Every year travel companies ramp up their marketing in the crucial fourth quarter period as demand increases. Online we see that the search demand spikes dramatically in this same period.

Travel companies spend considerable money on all manner of advertising both offline and on paid search but are they really targeting the hundreds of thousands of active searches for their products? The answer is resoundingly “no” – of those included in the report, only STA travel had a visibility score of better than 40% for natural search. Paid search is relatively competitive yet organisations are fighting over what amounts to no more than 25% of the opportunity while the lion’s share goes uncontested.

Why is this?

We think it’s because the “traditional” ad agencies responsible for most of these budgets a) don’t have the skill sets to allow their clients to profit from the significant opportunity and b) don’t know how to make money out of it, so won’t recommend it.

Sounds illogical? – It is.

Sounds unlikely? – It should be but it’s not.

Download and read First Rate’s online travel research report.

Online searches for flights have increased dramatically over the last 5 years and the travel industry has responded with one of the most competitive paid search categories that First Rate has analysed to date.

However, the same companies that are doing well with their Search Engine Advertising don’t seem to be doing so well in natural search.

With approximately 75% of searches being fulfilled by the natural search results, it seems amazing that companies will compete so hard to place PPC ads, but won’t put in the extra Search Engine Optimisation effort to be found by this much larger group of potential customers for free.

Download the full report here.

If you would like to see this sort of online research for your industry, please contact us.

The video game market is HUGE, with sales levels competitive with the movie and music industries.

Google’s own research indicates that 2 out of every 3 computer and gaming purchases are researched on the internet.

Given the staggering amount of customers that are online and searching for products, you’d expect to see the retailers competing strongly for their slice of this multi-million dollar industry. However whilst some are doing better than others, it is the newcomers who are showing them how it’s done – and proving that you don’t need enormous marketing budgets to succeed online.

Mighty Ape in particular are proving just how effectively you can market a business online and make money, without having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV ads that produce no measurable return.

Read our latest 2009 Online Gaming report to see who the winners and losers are in the battle to be at the top of the Paid Search and Natural Search results when potential customers search for game consoles such as Sony PlayStation (PS3), Microsoft XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii and specific game titles.

Download the full report here.

If you would like to see this sort of online industry research for your industry, please contact us.

According to research from Nielsen Online, more books are sold on the internet than any other product, and the number is increasing.

So why do the traditional offline retailers, having spent decades building strong recognisable brands, seem to be ceding huge swathes of market share virtually uncontested to new players who just don’t have their brand awareness or marketing budgets? It sounds like an unlikely situation, but that seems to be just what is happening in New Zealand.

Whitcoulls, Borders and Dymocks are no longer the places that tens of thousands of Kiwis searching for books online go to.

So where are Kiwis going instead to buy books online? And what are the opportunities for the traditional book stores to make a comeback?

Is organic search marketing (SEO) part of the answer..?

Download the full report here.

If you would like to see this sort of online research for your industry, please contact us.

Of all the markets researched by First Rate in New Zealand, Insurance has the most mature online presence. So what does this mean for consumers looking to buy an insurance policy, and companies vying for this business..?

In our 2009 Q3 insight report we look at which companies are leading the battle to be found online and who’s winning in paid search and natural search performance.

NZ is by and large a year or two behind the rest of the world in search engine marketing: What intelligent strategies can Insurance companies in NZ use to get ahead? And how, in a congested market, do you make your search marketing work harder..?

Average cost-per-click charges are running as high as $30 for generic terms, according to Google’s traffic estimator. Surely there are better ways to make your advertising work harder and cost less! So when AdWords 101 isn’t good enough what do you do next..?

Download the full Insurance Trends report here.

If you would like to see this sort of online research for your industry, please contact us.