The company has unveiled the Performics 50 index to reflect overall activity of of the search market.
Has CPC’s time come and gone? Do we really need another search engine metric? Chat about CPK on WebProWorld.
Performics, which is a division of digital ad solution provider DoubleClick, will provide data on keyword costs and trends, according to a press release. The company wants to introduce “Cost Per Keyword” as a new metric to measure “the quality of growth in a search marketing campaign.”
Contending that cost-per-click (CPC) only addresses part of the search marketing equation, Performics CPK better reflects the cost of a search campaign. They contend that CPK reflects searches performed by users for given keywords as well as the value marketers place on those keywords beyond just the bidding price.
The Performics 50 will be drawn from advertiser clients of Performics, though individual names will not be disclosed on the index. The company cites four criteria for inclusion in the Performics 50 index:
• actively managed, down to a keyword level;
• direct-response oriented;
• mature, in that the campaign has been in place for at least four months;
• growing, in number of keywords, media spend figures, and revenue.
Performics goes on to note how CPK should better describe how much traffic an advertiser should see for a given keyword, at a particular price and position. That would make the figure a better indication of the true monthly cost of a keyword in a campaign.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
