Google just released a study (no release yet, though I’ve been promised one) showing that for B2B advertisers, search is more effective than trade journals. If that’s not a shot across the bow of every niche publisher in the world, I dunno what is. (via AdWeek)
(The study) polled 900 technology professionals with involvement in purchasing in enterprise application software, security software and server storage. The online poll found search was used 30 percent more frequently than trade periodicals in the research phase of the buying cycle. Search was 21 percent more frequently used than the b-to-b press in the consideration phase and 62 percent more in the final purchase phase.
Andy has a good breakdown.
From observational studies of B2B behavior, I certainly believe in the general conclusions of this study: that people do use websites in B2B purchasing (particularly during the research phase), and that search is a strong component of this behavior.
But from the description of the study, I don’t believe the detailed findings. AdWeek says that this was an “online poll”, which implies two methodology problems:
a) What people say and what they do are two different things, so you have to watch people’s actual behavior, and not just ask them what think *think* influences them. In general, surveys and polls are weak methods.
b) An *online* poll will likely bias the findings when you are trying to study the relative importance of online vs. offline media.
It’s a poll. That’s interesting, but not much more than that. What really counts is a comparison test between a traditional campaign and an Adwords campaign.
One of our clients sells a $65K enterprise-level software tool. He spent $35K on ads in industry journals. He got zero response. Not one single lead. We set up a PPC campaign for him (PPC, LPs, CRM). When it launched, he got his first lead within 45 minutes. In the following months, he got dozens of leads and he closed sales.
Do you think he is ever going to use print media again?
We offer a B2B directory on 01Wholesale.com.
I havn’t asked for testimonials from our 9000+ users. So I don’t know if they are getting returns. But after posted multiple affilaite program links, I generated about $400+ in 3 months.
That’s $400 in commission fees for me and at least $3500 is sales for the affiliate programs I participate in.
I think the survey is correct.
Marcel
I missed Schmidt’s interview because I set my new Tivo to record Charlie Rose from KVIE instead of KQED. Would love a transcript that I can search. Anyone know of any hacks to generate transcripts from closed captioning?
HDT