Ever noticed that some companies like to tell you to, “search for us on Yahoo! and learn more…” ? That seems like a risky strategy to me, and here’s my reasons why.
1.) Why not just send the person right to your web site? If you’ve ever read Don’t Make Me Think , this will make sense. Basically, you want to decrease the number of steps for someone to accomplish the action you want them to take, and you want to make it as easy and “thoughtless” as possible. Sending them to a search engine, telling them to search, and then hoping they click the link you want them to, seems to not follow the “Don’t Make Me Think” mantra.
2.) You increase the risk of competition.
Case in point, Pontiac did an ad a year or two ago, where they told you to search on Google for them. Well, the competition got smart and bought Pay Per Click ads for that term and got some great branding and exposure out of Pontiac’s ad.
Also, what happens if someone gets their page to rank higher for the phrase you’ve suggested to the TV viewer? Then you’re kind of stuck.
Or what happens if someone decides to Google Bomb the phrase you’ve targeted in your ad? Granted, Google has gotten stricter on this practice, but you could still use your PPC ad to get negative press out their about the competition.
Just seems like it would be easier to send the person right to the page you want them to go to. However, lots of companies take this, “search for this and click the link” kind of approach, which just seems like one too many steps to me, but maybe I’m just lazy when it comes to my surfing behavior.
I totally agree with your points RE PPC ads and everything… and you run the risk of a “FOO COMPANY SUCKS” link appearing right under your website in the search results… but I guess Japan kind of lead the way here…. as seen in this point on boingboing. So Whatever.
Jared,
I had a comment, but I think it got downplayed as spam….