DoubleClick Reveals Latest Performics 50 Search Engine Marketing Index
Friday, 24 February 2006
Performics, the performance-based marketing division of DoubleClick Digital Advertising Solutions, this week unveiled the latest Search Trend Report, featuring the Performics 50, the only index of actively-managed, ongoing paid search engine marketing campaigns. The latest Performics 50 offers marketer insights and illustrates trends based on data from October 2004 through December 2005.
In the fourth quarter of 2005, the average number of active keywords in a campaign increased 58 percent, and the total number of clicks for campaigns increased 107 percent over the fourth quarter of 2004.
“Keyword and overall campaign growth remain very strong. Search portfolios are expanding as marketers seek to connect with consumers during all stages of the buying cycle, and therefore, results are being measured beyond immediate ROI alone,” said Stuart Larkins, vice president, search at Performics.
Another key finding is that seasonality is driving the consideration of keyword ads further down the page. The Performics 50 shows that the percentage of overall conversions that come from lower ranked keywords improves dramatically in December versus November.
“Depending on the seasonality of various vertical markets, there may be opportunities to leverage these trends during other times of the year,” said Larkins.
The report also noted that the cost per keyword (CPK) rose dramatically during the holiday season. This can be attributed to both the expected seasonal peak and the overall trend of lower priced keywords making up smaller and smaller percentages of campaigns. CPK is a scalable metric introduced by the Performics division of DoubleClick, which can be used to evaluate the performance of individual keywords, groups of keywords or an entire search keyword portfolio.
Summary of key takeaways from DoubleClick Q4 2005 Search Trend Report:
· Campaigns are getting larger. In Q4 2005, the total number of clicks for campaigns in the Performics 50 increased by 107 percent over Q4 2004.
· Searcher demand grew. A 58 percent increase in the average number of active keywords/campaign showed consumers clicked on more keywords. Keyword list growth contributed to this trend, but keywords must be clicked to be classified as active.
· As expected, CPK and CPC rose dramatically during the holiday season. Average CPK rose from $25.50 in September to $54.62 in December 2005. Indexed CPC values also increased.
· Nearly half of all clicks and conversions in Q4 happened in December. Forty percent of all Q4 Performics 50 clicks and 48 percent of all Q4 conversions took place in December.
· Holiday shoppers go further down the page. Relative to November, December saw a greater percentage of conversions from paid search ads ranked lower than second, but this was not nearly as pronounced as in 2004.