From WebProNews (they removed the post, so I had to search for it at the source) - U.S. Search Engine Performance Report - Efficient Frontier http://efrontier.com/efficient-frontier/resources/research/docs/SearchEnginePerformanceQ408.pdf Here are some interesting data in the report. To summarize - Figure 1. Search Engine Market Share - This is the main chart. Notice that the Google Search network is 14 times larger than the Content Network (AdSense). If you thought that Google made a lot from AdSEnse, just look at how much more they make on their Search Network! Makes AdSense income look almost trivial. BEWARE publishers! ALL publishers could be dropped, without too much pain for Google! What if they grow weary of dealing with Content? They could easily dump the 5%, and keep the 65%. They could save a lot. Figure 2. Search Engine Spending Search Engine spend has been going down. Figure 3. SEM Spend Monthly SEM spend has been going up. Figure 4. Spend by advertiser size Small = Spending down Medium = Spending flat Large = Spending down Figure 5. U.S. Impressions Google Search IMP. = Down slightly. Google Content IMP. = Down strongly. Figure 6. US CTR Trends Google Search CTR = 2.4% - This seems low. Google Content CTR = 0.2% - This seems low. Really, really, low. Esp. for folks doing 50 times this. Figure 7. US CPC Trends Google Search CPC = $0.66 - This seems low. (Average of what AdWords buyers pay?) Google Content CPC = $0.30 - This seems low. On Average, advertisers bid 50% of what they bid on the Content Network. Figure 8. U.S. ROI Trends Slightly up Figure 9. U.S. Finance Sector Trends Finance sector spending is down Figure 10. U.S. Retail Sector Trends Spend = Up Impressions = Up CTR = Up CPC = Down CTR = Up Figure 11. U.S. Automotive Sector Trends Spend = Down Impressions = Down sharply CTR = Up sharply CPC = Down Figure 12. U.S. Travel and Entertainment Spend = Down Impressions = Down sharply CTR = Up CPC = Up This could just as well have been posted in the AdSense Forum, I think, except for the Title and Figure 1. . .
I am bumping this one time, because I just can't believe that no one has anything to say about it. I thought that this was really important stuff. ESPECIALLY FIGURE 1. Maybe not. Maybe because I posted it around midnight. Anybody? . .
Great post, Thanks! Something to think about... Google took over 75% of US market (glad it indexed 12K of all my pages) is a great hint which way to direct your SEO efforts. I wished to know more about the 5% MSN is targeting, to understand why advertisers pay more for the clicks there.
I don't know what to say, maybe even Google transactions have been affected somewhat too with crisis but still they have controls and solutions for everyone to keep on the business.