Search engines and paid placement--way to go? (One
Minute Marketer: Stats & Insights).
A recent Nielsen survey reported that 74% of users online conducted
searches and 55% of those users clicked on paid search results. The U.S.
Department of Commence says that product/service information search is
the top online activity for 67% of online Americans, second only to
e-mail at 87%. Moreover, Jupiter Media Metrix and Harris Interactive
recently surveyed 2,000 U.S. online advertisers about their satisfaction
with online advertising effectiveness and paid search and found that out
of five ad formats (two types of banners, opt-in e-mail, paid inclusion,
and pay-for-placement), pay-for-placement came out on top in four out of
five satisfaction categories including overall satisfaction and
satisfaction with average ROI.
A recent study completed by Princeton Survey Research Associates
for Consumer WebWatch suggests that this will not be the case. When
consumers were questioned about the likelihood of using a search engine
if they knew some sites paid to be displayed more prominently, 66%
responded with either a "more likely" or "no
difference" answer. A significant 30% responded with the "less
likely" response. The assumption here is that consumers will
readily identify paid results. Bear in mind that a large group of
consumers think "competing" truck brands (more or less
identical) owned by the same company produce magnificently unique
vehicles and contend that one is light-years ahead of the other
(as reported in MediaPost Oct 8, 2002)
COPYRIGHT 2002 Sarah Stambler's Marketing with
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