A recent study was posted showing that searching from a desktop computer and a mobile device saw an 86% difference in results. Most companies (both in Pharma and outside the industry) don’t fully appreciate mobile search and the amount of traffic that they could be receiving from it.
Consider the patient that just went to the doctor and was handed a new prescription. They get in their car and before driving to the pharmacy, search for information on the medication on their phone. Do they end up getting information on the non-mobile branded site or one of the other sites that provide drug information (Drugs.com, RXList.com)? Does your site even display correctly on mobile devices? Does your paid search advertisements display on the mobile version of Google?
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I ran across another Tylenol recall in the news and started to wonder how McNeil gets in front of such events.
Corporate recalls are becoming more common these days. Not only are recalls a concern for those that are affected by a bad product, but a major task for the corporate PR team to get in front of (and yes, there is such a thing as bad PR). Putting out press releases and an update on your website will quickly get consumed by all of the online news and social media outlets. Plus, where are most people going to end up when looking for more information??? A search engine. Read Full Entry
I read an article by Kate Kaye at Clickz called “Pharma Marketers Scared to Test Google Ads, So Google Does” and wanted a few days to digest the insulting title.
During Google’s ThinkHealth event they presented the findings on a new paid search ad that includes the brand name, indication and side effects. Google used a fake allergy drug and tested the new format against the current unbranded ad format many brands are using. The big finding was a “significantly lower CTR than ads with no drug brand name nor risk information.” Google thinks that fewer clicks translates into a better quality lead, and while I don’t disagree with that point, lower CTR has repercussions on the AdWords position (lower) and cost (higher). There was no data provided that stated the unbranded ad traffic was of low enough quality to justify the loss in traffic and negative impact of lower CTR. Read Full Entry
Google has started testing a new feature where a small magnifying glass icon is displayed on the right side of each search engine result. When you hover over the magnifying glass icon, a full page preview of that page is displayed to the right (see image below). This was first discovered (publicly) by Patrick Altoft at BlogStorm, and later verified by TheNextWeb.com.
This feature is not enabled for paid search and covers the right hand side of the page where the paid search ads reside. This is a concern for current advertisers, but like I have said in the past, paid search is Google’s money maker and they will not do anything to cause a dramatic drop in clicks on paid ads. Read Full Entry
Google launched Google Instant search this week to help speed up searching. Google Instant works by predicting what you are searching for in real-time. The search results update as you type in the search box. Google claims that Google Instant search will save users 2-5 seconds per search because we read faster than we type. It is currently only available for desktop searching with mobile coming this fall.
What does Google Instant mean to those searching (and marketing) in the healthcare/pharma space?
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