Authors:
Florian Nottorf
;
Andreas Mastel
and
Burkhardt Funk
Affiliation:
Leuphana University, Germany
Keyword(s):
Online Search, Online Advertising, Consumer Behavior, Query Log, Spillover.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Artificial Intelligence
;
Business Performance
;
Business Process Management
;
Business-It Alignment
;
e-Business
;
Enterprise Engineering
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Knowledge Management and Information Sharing
;
Knowledge-Based Systems
;
Symbolic Systems
Abstract:
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.
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