Worldata’s List Price Index report, released June 1, reveals that during spring 2012, list rental prices have continued to drop, said Ray Tesi, SVP at Worldata.
“Prices have been continuing to drop during the past two years,” Tesi said. “It’s a combination of a few variables. One is saturation of lists in the market … another is the downturn on the consumer side of the economy.”
According to the report, aggregated business database files, which typically get their information through Web scraping and crowd sourcing, dropped substantially in b-to-c email list prices. At the same time, Tesi said, prices for databases and master files, which are sourced more traditionally from response and subscription lists, have also continued to fall.
The most surprising part of the study, Tesi said, was that “aggregated databases have had a direct impact on databases and master file categories.”
“I don’t think we’ve seen anything else that would totally surprise us,” Tesi said, citing the downward trend during the past couple of years. “I guess being a reflection of what’s happening in the economy, it’s a little disheartening.
Permission-based b-to-c email was the lowest priced list rental category, with an average list price of $75 per thousand — an 18% decrease from spring 2011. The highest priced domestic category was permission-based, medium-to-large business email, which had an average CPM of $250 per thousand.
Tesi said he is unsure if the downward trend will continue. The U.S. presidential election, he said as well as the next six months, will reveal what the next trends for rental lists will be.
