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
Monday, January 07, 2008
Google is Up, but Don't Count Yahoo Out
AdAge's Digital editor Abbey Klaassen, dubbed a CES "non-booth-babe" today by Gizmodo (eyes on the technology, guys), noted recently that Google's search share was still increasing at Yahoo, algorithm-touting Ask.com, and others' expense (subscription to AdAge required to see the entire article).
That may be, but here is something I've I noticed for many of my content clients: Yahoo is in many cases the biggest referrer of current content. Many use Google as a spell-checking address box, typing the site name or variant there rather than using their browser's address box, and those "non-search searches" represent a large volume of Google referrals. My takeaway: don't dismiss Yahoo, for as unhip as it seems to be, it is still a strong potential source of referrals.
Is anyone else seeing similar referral patterns?
Labels: Abbey Klaassen, ask.com, Google, Organic search, Yahoo
