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UK Search Volume & Click Share Analysis
Sat Nav, GPS & Car Accessories Search Impression Volume •
Sat Nav and GPS devices have been one of the success stories of recent years, with rising volumes and increased market penetration (see Appendix B7). There has also been a move to give consumers the incentive to move up the technology chain, with larger 3D screens and in-car movie streaming. An example of this is the ‘Give a Garmin’ campaign in the run-up to Christmas 2012, with radio ads, online and billboards (Source: Marketing Week, Customer journey starts in the great outdoors, 18 April 2012).
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Despite this Garmin and TomTom, the lead manufacturing brands in this vertical, lose out to ‘click and collect’ retailers in this vertical, with Halfords, Argos and Tesco all leading both organic and paid click share. This is particularly important for critically important search terms such as sat nav, best sat nav and cheapest sat nav. Garmin only manages to lead for the term GPS.
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The dominant unit terms in this vertical are sat nav and GPS. The generic nature of these keywords allows them to hold 37.51% and 20.44% of keyword volumes respectively (see Appendix A10). These terms are closely followed by ‘cheap’ unit terms such as cheapest sat nav (8.69%) and sat nav deals (5.71%). There is also a clear consumer demand for updated maps and software, with the term sat nav updates
Organic Click Share •
The organic market is incredibly competitive between the three dominant brands; Amazon, Halfords and Tesco. Halfords, as the market leader in automotive products, trails Amazon yet leads Tesco, which has 16.99% of the click share index (see Figure 33).
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Halfords, as the market specialist, is in a strong position to support its sales in-store advice and it would appear that once again, there is a clear demand for this from consumers, evidenced by the presence of TechRadar and PC Advisor in the click share index.
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Despite the consistent interest on Google for the terms sat nav and GPS (see Appendix B16), Garmin and TomTom only rank fourth and seventh in the click share index. Despite Garmin being the lead brand for the terms GPS, they do not rank for many long-tail keywords, suggesting a clear gap in their organic search strategy.
Paid Click Share •
Amazon and Halfords lead the paid market in this sector, with Amazon alone taking more than a quarter of the paid click share (see Figure 34). This holistic approach allows both brands to dominate the aggregate click share index, with Amazon holding 26.05% of the click share index and Halfords 20.33% (see Figure 35).
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Halfords once again ranks highly due to it being the leading brand for the term sat nav and coming second behind Amazon for the terms best sat nav and cheapest sat nav.
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Whilst specialists in this sector, such as SatnavEasy maintain a paid presence, neither Garmin nor TomTom are visible in the paid index. TomTom do not appear for any keywords in this sector whilst Garmin only appear for 30% of unit keywords.
“Halfords ranks second for the vertical based upon it being present for all unit keywords and being the leading brand for the term cheapest sat nav.”