Even though the article begins by focusing on the issues that advertisers have with Google following a change in its AdWords service, the News.com article has interesting insights into the keyword marketing programs on search engines:
From April to June 2003, Overture said that advertisers paid 40 cents per click on average, up from 30 cents in the same period in 2002.
Prices for high-demand categories command high prices. Google and Overture don’t display the prices that advertisers pay for listings, but some of Overture’s keyword prices are listed by rival FindWhat.com. Information published recently on FindWhat’s Web site showed GoToMyPC, which paid $5.10 per click, as the top Overture bidder on the term “remote access.” PeerDirect paid $6 per click for “database management,” and Cornell University paid $4 for “IT security.”
According to a recent study from the IAB and Comscore, the average click-through rates for sponsored ads related to travel and finance were 18.3 percent for April and May of 2003. That compares with click-through rates of 4.3 percent for ordinary search results for related terms.
Sponsored ads also drove more sales than did ordinary search links, according to the research. About 1.4 percent of the people who clicked on sponsored listings became customers of the advertisers. In comparison, about 0.6 percent of the people who clicked on ordinary search results made a purchase.
