Competitive Analysis Using comscore Tools Master Class Eli Goodman September 10, 2009
Competitive Analysis Why is Competitive Analysis Important What Can You Learn About Your Competitors 2
Why is competitive analysis important? Messaging reveals competitor s strategic direction New product offerings Change in brand strategy New positioning Ad placements and search strategies are clues Distribution strategy Partnerships Budget allocation Geographic focus Uncover opportunities Design your own plans to overshadow or avoid competitor s marketing Look for gaps Identify partners Expand targets Cut through the clutter 3
What can you learn about competitors from the comscore data? Media Metrix (visitation) How does site visitation compare? How is visitation changing over time? How does audience engagement compare? Am I losing visitors to my competitors? How does audience composition compare? comscore Marketer (search) How do search strategies compare? Which keywords drive traffic? Competitive Analysis Ad Metrix (display) How much are competitors advertising and where? What are they spending? What messages and creatives are in use? Plan Metrix (offline/attitudinal) Which competitors are targeting consumers with similar lifestyle profiles? How do audience targets compare? 4
Competitive Analysis with Media Metrix Core Reports 5
How do my competitors stack up in site visitation? Ranking Engagement Trending Cross Visiting Source/Loss Demographics Content Consumption 6
How many users visit Nationwide.com vs. the competitive set? How engaged are visitors? Rank competitors within a category, by reach and engagement. 7
Increasing 56% YoY, Nationwide.com has surpassed ProgressiveDirect.com and is closing gap with Allstate.com Trend any key measure for your competitive set 8
10% of ProgressiveDirect.com visitors also visits Nationwide.com Understand risks and opportunities of shared audiences. 9
11% of Nationwide.com s audience arrives directly from Yahoo! Sites, while a small percentage come directly from competitor sites 10
LocalInsurance.com appears as an exit destination for Nationwide.com visitors. Is it a competitor or a partner? 11
Nationwide.com and ProgressiveDirect.com attract lower income visitors, while Travelers.com audience skews to higher brackets Profile audiences across the competitive set based on: Age Gender HHI HH Size Children Region Race Connection Speed 12
Profiling web content consumption of site audiences provides another lens for understanding the competitive landscape 13
Competitive Analysis with Plan Metrix 14
Deepen competitive profiling using over 4,900 targets across 19 key qualitative categories Work Demos Business Purchases Travel Financial Electronics/Computer Telecommunications Music/Video/Books Traditional Media Consumption Internet Media Visited Food & Beverage Internet Usage Retail/Apparel Health Home & Living Sports/Leisure Automotive Personal Demos Portal Service Affiliation Behavioral Segments Shopping behavior questions asked in multiple categories! 15 Plan Metrix Overview
Credit card behavior differs among consumers at Target.com, Walmart.com and Sears.com Target.com and Walmart.com visitors are more likely to have student credit cards. Sears.com visitors are 41% more likely than the average Internet user to have transferred a credit card balance in the past 6 months. 16
Who should be added to this competitive set? Recommendation feature in media selectors may prompt you to expand your list of competitors 17
Is my target audience cross visiting among the competitors? Target audience: People with a family wedding planned within the next 6 months From this target audience: 61% who visited Sears.com also visited Walmart.com. 14% who visited Amazon.com went to Sears.com. 18
Competitive Analysis with Ad Metrix 19
Top advertising sites are similar for Target and Sears, but gaps between the two are also revealed 20
While both Target and Sears gain most impressions on Yahoo! Sites, their strategies are different 94% of the Target s impressions on Yahoo! Sites are from this 70x50 gif Sears top 2 creatives on Yahoo! Sites are split evenly 12.8% of impressions from 728x90 swf 12.1% of impressions from 300x250 swf 21
From a publisher s perspective such a competitive analysis reveals ad sales opportunities 22
Publishers can also assess the clutter on competitors sites Choose from 27 different measures to get a full view of the display advertising dynamics on your competitors sites. 23
Competitive Analysis with comscore Marketer 24
How does search strategy differ for competitors? Share of voice Paid vs. Organic search Branded vs. Non-branded terms Messaging and integration with display 25
How has DSW used search to grow 238% year over year? Unique Visitor Growth YoY January 2008 439,000 UVs January 2009 1,484,000 UVs YoY UV Growth: 238% Discount Shoes, Handbags, Accessories Question: How? Search Display Copy 26 Image: www.dsw.com
DSW search strategy: a move from SEO to SEM January 2008 virtually no Paid Clicks January 2009 over 52% of search clicks are Paid Net Traffic: Over 320,000 more clickthroughs YoY 160% increase in Search Traffic But what were they now bidding on? 27 Source: comscore Marketer
DSW shows paid search growth in both Brand and Non-Branded terms Bidding on both Branded and Non-Branded Terms January 2008 almost 100% Branded Clicks (all organic) January 2009 Paid strategy has heavily contributed to growth 28 Source: comscore Marketer
DSW s Brand vs. Non-Brand distribution has changed significantly January 2008: Branded Clicks = 100% of Total search traffic Non-Branded Clicks = 0% of Total search Traffic January 2009: Branded Clicks = 71% of Total search traffic Non-Branded Clicks = 29% of Total search traffic How does this Paid traffic distribute across the Branded and Non-Branded terms? Branded Non-Branded January 2008: 0% Paid January 2009: 45.85% Paid January 2008: 0% Paid January 2009: 70.45% Paid 29 Source: comscore Marketer
DSW moves from nothing to everything with display as well January 2008 No Display Advertising January 2009 Over 57 MM Ad Impressions Over 30% of Ad Impressions on email homepages 30 Source: comscore Ad Metrix
DSW is integrating display and search through message 10 out of Top 10 creatives contain Free Shipping copy All also contain a call to action: Shop Now button Consistent Message with Search Copy 31 Source: comscore Ad Metrix
DSW s new strategies have impacted visitor demographics and is building its brand. Search Results DSW branded search audience and total searches has more than doubled in past year Impact of Display Advertising on Branded/Trademark searches apparent Display Results Visitor Demos have shifted: Jan 08: 56.1% F : 43.9% M Jan 09: 63.9% F : 36.7% M Main target audience is Women Noted by placements on Women heavy publishers 32 Source: comscore Ad Metrix
To Learn More ADDITIONAL MASTER CLASSES Developing Standout RFP Responses Thursday, September 24, 11am PT 1pm CT 2pm ET Pinpoint the Best Sites for Your Campaign Thursday, October 8, 11am PT 1pm CT 2pm ET 33
Thank You! Eli Goodman egoodman@comscore.com