Yahoo and MSN trailed behind Google in the share of spending in sponsored search, and the first quarter of 2006 saw a 9.3 percent increase in overall online ad spending.
Google drew 44 percent of the market share for paid search advertisements in the pay-per-click arena. Yahoo had 20 percent, while MSN pulled in a tiny five percent.
Keyword prices ticked upward, according to respondents to a survey. Fifty-three percent of those contacted for a response said they paid more for clicks, and fifteen percent of the respondents said their prices had spiked higher by ten percent or more.
Deutsche Bank and MediaPost conducted that survey of online advertising, and found its respondents dished out $148.5 million for online ads in the first calendar quarter of 2006.
That spending represented an increase from the prior quarter, the holiday season for much of the world. Advertisers paid more in terms of ad rates as well. Premium inventory, such as above-the-fold front page ads, rose in price by 3.8 percent. Network and paid search ads also increased, 2.7 and 3.8 percent respectively.
In placing ads, more than one in five media buyers chose to put their marketing on a major Internet portal. AOL, MSN, and Yahoo together gathered 22 percent of the budgets set aside for online advertising.
Brand name advertisers may wish to take note of a ClickZ report on brand searches. Via a study by the Hitwise online marketing research firm, 15 percent of people who search for a brand name never go to the web site for that brand.
—
Add to document.write(“Del.icio.us”) | DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web | Furl It | PreFound.com
Bookmark Murdok –
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
