In this guest post, Resolution Digital's GM of product and partnerships, Georgina Wall, looks at the key trends that are influencing the search market in the region.
Key trends influencing search marketing in APAC
Since the beginning of the year, searches in the Asia-Pacific region have risen over 215 per cnet.
There was a 16 per cent increase in searches related topromo in comparison to 2019.
The Gen Z audience in Asia is turning to TikTok user-generated content to fulfill their search-based requirements.
Why does it matter?
Users have asked platforms for "how to" or "what to buy" content for a long time. The shift is seeing non-traditional search platforms become an entry point for search, as opposed to a supplementary layer.
Search remains a dominant feature of the digital world as it continues to evolve. Many questions remain about what this future will look like, but what we do know is that artificial intelligence will play a key role in shaping it.
The north star of the evolution process is giving consumers what they want, when they want it, and in a format that they want it.
Conclusions.
Consumers are looking for a good deal. Three in four Australians claim to be not brand loyal, according to a report based on brand authenticity.
Questions about transparency of placement and targeting performance are being raised by the rising proportion of artificial intelligence-based search functions.
Content will become even more important for brands as systems crawl for answers to user questions.
Global and local factors make a difference in the way certain markets respond to economic and behavioral stimuli.
The search advertising landscape is playing a part in how markets lean into new technologies.
In this article, we will understand the changing patterns displayed by consumers because of economic and behavioral influences, as well as exploring how technological developments are shifting the way we use the channel, and what the future of search is shaping up to look like
There are consumer trends.
Retailers and consumer demand are being impacted by economic volatility across the globe. A long line of interest rate rises in markets like Australia has led to increased scrutiny on advertiserROIs and a keen eye on marketing cost inflation, whilst the recent influx of technological developments including the much talked about ChatGPT are keeping the appetite for testing very alive.
Testing is expected to be considered, controlled, and conclusive by advertisers in the Asia-Pacific region. Consumers in the Asia-Pacific region are slowing down due to economic considerations, which include less travel, less dining out, and less attendance at live events.
Consumers shop around and prioritize attributes like price points more highly as part of their shopping experience, and we are seeing a strong sense of competition around price, as well astriggers such as free delivery and service levels becoming more important.
Consumers are looking for the best value for their money, and with consumer sentiment seeing declines, we are seeing a far more aggressive landscape.
The consumer journeys are done.
The way consumer journeys are adapting is becoming more apparent. Users expect to see a response tailored to their search, even faster than before, as the rise of natural language models and elements like voice search further escalates this, as consumers expect more relevant and immediate answers to their questions.
Since the beginning of the year, searches in the Asia-Pacific region have risen over 215 percent. Further reducing the path to purchase by better aligning search results to specific users is a result of more readily available product comparison and audience focused optimisation strategies. Adding click and collect options and local inventory ads help answer the demands of consumers who want speed and convenience.
There were record breaking experiences in peak retail season last year (Black Friday - Christmas) and search trends saw a growth in "promo" related searches last year.
People who are new to the audience.
Nine out of 10 Gen Z in Asia have changed their privacy options to reflect this insight, and 58 per cent of our market is now Gen Z.
As a result, we are starting to see a shift in the type of platforms users are searching with, as TikTok being a key example here, as younger demographic turn to platforms that leverage user generated content to answer their demands. This can be searching for a recommendation for a place to go. This trend has been used by TikTok to trial search functions within their platform.
Asking platforms for "how to" or "what to buy" isn't new, but this shift sees more of a market grab from traditional search by becoming the entry point for user demand, rather than being used as
There is privacy.
Privacy is a priority in all markets in the region. We are still working through the process of regulatory changes in Australia, where the Attorney General proposed reforms to the Privacy Act of 1988.
When it comes to internet privacy, countries in the Asia-Pacific region are among the lowest in the world. The highest willingness to exchange personal data for free services has been shown by consumers in the Asia-Pacific region.
A call for more to be done around protection of personal data is being triggered by consumer awareness. There is still change afoot even though it may be slower. Advertisers are trying to understand what the future of addressability will look like when cookies are deprecated. More control over the ad experience users see online was enabled by the launch of 'My Ad Centre' last year.
Product development can be found in a search.
There is a constant stream of new feature launches, mostly focused on the idea of maximizing publisher inventory with more visual formats, to deliver the desired campaign outcome.
Over the past few years, the search has evolved into a place where users can find what they want, when they want it. The use of broad match, as well as new product iteration designed to work in conjunction with automated bidding methods and broader inventory scaling, are starting to become the norm.
This is also applicable to other companies. There are a lot of product pushes within the Microsoft Ads search suite, recently changing network options to automatically opt users in to the MSAN network, as well as removing the Broad Match Modifier option.
The rising proportion of artificial intelligence-based search functions in the market is prompting further questions about transparency of placement and targeting performance, with the offsetting of these new methods being the loss of campaign granularity, and direct control, advertisers have on their search campaigns.
Microsoft Ads recently updated its platform targeting to opt users into the MSAN as standard, and removed its "search partners only" setting in favor of "Microsoft Sites and Select Traffic" which incorporates sites that are deemed to be objectionable.
Costs and inflation.
Advertisers are starting to question search costs in Asia after what seemed like an initial bubble of acceptance.
The initial love affair with smart bidding meant many advertisers didn't question specifics such as the cost of branded traffic as they were seeing overarching business results.
The focus on return on investment is causing questions about inflation when it comes to paid search metrics.
The future of searches.
As many start to integrate the use of generative AI tools within their day-to-day, testing different use cases to improve efficiency outputs, the benefits should always be weighed against the risk.
Brand safety and quality assurance are important factors when it comes to the future of the actual search results page.
As we see these tools evolve, we will see a change in the way search is displayed, as well as a change in the positioning of ad units.
The impact of generative AI tools is starting to shift the way brandsOptimise their own website and content strategies, for example, looking to how they build the use of FAQ to answer consumer demand versus how this stacks up against search volumes
The tech giants are in the middle of a battle.
The big question from a search market share perspective is whether Microsoft can claim back some of the market share they lost. We think that in the medium term, it's safe to use the internet. It depends on the next moves we see from both companies.
Microsoft is investing a lot in its infrastructure when it comes to artificial intelligence, as well as bolstering inventory and audience capabilities.
And, of course, the partnership between the two companies. When the new Bing was announced, with early access available as a value exchange to download the Bing App, new users to the platform surged, reaching over 100 million. This still only scratches the surface compared to the number of users.
There has been a lot of product news from Microsoft in recent weeks. The latest iteration of BARD has literally been announced, which means that Microsoft has an opportunity to widen the gap it has with the current version of CHATGPT.
Whether this will translate to long term market share still depends on the ad product itself and the scale and efficiency the Google Ads platform has been contributing for advertisers.
The summary is in it's entirety.
Search remains a dominant feature of the digital world as it continues to evolve. Many questions remain about what this future will look like, but what we do know is that artificial intelligence will play a key role in shaping it.
The north star of the evolution process is giving consumers what they want, when they want it, and in a format that they want it.
The General Manager of Product and Partnerships at Resolution Digital is responsible for driving group process and output across the team.
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