About Us | Lighthouse

Lighthouse combines the top two sources of search marketing metrics – The Search Monitor and comScore – to merge pre-click data and post-click data together.

Pre-click Data. Pre-click data is information that you can glean by running a search on a search engine. To do it in large volumes requires querying search results pages via mechanical means to simulate the user experience. To be accurate requires repeat checks of keywords multiple times daily – monthly checks are not enough and will lead to great inaccuracies. Pre-click data gives us statistics and information, including page rank, frequency – how often does an advertiser appear – who shows up organically or on the paid side, what’s in the ad copy, where does the ad copy link the user (landing pages, redirects, and tracking URLs are discovered from these links), day parting strategies, geo-targeting strategies, affiliate and reseller presence. The Search Monitor is the source of pre-click data for Lighthouse.
Post-Click Data. Post-click data is information that is gleaned after a click occurs and is typically gathered via panels of users. To be accurate requires large volumes of volunteer users and incredibly powerful extrapolation algorithms in order to determine traffic volumes from the user set and apply it to the entire population of Internet users. Post-click data gives us statistics and information that include click traffic, click thru rate, and search volumes. comScore is the source for post-click data.

Together the combination of pre-click and post-click data allows us to compute complex statistics like:

Ad Spend by Advertiser. Ad spend is a computation of clicks x cost per click. To get the clicks you need post click data, and to accurately assess the probable cost per click you need rank data. To account for how rank changes impact the CPC you need pre-click data.
Traffic by Rank. Traffic at various ranks for keywords is important to know so you can plan and predict how slight changes in your bid or rank will impact your share of available traffic. It enables you to determine if it’s better for you to be in position five versus position two. Should you make a big move or not? To get at this statistic, we need both pre-click data to interpret the proper rank for each advertiser, and the post-click data to glean the traffic received by each advertiser. By evaluating how each advertiser performs at each rank aggregated as a group, we can provide you with statistics on how a ranking change will impact your traffic results.

Sign up at right to be notified when Lighthouse move out of development into beta. As a nod to our fans, early adopters will receive awesome discounts! However, signing up for notification doesn’t commit you to anything.

About The Search Monitor

Who We Are
The Search Monitor was founded by a group of search marketing enthusiasts. In 2003, we were part of the original team that pioneered KeywordMax, the first bid management tool to automate keyword bidding based on financial goals like CPA and ROI (now part of Digital River, Inc.)

What We Do
Our commitment is never to stop exploring new ways to automate information, intelligence, and work flow for sophisticated online marketers like you. We listen to our customers, we watch as the industry continues to evolve, and we adapt our solutions to best meet the needs of today with a look towards tomorrow.

Our Values
Many ASP solutions are rigid platforms responding in slow motion to customer requests. We are not like that. We are not afraid to customize our solutions to meet your needs. We are not scared to move quickly. If you’d like a special report or a new way to view data, just ask us.

www.thesearchmonitor.com

About comScore

comScore is a global leader in measuring the digital world and the preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. Through a powerful combination of behavioral and survey insights, comScore enables clients to better understand, leverage and profit from the rapidly evolving worldwide web and mobile arena.

comScore provides syndicated and custom solutions in online audience measurement, e-commerce, advertising, search, video and mobile and offers dedicated analysts with digital marketing and vertical-specific industry expertise. Advertising agencies, publishers, marketers and financial analysts turn to comScore for the industry-leading solutions needed to craft successful digital, marketing, sales, product development and trading strategies.

www.comscore.com

Why are many tools inaccurate?

The data source matters because the stronger the data source, the more accurate the stats or trends will be, leading to better decisions and more predictable outcomes. Most data sources don’t use a large enough sample population nor do they sample keywords with enough frequency, and therefore, they don’t see all of the advertisers. Accuracy in advertiser identification requires intense daily keyword queries. Most vendors only query keywords once per month. Lighthouse queries keywords multiple times per day. Second, they don’t have a data source for accurate click data. In order to compute things like budget, you have to know the clicks. Ad spend = clicks x cost per click. Lastly, infrequent querying of keywords leads to inaccurate predictions of rank and ad copy variations. Without an accurate prediction of rank and ad copy variations, you cannot compute ad spend, which requires an adjustment to CPC as rank fluctuates and as ad copy relevance fluctuates.

Stop relying on bad data and stop making poor decisions. Get the only tool that brings the industry’s most accurate pre-click and post-click data together in one place. Sign up to be notified when LightHouse opens for beta.