By Anthony Lang, Senior Account Executive
Hungry for a hamburger? Based purely on market share, you're more likely to choose McDonald's than Wendy's. However, most people don't make their lunch choices that way. If you want a $1 double cheeseburger, you'll probably choose McDonalds. But if you want chili with a Caesar salad, you're more likely to end up at Wendy's. It all depends what you're looking for.
Too often, we approach search engine marketing strategy as though market share is the only thing that matters. It's true that Google has a 70% market share, and if your customer wants to find a company's web site, odds are they'd use Google. But let's say they want up-to-date flight information. They might choose Bing instead, because it's integrated with Farecast, which gives real-time access to flight schedules. It all depends what they're looking for.
When it comes to SEM strategy, Google and Bing are more like McDonald's and Wendy's than Coke and Pepsi. When a customer chooses Wendy's, they're likely to use a different ordering strategy than at McDonalds, because they're visiting for different reasons.
Similarly, assuming your Google strategy will work the same way in Bing is not the best approach.
What's more effective is to think about how and why your customers might use different search engines to find what you're marketing, and align your search strategies with those behaviors.
Individual search engines require individual search engine strategies. To optimize your SEM programs, spend as much time developing your strategies as you do deciding what to eat for lunch.
