Thursday, October 02, 2008
Where Yahoo predominates in Internet Advertising
One of the services we here at Metrist provide a number of our clients is search advertising management, also known as Search Engine Marketing. Many of those clients come to us assuming Google is the be-all and end-all for Search marketing. Google is, with 70% of search advertising, clearly the dominant player in the Search advertising space.
However, Randall Stross's September 21st "Digital Domain" column in The Sunday New York Times business section, "Why the Google-Yahoo Ad Deal Is Nothing to Fear", reported on a study by SearchIgnite, an Atlanta SEM firm. Stross noted that while Google AdWords generally gets a cost-per-click premium over Yahoo search ads, "Yahoo, on average, collected a 38 percent premium over Google in one niche: the top ad position on a page for keyword searches involving a brand name."
Why would a click on the top Yahoo spot for a brand name command a price premium over Google unless those competing for that spot saw a compelling reason to be there? Clearly, there is a segment of searchers who use Yahoo for brand-name searches, and their clicks convert buyers at a higher rate than their Google counterparts. If you are a consumer-level advertiser and have dismissed Yahoo, there is a reason to test placements there, and probably at MSN as well.
However, Randall Stross's September 21st "Digital Domain" column in The Sunday New York Times business section, "Why the Google-Yahoo Ad Deal Is Nothing to Fear", reported on a study by SearchIgnite, an Atlanta SEM firm. Stross noted that while Google AdWords generally gets a cost-per-click premium over Yahoo search ads, "Yahoo, on average, collected a 38 percent premium over Google in one niche: the top ad position on a page for keyword searches involving a brand name."
Why would a click on the top Yahoo spot for a brand name command a price premium over Google unless those competing for that spot saw a compelling reason to be there? Clearly, there is a segment of searchers who use Yahoo for brand-name searches, and their clicks convert buyers at a higher rate than their Google counterparts. If you are a consumer-level advertiser and have dismissed Yahoo, there is a reason to test placements there, and probably at MSN as well.
Labels: Google, Search advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Yahoo
