The User-Journey in Online Search: An Empirical Study of the Generic-to-Branded Spillover Effect based on User-level Data

Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksArticle in conference proceedingsResearchpeer-review

Authors

Traditional metrics in online advertising such as the click-through rate often take into account the users' search activities separately and do not consider any interactions between them. In understanding online search behavior, this fact may favor a certain group of search type and, therefore, may mislead managers in allocating their financial spending efficiently. We analyzed a large query log for the occurrence of user-specific interaction patterns within and across three different industries (clothing, healthcare, hotel) and were able to show that users' online search behavior is indeed a multi-stage process, whereas e.g. a product search for sneakers typically begins with general, often referred to as generic, keywords which becomes narrowed as it proceeds by including more specific, e.g. brand-related ("sneakers adidas"), keywords. Our method to analyze the development of users' search process within query logs helps managers to identify the role of specific activities within a respective industry and to allocate their financial spending in paid search advertising accordingly.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the International Conference on Data Communication Networking, e-Business and Optical Communication Systems, ICETE : DCNET 2012, ICE-B 2012, OPTICS 2012
EditorsMohammad S. Obaidat, José Luis Sevillano, Zhaoyang Zhang, David Marca, Marten van Sinderen, Jose L. Marzo, Petros Nicopolitidis
Number of pages10
PublisherScience and Technology Publications, Lda (SciTePress)
Publication date01.01.2012
Pages145-154
ISBN (Print)978-989-8565-23-5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.01.2012
Event9th International Joint Conference on e-Business and Telecommunications - ICETE 2012 - Rom, Italy
Duration: 24.07.201227.07.2012
Conference number: 9
http://www.icete.org/?y=2012

    Research areas

  • Business informatics - consumer behavior, Online advertising, Online search, Query log, spillover

DOI