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Paid search nose dives

Written on
May 15, 2009 
Author
Edward Barrera  |
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Paid search nose dives

search2_small.jpgADOTAS — Brand name terms, such as travelocity, orbitz and walmart, saw a sharp decrease compared to the same time period last year in the share of paid clicks.

According to Hitwise, in the four weeks to May 9, 2009, 7.25% of search engine traffic to all categories of websites was from paid clicks. This compares to 9.84% in the same four week period in 2008 – representing a 26% decline in the share of paid clicks. For brand example, 35.75% of clicks on searches for “orbitz” were on paid listings in the four weeks to May 9, 2009. This compares to 46.56% in the same four week period in 2008, according to Hitwise.

The only category that didn’t see a decline in paid traffic was education, which received 1.45% of search visits from paid clicks compared to 1.39% last year. According to Hitwise, a reason might be that it was a result of cutbacks in marketing spend because of the economy, but others have pointed out that it also might be that brands realize they are likely to show up high on results anyway.

– Express your opinion, comment below.





Reader Comments.

meanwhile…clicks on over-sensationalized headlines through the roof

Posted by anon | 11:58 am on May 15, 2009.

Makes one wonder if the reduction in brand name paid clicks was a factor in Google’s decision to permit the use of brand names in their paid search as do Yahoo and Live Search.

Posted by Judy Bellem | 9:44 pm on May 17, 2009.

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