eBags focuses more marketing on Internet search

EBags maintains a steady list of about 2,000 keywords at Overture, Google and other search services, [eBags VP of biz dev Peter] Cobb says. But maintaining those keywords is requiring more work and expense, he adds, because stiff competition for keywords is driving up their cost.

After noticing that more shoppers are finding what they want through Internet searches, eBags.com is focusing more of its marketing expenditures on perfecting its search strategy, Peter Cobb, vice president of business development, tells InternetRetailer.com. “No question, a larger percentage of our sales are coming through Internet search,” he says. “So in the past year we`ve focused more of our efforts through search than through other marketing vehicles.”

He adds that eBags is also investing more in Internet search because it provides the opportunity to quickly judge the ROI of particular keywords.

EBags maintains a steady list of about 2,000 keywords at Overture, Google and other search services, Cobb says. But maintaining those keywords is requiring more work and expense, he adds, because stiff competition for keywords is driving up their cost. So eBags dedicates two marketing professionals to monitor its keyword list to compare the price paid for each keyword with the position, or ranking, it gets in search results.

Cobb says eBags anticipated the expanded consumer use of Internet search when it started to build a software system two years ago that can integrate internal search technology with the information it gets from outside search services. Now, because eBags can see the revenues and profit margins generated by each keyword, it can quickly decide whether it wants to pay more or less for a particular keyword.

“We have to analyze if it makes sense for us to pay to own a keyword and be No. 1 in search results, or if we want to back off and just be in the top 10 because of a keyword`s low conversion rate,” he says.

While focusing and spending more on search, eBags is cutting back on e-mail marketing, Cobb adds, because of the overabundance of e-mail spam and growing efforts to block incoming e-mail.

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