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)