Despite rising click prices, marketers saw robust results from their search engine marketing campaigns last month, according to figures released yesterday by DoubleClick's Chicago-based affiliate and search marketing firm Performics.
Thanks to higher conversion rates and more search volume, Performics' clients garnered 308 percent higher average daily gross revenue. The average return on investment was up 58 percent. Performics aggregated information from client campaigns it ran from Dec. 1-24. That period's average daily figures were compared to the average daily numbers from the third quarter.
Over the holiday season, Performics saw a 23 percent rise in average cost per click and 109 percent more clicks, pushing its clients' average daily budgets up 157 percent. However, higher conversion rates more than offset the increased costs. Performics saw conversion rates increase 124 percent, with total conversions (clicks that resulted in purchases or another pre-set objective) up 369 percent.
A robust holiday e-commerce season helped buoy paid search spending. Analysts from Nielsen//NetRatings, Goldman Sachs and Harris Interactive peg 2004 holiday e-commerce sales up 25 percent from a year earlier. Goldman Sachs analyst Anthony Noto reported earlier this month that Google and Yahoo both benefited from a higher volume of clicks on paid search listings and rising click prices. Noto based his estimates on conversations with top media buyers from Nov. 15 to Dec. 15.
Brian Morrissey covers online marketing and advertising, including e-mail marketing and paid search, for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
