Search ads or search advertising is considered by many experts as one of the finer points in a search engine marketing (SEM) strategy. Search advertising is the method by which you can place online ads on various web pages that are brought up as a result of search engine queries. Search advertising services are offered by most of the search engines and are considered as an effective way of reaching out to the targeted audience.

Experts believe that online advertising in search can boost brand awareness and create a high degree of brand visibility. This is now being supported by the top internet search engine Google. Recently, Google conducted a test and study jointly with one of the top Clothing brands – Levi’s. The results of the test clearly indicated that paid search ads helped to a great degree in increasing the consumer awareness and brand recognition where Levi’s is concerned. This is regardless of the fact that some customers clicked on the search ads while others didn’t. In spite of this, during the duration of the test, the brand awareness of Levi’s increased considerably among consumers.

The test results confirmed that 53% of the “in-market” and online consumers were able to name Levi’s when asked about the brand of jeans that came to their mind immediately. During this period, search ads for Levi’s were displayed at the top sponsored position. The primary reason for the high amount of brand awareness in this case is due to the search ad of Levi’s being so prominent. Basically, if you open the Google results page and see most of the time the Levi’s search ad right at the top then logic says that you are more likely to remember it.

But on the other hand, tests also proved that 30% of the “in-market” and online consumers were able to name Levi’s when asked about the brand of jeans that came to their mind immediately especially when no Levi’s search ad was on the web page. The bottom line is that there was a jump of 23% due to the visibility of Levi’s search ads on Google and this is quite a significant jump by any standard.

When customers who have not brought a Levi’s jeans in the last 6 months were asked, “what about the brand of jeans came to their mind immediately” then a whopping 45% consumers named Levi’s during the time when the Levi’s search ad was at the top sponsored position on Google. This test result was confirmed by Sara Kleinberg, Google Retail team.

According to Google Retail teams, Sara Kleingberg, “With search being central to the consumer shopping cycle, search should be part of your strategy to not only drives sales, but also build your brand awareness as consumers are considering what gifts to buy for the holidays.”

This basically suggests that having search ads of your business on Top search engines can create brand identity and indirectly lead to high sales. If you are interested in improving search awareness through website marketing, consider search engine optimization or paid campaign management.