Content is King for Search Marketers

What has more information that a search ad and a click through rate 300 to 600 percent higher than a typical banner? An Answers.com Content Sponsorship unit. At least that’s the news from the company’s recent press release and an article in Media Post that delves deeper into the success of this new advertising model.

Media Contacts was one of the first agencies to test Content Sponsorship ads for one of their travel clients. According to Rob Griffin, senior vice president, U.S. director of search for Media Contacts, the ad model was a nice fit because it enhances the search strategy for a client’s media buy by putting marketer content in front of users that are looking specifically for that information.

"There's the battle for visibility on the search engine results page with both natural and sponsored search. If you look at the way the [Answers.com] pages are structured, there's a lot of text-heavy content from encyclopedias, Wikipedia and other local resources that's cross-referenced and hyperlinked--so it's very friendly to search engine spiders," Griffin told MediaPost.

He added: "The click-through rates and engagement metrics were significantly higher than other ad models--but you expect them to be higher because the ad was linked contextually to information users were searching for," said Griffin. “The Answers.com module allows for more flexibility — you can add pictures and more content. That’s what helps provide the additional lift.”