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Appendix A
Appendix A: Search Impression and Click Share Methodology Search impression volume Search Engine Marketing (SEM) seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement (Pay Per Click) and unpaid placement (organic). Search impression represents the number of times a website page is displayed within the search results. It is only after the results are displayed that visitors are able to click on either a PPC advert or an organic link. Therefore “click share” represents the act of a visitor clicking on a PPC advert or an organic click and is calculated as follows: •
organic listings - the part of the pages listing results from a search engine query. These are displayed in a sequence according to relevance of the match between the keyword phrase typed into a search engine and a web page according to a ranking algorithm used by the search engine.
•
paid listings - a relevant advertisement (typically text-based) with a link to a destination page. This is displayed when the user of a search engine types in a specific phrase.
Measuring organic ranking and click share Organic click share is the number of clicks that an individual brand has achieved against a keyword as a measure of where they rank for that keyword. Average keyword ranking is achieved by tracking the hourly positions and fluctuations for each keyword vertical over a period of time. Combining click volume estimation and average rank, the data then trends organic click share by position and measures this against potential missed clicks or in other words missed market share.
Measuring PPC Share of Voice (SOV) and click share PPC click share is the number of clicks that an individual brand has achieved against a keyword as a percentage of their SOV. SOV is a measure of how often their PPC ads appear. SOV is calculated by measuring the following: 1.
average position.
2.
display frequency.
3.
search volume.