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News that British Airways (BA) plans to close its call centre in Belfast and 17 of its UK Travel Shops by August is testament to how far the internet has transformed the brand's business.

According to the airline's digital marketing manager, Joseph Sikorsky, 30 per cent of its UK bookings are made online, rising to 65 per cent during certain promotions. This shift in consumer behaviour has led BA to invest heavily in search marketing, so much so, that Sikorsky describes it as "one of the cornerstones of our marketing and commercial activities".

Organic and paid-for search marketing drives 35 per cent of ba.com's traffic. Search accounts for 10 per cent of the site's sales and Sikorsky says BA plans to triple the budget for it this year. "Search marketing is seen as a mainstream marketing activity now. It has exposure throughout the company, from the marketing director to the head of revenue management.

It is definitely not seen as something niche that my team and I do," he says.

However, search didn't always have such a high profile. BA's search marketing strategy only really took off last May when it hired search specialist Bigmouthmedia. Prior to that, digital agency Agency.com had handled BA's paid-for search advertising and Sikorsky admits little energy was put into developing the brand's organic search listings.

"What we did before May 2005 was mostly tactical and we weren't really doing anything on the organic side. We dabbled in it, but then lost focus due to the way the department was structured," he says. It quickly became apparent that, with so many customers booking online, BA could no longer afford to merely "dabble" in search.

For this reason, Sikorsky went looking for a specialist search agency.

"We decided to increase our spend and focus on search, and when we looked at the complexity of it we knew we needed a specialist and that we couldn't take it in-house," he explains.

BA handed Bigmouthmedia a brief to increase both ROI and conversions, boost positive brand awareness, eliminate bid gaps and reduce cost-per-click (CPC) spend.

One of the reasons why Sikorsky chose Bigmouth-media was because of its ability to handle paid-for search advertising and organic-search optimisation.

While some agencies argue that both cannot be done to their full potential under one roof, Sikorsky believes it is imperative that they are overseen by one firm. "I can't see how you can separate the two - paid-for and natural search - knowing how we've been working with Bigmouthmedia over the last two years and the complexities involved," he adds.

Bigmouthmedia's chief executive officer, Steve Leach, comments: "You need to understand when one type of search is complementing the other.

It makes sense to have a really clear understanding of where your natural search listings are, so you are not overspending on PPC in situations where natural search is working well."

The majority of brands have a tendency to focus more on paid-for than natural search, largely because it is easier to achieve quick results.

"Organic is a lot harder, but the rewards are so much greater," adds Leach.

"More than 70 per cent of Google searches end in natural listings after all."

Bigmouthmedia spends approximately 60 per cent of its time working on BA's paid-for search requirements and the remainder on natural, and it has the timesheets to prove it. "BA has access to information telling it exactly how long our teams spend on natural search or PPC, so they can see what they're paying for in terms of manpower," says Leach. The agency also uses software that compares the ROI of managing paid-for and natural search.

Improving natural search listings is a long-term process that Bigmouthmedia believes hinges on education. For this reason, the agency has invested considerable time in training BA employees to build the web site in a way that optimises natural search listings. "We want to get them in the mindset of thinking about SEO when they build a page," explains Lyndsay Menzies, managing director of Bigmouthmedia. "We encourage them to think in terms of developing quality content, which boosts the web site's relevance."

Bigmouthmedia works closely with BA's digital creative agency, Agency.com, and is currently creating guidelines for agencies and BA staff to follow when building web pages. "We are not precious about our intellectual property," says Leach. "We're happy to get involved with BA and Agency.com to make sure they understand why they're doing something."

Quick wins

One of the first actions that Bigmouthmedia took was to overhaul ba.com in order to take advantage of some "quick wins". Sikorsky explains: "When Bigmouthmedia first looked at the site, the agency immediately told me it wasn't optimised for the search engines. Search wasn't a focus five years ago when the site was first built. There were some simple things that we could do straight away, like taking away the drop-down menu on the homepage, which stops search engines."

Other content, such as maps of flight routes, were developed and integrated into the revamped site so the information could be easily picked up and indexed by search engine spiders. The brand also began, under Bigmouthmedia's guidance, to set up landing pages for PPC campaigns to raise the click-to-buy ratio.

Another early change instigated by the agency was the appointment of a new tracking provider. "We advised BA to change their provider so they were using the same company to track all media buying and search, so we could look at search as part of the whole marketing mix," says Menzies.

As a result, BA hired Atlas, which allows it to compare the ROI of search against other online techniques, such as affiliate marketing.

One of the biggest changes in the way BA now handles search is its management of different marketing agencies. When BA briefs agencies on a campaign, they all attend the same meeting. "We have to ensure all agencies are looking at the overall media plan. So, for example, if we're doing a TV ad in the Coronation Street ad break, we can make sure we've got enough cover and spend for search that day," says Sikorsky.

Search engine marketing will now sometimes even inform the above-the-line advertising strategy. For example, throughout December 2005 and January 2006, BA ran a registration campaign, which Bigmouthmedia identified as not achieving the level of click-through expected. The promotion marked BA's 10th anniversary and consumers who registered on the web site received £10 off their holiday.

