Integrate your approach to search behaviour

Mathilde says: “Search is no longer a channel, it's a behaviour.

You need to adapt your entire marketing strategy to it, and have a more integrated approach.”

What do you mean when you say that search is a behaviour?

“It means that we see a lot of different things coming into play in how users are interacting with platforms.

Usually, when users want to find something, they will go to Google and search, then go to a web page, and then maybe convert or go to a physical store. Now, though, they are doing much more than that. They are searching across multiple platforms and visiting multiple sites before making a decision on whether or not to buy.

There are two factors coming into play here, and affecting the way users are behaving. First of all, we have generative AI and machine learning changing the way traditional engines work. We have AI overviews and AI Mode, but also this behaviour is taking place in new environments, and the platforms in those environments are adapting to it as well.

For example, TikTok is doing a lot to make themselves more like a search engine, which means that users are turning to platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or Reddit to search for stuff.”

How do you measure the impact of search nowadays?

“That is where it gets tricky because a lot of different companies are trying to do this in a lot of different ways.

The best way to do it would be to simply give a score to each platform, and have a weighted score for what you see on TikTok, in Google Search Console, in GA4, and on retail platforms like Amazon as well. Have that combined in a way, and then score that. We call it a connected search score.

Give it a name, and give it a weight based on how important that platform is for your business. For some businesses, TikTok will be really important. For others, it wouldn't be important at all. For some, Google is the most important platform, so that platform has to carry more weight than the others.”

How do you establish which platform is best for your business, to identify the right opportunity?

“You definitely need to know your audience and have that knowledge of who they are and what the personas you want to target are.

We did a study about user behaviour in the US recently, and then we replicated it in Denmark. What we found is that users are spending much more time searching, they are visiting a lot more platforms than they used to, they are primarily using their smartphones to do it, and over 50% are finding inspiration through social media. You definitely need to consider social media when you are prioritising platforms.

When we looked at Denmark specifically, only 50% of users would choose Google for all of their search queries. Whereas, 15% choose chatbots or AI, and 11% choose TikTok, regardless of whether they were searching for food, health, money, cars, products, etc.

You need to know your audience. You need to know what platforms they are using, and then get on there and activate them, both in organic but also in paid.”

How do you know where users are likely to be in the buyer journey on different platforms?

“Generally, when it comes to social search, people are more in the top-of-funnel. They are looking for inspiration, but they have not yet decided on where to buy, when to buy, or what to buy.

On conversational platforms, like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or AI overviews, they are more in the mid-funnel stage. They are more clear on what they want to buy, but they are lacking specifications, alternatives, price points, and things like that. They’re going into that chatbot and asking, ‘What do you think about this product? Do you have any recommendations for similar products?’

When we go down to the more traditional search engine, it is bottom-of-funnel. You're going to a website and converting, booking an appointment, or finding directions to a local store that you can visit.”

Do users tend to stay on AI search platforms to make a decision, or are they likely to go back to a more conventional search engine after doing some research?

“It is a more complex journey, and it depends on what answers they are getting from the AI search engine.

If you are getting a personalised answer, but it's not really what you wanted (because your prompt was bad or it wasn’t as descriptive as it could be), then you would most likely go into a domain and see what the company writes about their products or services. Then, you would go back into ChatGPT and rewrite your prompt, ask another question, and then move back and forth.

In the future, with AI evolving, we are going to see more people staying on platforms like ChatGPT and keeping the conversation going, as that technology becomes more refined.”

What are the main differences between how people search in different countries?

“In more mature markets like the US, there is a much higher adaptation to all of this new technology, across age groups. Whereas, in markets like Denmark (where we are technologically mature, but we're not as big a market), the adaptation is not as advanced as it is in the US.

However, we do see very similar tendencies. Users in the US are engaging with social media more than traditional engines. In Denmark, the usage is the same in some audiences.

Mature markets have more adaptation than less mature markets, and we can take that into other markets as well. The UK is most likely a more mature market than Denmark, for example, because it usually gets more of the new technology before Denmark does”

Can we presume that what happens in the US is going to happen in the UK and Denmark, at some point in the future?

“In most cases. However, in EU markets, we have the European Commission making laws around technologies and things like ethical considerations.

We might not get all of it, or we might get it in a more refined way – but we are going to end up with all of the same technologies that the US has.”

How do you establish who your audience is?

“By doing some research. In most cases, the clients we work with have a media agency or an insights department, so we can go and ask them who they want to target and what that audience looks like.

Also, when people are deciding on which media they want to activate, they also have an idea of the audiences that they want to target. Then, we can go into search and consider who that audience is and what type of behaviour they tend to have.

For example, if that audience is Gen Z or Millennials, that means including TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, but also ChatGPT and AI Overviews, because they're also still using the traditional engines. They're using retail search as well, so if Amazon is available, you would take that into consideration as well, and think about how you can optimize on that.”

Do you cater your message for one core buyer journey, or do you try to write content for multiple different users?

“You have to write content for multiple users because, even though you might be targeting one specifically, your content is reaching a lot of different people.

On websites, we're used to having more evergreen content that is down-to-earth, but also very factual and pleasing for everybody to look at. On TikTok or Instagram, you can show more of the company that you are and the products that you have, and tailor it a little bit more than you would on your website.

You could also have some activations through digital PR that showcase other sides of the business. Maybe you would show a more statistical side, and cater to that audience within your main audience as well.

Look for the small differences within your main audiences, and create content for them.”

Do clients understand that search is a behaviour, or do they still want to focus on keywords and measurable traffic?

“There's been a shift over the past couple of years. If you had asked me two years ago, I would have said this is really difficult to explain to clients, and they are all naysayers.

Now, they have also adapted the way they interact with media and their search behaviour, so they can see themselves in what we're seeing now. When I'm with a client and I say, ‘We need to take ChatGPT, TikTok, etc., into account,’ they often say, ‘Yes, we can see that. That makes sense.’

We’re not getting much pushback, but when it comes to how to actually go about doing it, the panic starts to spread, because it is so many platforms that they need to be available on.

Of course, they will ask how to measure it, and that's where it gets tricky because a platform like TikTok does not allow you to measure organically. So, you need to find proxies for how you measure the performance.

There, it comes back to what the business considers to be important when they want to measure things. Is it the reach or is it the likes? Is it the mentions? Is it the traffic coming onto the site? Is it the bounce rate?

With SEO in general, there are very different parameters that each business wants to look at. For some businesses, it is extremely important to have low bounce rates, whereas for others, it's not something that they're focussed on. That's a discussion you need to have with the client on what they find important.”

Mathilde, what is the key takeaway from the tip you shared today?

“You need to have an integrated approach.

You need to talk with the e-commerce department. You need to talk with the media department. You need to talk with the social media team. Make sure that you have organic optimization across all of your media activities.”

Mathilde Høj is an SEO Team Leader at Transact Denmark. Find out more over at OMCTransact.dk.