Aug
24
2010
The energy supply market has become increasingly competitive in recent times, and with the internet the primary research tool for a large proportion of New Zealanders, being found online for a (new) provider is indeed important, unsurprisingly.
What is surprising, however, is that the online search visibility for New Zealand power companies is very low compared to other industries, despite the pressures energy companies are under to maintain customer loyalty and grow market share.
First Rate’s first industry report for energy companies provides some key insights looking into the performance by provider against the 49 most-trafficked search terms on Google NZ (brand terms were excluded). With the position on the search results page determining in large part the amount of traffic a website receives from any given search, there is a lot at stake.
Our research shows that there is a huge variance in the adoption of online – from Powershop.co.nz utilising search as well as social media marketing, both integral parts of what is the world’s first online energy store, to other providers that perform significantly less well as the report shows. Overall, natural search performance is the worst of any industry surveyed by First Rate!
In industries like Insurance scores of over 70% are observed. In the energy supply market, Mercury Energy performed strongest of the suppliers as far as SEO is concerned, but with a score of just 12% visibility!
In paid search, Contact Energy are the clear leader, with a balanced strategy of keyword bidding and a score which is 70% greater than their nearest competitor (53% visibility). So whilst the market is hugely competitive, few providers are realising the opportunity which online represents.
Download First Rate’s comprehensive report today: Power Company Online Market Research.
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Jul
15
2010
With the Rugby World Cup approaching, we thought it would be interesting to see the effect this has on local search volumes, or whether visitors will search overseas before arriving in NZ.
As always, the real opportunities lie in non-branded searches. For example there are 3,600 monthly searches in NZ for the “Britz” brand name, yet 60,000+ searches for “campervans” alone.
Natural search results receive approximately (estimate!) 3-4 times as many clicks as the paid ads on a Google results page. In the campervan sector we see both Maui and Britz making the most of the opportunity – with market share scores of 69% and 66%, respectively.
CamperTravel.co.nz, Discovery Motorhomes and Air NZ’s Campervans section all fail to register with Google for any of the relevant search terms in the industry. This places them at a serious disadvantage, particularly the first two which don’t have the benefit of internal referral traffic that Air NZ does. Camper Travel do score the highest of all in Paid Search visibility with an incredible score of 84%. This is due to aggressive bidding on a broad range of keywords. Maui, on the other hand, does not rely on expensive paid traffic but have strong visibility in natural search – obviously search engine optimisation has played an important part in their online marketing strategy.
Conversely, Appollo Camper and Jucy may be in danger of being left behind online by their competitors, with a poor natural visibility score of just 12% and 13%, respectively. We might expect to see Google Adwords being used to take advantage of the opportunity in search engine marketing. But with no paid search apparent at all, these companies are conceding market share, apparently without a fight.
Make sure you are not left behind, download First Rate’s research on Motor Home and Campervan market share today.
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Jun
28
2010
With our COO Samuel recently celebrating the birth of his first child, we thought it was appropriate that this month’s rankings based research project should focus on maternity and baby retail online!
First Rate has a wealth of experience working with online retailers including the likes of Ezibuy and Max Fashion and we understand the enormous benefits that New Zealand retailers can realise online with good online strategies properly implemented and managed.
In this sector, as with so many in New Zealand, we found that the biggest brands are not the ones doing it best. In fact the most household name of all, Farmers, has a site which Google can’t properly index and from which consumers can’t actually make a purchase.
Other smaller companies are doing a much better job with their PPC and SEO programmes, despite considerably smaller budgets and resources. When you take into account a recent (June 14th 2010) survey by Consensus Advisors, showing Amazon.com to be the “financially healthiest” retailer for the second year in a row, it is not stretching credibility to say that some traditional retailers are still ignoring online at their own peril.
Download the report to understand who leads baby/maternity retailing in New Zealand.
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May
12
2010
With more than two hundred thousand online searches each month in New Zealand, rental car hire is one of the industries where search engine marketing represents a very significant opportunity.
First Rate’s Online Insights Research investigates the SEO and PPC performance of New Zealand companies and highlights those who are ahead of the game and those who are struggling to play catch-up.
The most surprising result was the search visibility scores achieved by Hertz, a company most of us will have heard of but one which you simply won’t see in the search results.
And on the flip side, VroomVroomVroom.co.nz – a rental car price comparison engine, is outperforming 3 of the 5 major companies it represents.
The research also highlights a Deloitte Fast 50 winner, proving that you don’t need to be an established brand to win online!
Keen to find out more? – The report can be downloaded here: PPC & SEO Visibility – Rental Car Industry Research New Zealand.
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Apr
14
2010
In terms of online spending on advertising, our banks are right up there amongst the biggest spenders in NZ.
In 2009, according to the IAB New Zealand Online Advertising Landscape Overview, BNZ were the 10th biggest online advertiser in the country with a ratecard spend of $809,000. Westpac were next at $634,000 and Kiwibank 14th with $599,000. No other banks featured in the Top 20. (Source: Nielsen Media Research Advertising Information Services 2010 / IAB NZ).
We expect that much of this budget was spent on what we would term non-performance advertising: No measurable outcomes were necessarily attached to the campaign objectives. Other agencies would probably call this sort of activity “branding”. At First Rate we believe in branding too, but with an attached performance marketing benefit: Both SEO and PPC can most certainly be utilised with branding intent!
With the literally hundreds of thousands of online searches each month in New Zealand for banking services, how is the massive online spend taking advantage of this opportunity?
BNZ’s search performance is, like its spend, market leading – but National Bank provides clear proof that you don’t need huge budgets to be competitive.
And Kiwibank demonstrates that competitive advertising budgets don’t necessarily mean competitive performance.
Read the full report here: SEO trends and PPC insights for the New Zealand banking industry.
Search performance in Banking
In terms of online spending on advertising, our banks are right up there amongst the biggest spenders in NZ. In 2009, according to the IAB [link?] BNZ were the 10th biggest online advertiser in the country with a ratecard spend of $809,000. Westpac were next at $634,000, Kiwibank 14th with $599,000 and no others featured in the Top 20. (Source: Nielsen Media Reasearch Advertising Information Services 2010)
We expectt hat much of this was what we would term non-performance advertising: it didn’t necessarily have a measurable outcome attached to it. What agencies call “branding”…With the literally hundereds of thousands of online searches each month in New Zealand for products and services the banks provide, how has this online spend translated into an ability to take advantage of this? BNZ’s searhch performance is, like its spend, market leading but National Bank provides clear proof that you don’t need huge budgets to be competitive whilst Kiwibank demonstrates that competitive advertising budgets don’t necessarily mean competitive performance. Read the full report here…
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