Survey: 75% of People Say Paid Search Makes It Easier to Find Business Information

More people are becoming better at spotting paid search ads, but marketers are still benefiting, as customers are still clicking on them to learn more about business offerings.

Clutch recently conducted a survey to gauge the benefits of paid search for marketers. Statistics showed that while 77 percent of respondents are now confident that they can recognize paid search ads, 75 percent believe that ads make it easier for them to find information about businesses online.

“Useful search ads produce a number of benefits for businesses who create them,” wrote the authors of the survey. “Namely, businesses can improve their brand awareness and earn high-quality site traffic if people find their ads helpful.”

When it comes to the reasons why people click on paid search ads, the majority (33 percent) said it was to answer a search query. This was followed by the fact that it is a familiar brand (26 percent), and the ad was listed above other search results (20 percent).

Interestingly, only 19 percent said they clicked on a paid ad because it had a compelling title, description or image.

Imagery and Appeal in Content Marketing

Imagery may not play a large role in the effectiveness of paid search, but it can go a long way in terms of content marketing, according to previous research.

Venngage published an infographic depicting visual marketing statistics to know for 2019, and the majority of marketers (56 percent) said that they used visuals in their content 100 percent of the time over the past year. This was compared to just 45 percent who said they used visuals between 91 and 100 percent of the time back in 2017.

About 40 percent said original graphics, such as infographics, performed best among their target audience. This was followed by videos and presentations (23 percent), charts and data visualization (20 percent) and stock photography (12 percent).