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SES August 9 th , 2006

Managing the “Long Tail” (and the High Head) in Search Brian Elliott, President & COO, Alibris briane@alibris.com. SES August 9 th , 2006. Who’s Alibris?. “Long tail” media exchange >60 million books from thousands of independent sellers in >50 countries

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SES August 9 th , 2006

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  1. Managing the “Long Tail” (and the High Head)in SearchBrian Elliott, President & COO, Alibrisbriane@alibris.com SES August 9th, 2006

  2. Who’s Alibris? • “Long tail” media exchange • >60 million books from thousands of independent sellers in >50 countries • Used, new, out-of-print and rare books, music and movies • Top internet retailer • Service provider to sellers, incl managing Amazon account • Wholesale services for retailers: B&N, Borders, Chapters, B-A-M, others • Very focused on search and search experience

  3. Search marketing at Alibris • Responsibility for three areas • SEM: >2 million adwords on Google, Yahoo! networks, SEM, smattering of others • SEO: crawlers and feeds; search, browse, titles, tags, images,… • Shopping comparison sites: • Most of the large players (Froogle, Yahoo!, Shopping.com, Smarter, …) • Specialists and vertical players (AddAll.com) • What do we target? • Product categories or “endemic” terms: used books, textbooks, rare books, etc • Specific product descriptors: authors, titles, ISBNs (UPCs), subjects • Who does this? • Full time marketing analyst • Supported by engineering, design, direct marketing, management

  4. High Head vs Long Tail Percent of sales High Head terms • Books • Used books • Textbooks • … Investments • Optimization: • Landing pages • Ad Copy • Monitoring & frequent bid management (OODA loops) • Individual level Trad’l B&M retailer Online mass merch Online specialty retail “High Head” “Long Tail” Best seller ranking of items

  5. High Head: greater investment per term • Example: landing page treatments vary far more

  6. Long Tail: Gale Grigg Hazen Long Tail terms • Author names (M’s) • Titles (M’s) • ISBNs (M’s) • Subjects (000s) Combinations • With “high head” • With descriptors Investments • Manage volume • Deploy en masse • Prune effectively (Madonna’s “Sex”) • Slower OODA

  7. Long Tail built on common “catalog” • Our concept of “catalog” differs from most retailers • Catalog = bibliographic database of 10 million ISBNs (editions) • Inventory = 60 million SKUs listed by sellers – many without a link to the catalog! • Operate against the overlap – and sometimes ignore it • Best sellers? • Worst sellers? Catalog Inventory Catalog items with no current inventory: wasting money? Inventory not in catalog: Likelihood of selling? Catalog data with inventory: sweet spot – but how deep, broad?

  8. Catalog feeds SEO and SEM

  9. Tools matter (people matter more) • Need to know what you’re getting • CPC; total spend • Clicks & clickstream • Conversion, AOV & Margin • Actual ROI • Performance vs Margin targets, LTV • Specifically when it matters • Large dollar spends • Large click volume terms • Need people who pay attention and have pattern recognition • Preference also for liking to play the game • Need to have “learning loops” • Monkey clicks: when do they suck (answer: most of the time) • When do I want to be first? When not? When even lower? • When should I get suspicious of click fraud vs seasonality, bid increases • Ability to track performance in aggregates for company – lower aggregates for the team

  10. Averages Suck • Example: tracking performance against conversion rate • Company level “top 10 metrics” includes Conversion • But high level metric is a composite of channels within channels: direct load vs referral, multitude of marketing programs • Repeat customers • Newsletters • Shopping comparison sites • SEM, SEO, affiliates, …

  11. So we built a Dashboard • Metrics at more meaningful, actionable level • Take detail down to each specific marketing program and channel • Revenue, cost and P/L • Key drivers (CPC, conversion, AOV) • Search team takes this about 5 levels deeper (hint: find Stephen Cheng at this show)

  12. Ongoing Evolution • Key assets: • Smart analyst(s) with engaged engineers and designers • Build tools, evolve: we’re on our 4th generation internally • Close relationships with search engine account reps, partners – two way street • Team that understands the value of testing, understanding that your customers will do things you don’t expect • Understanding of your product depth and how it relates to consumers • Small, discrete investments – test, test, test • Key questions: • How to distinguish between focus on “High Head” and “Long Term” tails • What balance of efforts • What tools you need for each • How do we balance SEO, SEM, shopping comparison – not to mention features and functionality, newsletters, …

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