Not too Late for SEO

It's almost midnight, which means I ought to be in bed, getting rested for another day, but I haven't posted anything today, so I thought I would just leave a tidbit before retiring. The post about search types has me thinking (still) about my adwords campaign, wondering what quantifiable ROI can be gained from paying for ads that show up in "informational" SERPs, versus ones that show up in "transactional" SERPs.

Just to define terms, by "informational", I mean a search for something like "East Indies pictures". For "transactional", I mean a search for something like "Cheap international airfares".

If you are just beginning to start out on the CPC path, looking for a good ROI so that you can justify continuing the cost of continuing an Adwords campaign, then my first thought is that you want to go 100% toward "transactional" SERPs, leaving the other types of searches for later, when you have more experience.

But you also want to think about the difference, if there is any, in user behavior. Do users view a "transactional" SERP differently than an "informational" one? Are they more likely or less likely to click on the paid ads? I would say that they are more likely, because ads on those pages are more geared toward making a quick deal. Basically, ads on those pages are probably more immediately relevant.

However, sites like Google and Yahoo benefit from users merely perusing the pages of the network - regardless of whether they actually purchase anything. So then, do these kinds of sites consider every SERP transactional in nature?

hmmm...