However, it turned out that the copy used in the campaign was not working for the search medium. "We changed the campaign and the copy used in the above-the-line strategy," explains Sikorsky.

In general, BA has found that campaigns using messaging from its above-the-line advertising tend to work better than those that do not. As well as improving the effectiveness of the creative copy, Bigmouthmedia has introduced geo-targeted listings on a regional basis via Google, which enable users to exploit the best local fares. The agency has also created a system of bidding on specific keywords at the most appropriate time of day and implemented a tightly managed keyword strategy (see box, p59).

Going forward, one of the hot topics that Bigmouth-media is currently advising BA on is guidelines for affiliates working in the search arena.

The debate continues to rage about whether big brands such as BA should allow affiliates to bid on their names.

"There are instances where affiliates can work with brands and bid on brand terms, but we've decided to remove that capability for now," says Sikorsky. "However, I'm considering whether, in future, we should allow some of our top affiliates to bid on our brand terms. I haven't come to a conclusion yet."

Impressive ROI

Every decision that Sikorsky and his team now make in regard to search marketing strategy garners much more interest within BA than it did a year ago. The combination of the fast growth of search and the potential for achieving impressive ROI from the medium has meant that a broad range of internal stakeholders now want feedback on campaigns. Year-on-year, ROI figures for search have increased from 20 in August 2004 to 63 in August 2005. And search campaigns are now driving more than one million clicks per month to ba.com.

Leach admits that setting up a reporting system was a particular challenge.

"BA requires very bespoke reporting because of the need for analysis by destination," he explains. "It is key to know the relationship between the clicked key-word and the conversion destination because this provides amazing insight into the search and converting habits of online buyers."

Under the intense gaze of the rest of the company, testing has become more important to the brand. With BA planning to treble its spend on search this year, there is inevitably more pressure on Sikorsky and his team to justify their decisions and expenditure. As consumers continue to prefer online booking than the high street, the profile of search is only set to get higher within BA.

"We have to look at exactly where the money is going and report back on all activity," says Sikorsky. "We not only report back to our marketing team, but to the commercial department too." With more than 30 per cent of all traffic to ba.com being produced by search, and predictions that this figure can only rise with the spread of broadband take-up, digital marketers at BA had better get used to the spotlight.

BA OVERHAULS KEYWORD STRATEGY

Bigmouthmedia identifies its revamp of BA's keyword strategy as a major reason for its search success.

"It is crucial that the SEM agency treats each keyword as an individual and knows the economics behind each one," says Lyndsay Menzies, MD of Bigmouthmedia. "There is a point at which it becomes uneconomical to increase the bid amount."

The agency believes it is possible to keep a campaign profitable by keeping every keyword profitable.

"Too many PPC campaigns suffer due to loss-making keywords, because an agency doesn't have a deep under-standing of the financial process after the click has been made. No profitable keyword should ever be funding unprofitable ones," says CEO Steve Leach.

Bigmouthmedia handles some 50,000 keywords for BA plus short-term, tactical keywords, which are signed off individually by the client. These include brand, generic, route-specific, promotional and offer-related words.

"Our strategy not only supports obvious keywords, but 'the tail', which are the more niche keywords that produce less traffic but have a high conversion in proportion to traffic," adds Menzies.

The agency constantly monitors keywords to refine, spot new opportunities and drop poor performers.

HOW TO CHOOSE A SEARCH AGENCY

Investing the right amount of time, resources and budget into search marketing can not only offer high returns but also drive purchase consideration and raise brand awareness.

Having a robust search strategy integrated into the marketing mix is crucial in today's environment, but are you prepared to manage it alone?

Whether you have a highly complex business with multiple product offerings or you're focused on a single widget, a specialist agency may be the best route.

HERE ARE FIVE KEY AREAS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A SEARCH MARKETING AGENCY:

1. PAID VERSUS ORGANIC SEARCH CAPABILITIES

Understand how these two options can work together to drive your objectives. Ensure you speak to both the paid and organic teams to gain their insight.

2. PROVIDER RELATIONSHIPS

Your agency should have formed robust relationships with the providers. It should have key contacts and attend regular meetings to ensure you are kept informed of any industry advancements. Having accreditation ensures you have qualified, skilled campaign management to drive your objectives.

3. SECTOR KNOWLEDGE

If your agency has knowledge of your sector, be it with learnings from another account or individually within the team, this will be of great benefit. Speeding up the integration of the agency into your organisation will quickly add credibility to your search marketing and give it the prominence it deserves.

4. TECHNOLOGY

Understand what technology the agency is proposing and how it will be implemented. It is important to work with your IT team to ensure that what they are proposing can be delivered in practice.

5. REPORTING AND ANALYSIS

Advanced reporting tools are crucial to ensure you can measure and optimise your campaigns, but find out how much time the agency invests in understanding the reports. Proper interpretation of the data is key.

Although this is by no means an an exhaustive list, gaining an understanding of the key areas outlined above will help you to make an informed decision about a specialist agency.

Once you have chosen one, make sure you invest sufficient internal resources to manage the agency and that you integrate them with your agency mix.

By Joseph Sikorsky, digital marketing manager at BA.