Our Challenge: Achieving Optimal SEO + SEM Brand Visibility
Razorfish has established a highly integrated approach to search that enables seamless collaboration between SEM and SEO strategies. This synergy uncovered efficiencies across resources, media spend, and strategy execution, ensuring every dollar invested drives maximum impact. By strategically aligning efforts, we optimize brand visibility across search channels, leveraging the unique strengths of both SEM and SEO, to enable data-driven decisions that enhance visibility and engagement. Our integrated approach boosts performance by reducing unnecessary SEM spend and boosting SEO visits and conversions for our client.
How We Become Surgical with Branded Traffic:
One of the most impactful areas of SEM/SEO overlap is branded traffic, which is often conquested by competitors with larger budgets including direct competitors like insurance and financial services providers as well as indirect competitors who offer informational content. Recognizing this, our teams collaborated to refine targeting and placement strategies, becoming more surgical about when and where SEM appears for branded terms. With a limited SEM budget for brand, this precision minimized unnecessary spend on paid brand traffic while maximizing the effectiveness of organic search, creating a balanced, cost-efficient approach.
How we Drove Efficiency Amid Budget Constraints:
Efficiency took center stage in 2024: NYL lead goal increased by 17%, despite only a marginal budget increase. Razorfish rose to this challenge by reallocating dollars saved from SEM/SEO efficiencies to fund high-priority activities. This adaptive strategy not only stretched the budget further but also positioned NYL to exceed performance targets.
Our Solution Was Building on Initial SEM Brand Test Learnings:
Our strategy is rooted in a commitment to testing and learning, which drives continuous improvement in how we approach SEM and SEO integration. Insights from a pivotal branded SEM test have shaped a more nuanced and effective holistic search strategy.
We Tested if Pausing SEM Boosts SEO Performance:
Razorfish conducted a strategic test by pausing SEM on high-traffic branded keywords. The results were clear: organic homepage traffic increased as SEO naturally captured the brand demand. This demonstrated the ability of Organic Search to step in effectively when SEM efforts are reduced, highlighting potential areas for spend efficiency.
However, the test also revealed a trade-off. While Organic Search absorbed the majority of clicks, total traffic volume dipped as competitors entered branded auctions, capturing paid clicks. This highlighted the importance of maintaining a strategic presence in SEM to defend NYL’s share against competition.
Why we Needed a Holistic Search Approach:
These findings reinforced the value of a balanced and integrated SEM/SEO approach. By combining the strengths of both channels, Razorfish ensures NYL can effectively manage branded traffic while defending market share. This holistic strategy leverages data-driven adjustments to maximize visibility, optimize spend, and drive consistent results across all search efforts.
Driving Holistic Search Optimization with Adthena:
To enhance NYL’s holistic search performance, Razorfish partnered with Adthena in 2024, leveraging their innovative tools to optimize search investments and improve overall efficiency. This collaboration introduced a transformative approach to balancing Paid and Organic Search efforts.
Key Insights from Adthena's Analysis:
An initial analysis conducted by Adthena revealed that 45% of NYL branded searches had no paid competition. This critical insight underscored the opportunity to refine SEM strategies, ensuring resources were directed toward areas with the highest impact while avoiding unnecessary spend in uncontested spaces.
Maximizing Efficiency with Brand Activator:
Adthena’s AI-powered Brand Activator tool, which integrates advanced Google scripting, enabled a significant breakthrough. The tool automatically removed NYL’s SEM ads from uncontested auctions when our Organic listing held the #1 position. This automation ensures SEM resources are deployed only when needed, creating a smarter, more efficient strategy.
Achieving Holistic Search Objectives:
This innovative approach drives two key outcomes:
By leveraging Adthena’s tools and insights, Razorfish has unlocked a new level of precision in search optimization, ensuring NYL’s search strategy is both cost-effective and results-driven.
Program Results: Delivering Cost Savings and Enhanced Performance
The integration of Adthena into NYL’s search program has yielded significant results from January – August 2024, driving both SEM cost efficiencies and increased SEO performance. These outcomes have further elevated NYL’s holistic search strategy, ensuring greater impact across all search activities.
By leveraging Adthena’s insights and tools, Razorfish has driven measurable improvements for NYL, reinforcing the value of a unified SEM and SEO approach in achieving scalable success.
See “Confidential” section for concrete performance results
