Active first-page advertisers have increased 10% on Yahoo in the first quarter, according to online intelligence provider AdGooroo. In its latest Search Engine Advertising Update, which is released quarterly, AdGooroo also found that Yahoo was the only engine to have an increase in first-page advertisers in the month of February. The same month, Microsoft’s first page advertisers were down 30% from the previous month.
AdGooroo’s founder and chief gooroo Rich Stokes said this is great news for Yahoo. “Previously, Yahoo was losing market share to Microsoft, so having this information is place may allow it to better leverage a search deal with [Microsoft],” he said. “These data may also suggest that the time to strike a deal is now.”
The report also notes trends in the online ad space like travel companies upping their ad budgets in Q1, which Stokes said is normal. Also expected, online retailers numbers are down in Q1 coming off of the holiday season.
Used car resellers are, however, making it into the top 25 advertisers by search engine. Stokes said this isn’t something that’s happened historically, but it wasn’t shocking given the changing economy. “Not as many people are buying new cars today as they were previously,” he said.
Overall AdGooroo saw a 1.3% drop in number of first-page advertisers, but an increase in the number of ads shown per keyword. The figure reached a high of 5.5 in February. At its lowest — in September 2008 — that figure was 3.1.
