Top 5 Search Metrics for Managers

In today’s competitive market, the search metrics provided by search engines like Google itself are not sufficient for managers to monitor search marketing performance. Emerging tools like Search Intelligence have been filling this need with innovative search data analytics. In this article we will learn about five search metrics managers should track over time to proactively monitor search marketing performance.

Share of Search is the measure of search volume your branded queries are getting in any Search Engine. As a manager, you should monitor this metric to understand whether your overall marketing and branding activities have improved your brand popularity in search or not. It help evaluate the percentage of market share you are winning in search engine compared to your competitors. 

Therefore, the share of search is an ultimate analysis of your marketing performance and as a marketing manager, this should be a top-most metric to monitor over time and align your plannings to improve these metrics. As these metrics improved over time your Search Paid Advertising ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend) should also be optimized and as a manager, you should be monitoring these metrices closely. 

Share of Search = (Your Branded Queries Search Volume) / (Branded Queries Search Volume of Your and Competitors)

This metric shows the visibility of your ads that users can view without having to scroll down in the SERP pages. It is prime real estate in SERP which wins maximum clicks. Both Paid and Organic search performance reports provided by search engines like google do not provide this invaluable information.

Monitoring your above-the-fold coverage search metric over time compared to competitors will help you understand the effectiveness of your holistic search program and activities. It helps you better strategize and synergize paid and organic search teams to build holistic search strategies to win more Above the Fold coverage.

True ad rank is a search metric that determines the accurate position of ads on a search engine results page (SERP) considering all elements on the page. The SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ranking reports provided by search engines like Google give information on organic ranking considering all organic components. For Paid Ads, you completely lack this ranking detail. The True Ad Rank gives you strategic marketing insights on your and competitors’ exact ad position considering the entire SERP page and provides information on which SERP features that ad is getting visibility.

Understanding above-the-fold coverage and tracking True Ad Rank over time compared to your competitors help you monitor your search activities’ effectiveness and get competitive insights to optimize your holistic search strategies to win more clicks from SERP.

The Inbound share of voice is a calculation of your ad’s visibility in search engines, on your customer’s search queries. It helps you measure the percentage availability of your ads compared to your competitors’ ads across all keywords you are targeting. The insight considers the number of keywords, their search volume, number of ads, and ad position in the SERP.

Managers need to track this search metric to analyze the effectiveness of their search marketing performance. Alongside holistic Search Share of Voice, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) managers can track Paid Search SOV (Share of Voice) and SEO Managers can also monitor Organic SOV break downed by SERP features.

Click share is a search metric that refers to the number of estimated clicks you might receive on the search engines. It is calculated based on estimated CTR and keyword search volume. Click Share considers the factors like true ad rank, above-the-fold visibility, and the number of ads in any SERP to calculate estimated CTR which is multiplied by keyword search volume to calculate Yours vs Competitors Click Shares.

Click Share= Estimated Click Through Rate (CTR)*Keyword Search Volume

Click share metric helps search managers to monitor the effectiveness of keyword planning, and prioritization over time to win more clicks.

Managers need to track these search metrics and insights to monitor your holistic search marketing effectiveness, understand the competitive landscape, and give direction to your search team to effectively utilize the search budget across paid and organic strategies to maximize ROI (Return on Investment) from holistic search marketing campaigns.