coupon noted in a sponsored search result.
  • 55% of Moms can link a purchase in a physical store back to a search conducted via a search engine.
Truth 4 of 4: Search is Mom's Back Up Brain
  • Moms most often delegate activities like finding recipes, reviews of products/services and finding coupons/deal to search engines.
  • Moms are passionate about search. In fact, 56% of Moms say they would give up high heeled shoes for search, and 53% would give up lipstick!
  • When we asked Moms to choose if Google was a family member, friend, colleague, manager or acquaintance, 65% of Moms consider Google a close friend or a family member.
These truths reveal to marketers that motherhood creates a unique search window during which a valuable connection can be made. To make sure that messaging is getting through to Moms, marketers need to make sure they appear prominently on the first page of results when Moms enter both broad and specific queries into a Search Engine. Finally, marketers should not underestimate the power of search to drive upper purchase funnel activities and to connect with Moms on an emotional level.

Posted by Jenny Liu, Industry Marketing Manager, CPG

Compete & YouTube Present: Driving Brand Engagement among Social Media Users

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Join Compete and YouTube for a webcast that will provide insights into how advertisers are using paid media on YouTube to drive engagement with their brand.

For the first time, Compete and YouTube will share benchmark data from over 100 advertisers and case studies that sheds light on best practices for using paid media to foster brand engagement. They will take a deeper look at the online habits of the YouTube audience, explore scalable success metrics, and provide examples of campaigns that have successfully sparked users’ engagement with brands.

During this webinar you will come away with:

- Campaign best practices to yield greater lift
- Vertical specific benchmarks
- A better understanding of the YouTube audience

Compete and YouTube will address questions such as:

- Are visitors on YouTube valuable for marketers?
- How effective are campaigns on YouTube at driving brand engagement?
- What are the common qualities of successful homepage ads on YouTube?

The webinar will feature several examples of recent successful campaigns, including those for a movie studio, a major automotive brand and a major CPG manufacturer.

The webinar will run approximately 45 minutes, followed by a 15-minute question and answer session. Webinar details
Date: Tuesday, December 8th 2009
Presenters:
Jessica Ong, Director, Online Media and Search, Compete
Leah Spalding, Market Insights Manager at Google, Inc.

Register at this link here.