Auto online
advertising up in 2004;
Nielsen reports online advertising spending in the US grew
by 6.3% last year, when compared to 2003, with the automotive
industry representing the greatest percentage of ad spending.
According to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, advertising spending in
the US grew by 6.3% in 2004 over 2003.
Specifically, Nielsen finds the automotive industry, including
both factory- and dealer-generated advertising, experienced
the greatest dollar rise in spending last year. Other notable
industries included the credit card services sector which
experienced a growth of 32.4% and the prescription drugs industry
which upped its ad spending by 27.6% over the year.
Looking at the top 10 advertisers for 2004, Nielsen finds
Procter & Gamble in first place spending over $3 billion
in 2004.
However, the top company increased spending by 9.5% while
other companies in the top 10 experienced double-digit increases
like automotive giants General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and
Ford Motors, major health care products brand Johnson &
Johnson and telecom giant SBC Communications.
Total spending from the top 10 surpassed $16.6 billion for
2004.
Where does online fit into the overall ad spending picture?
eMarketer estimatest that media spending in the US was over
$264 billion in 2004, with online accounting for 3.6% or
$9.5 billion.
Benchmarked against numbers from the IAB and PwC, eMarketer
projects online ad spending will grow to over $17 billion
by the end of 2008.
Source: eMarketer
Rank and Page position
still Rule; Panel attended by Andy Beal detailed
the many different types of search behavior.
I love looking at the various surveys and studies that float
around in the search space. So you can imagine the drool running
down my chin, at the thought of the "Search Behavior"
session. Panelists shared details of various recent surveys.
It was a cornucopia of search trivia.
Dr Bonny Brown Director of Research and Public Services,
Keynote Systems, gave
details of their study of 2000+ panelists who were invited
to log on to the web using a browser companion that measures
browsing habits and asks questions.
They revealed which of the search engines were the most popular.
No surprises that Google was the top rated search engine.
What was interesting is that out of all of the votes cast,
Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves all had double digit gains (compared
to the same study 6 months ago), while Google maintained the
lead, its growth was the lowest among the big four. A sign
the Google juggernaut might be losing a little steam.
Other useful snippets from Brown:
• 1 in 2 searchers will use another search engine,
if they cannot find what they are looking for.
• 1 in 3 searchers use search engine toolbars
- the greatest retention tool the search engines ever created,
in my opinion.
• 17% of searchers use different search engines for
different types of searches.
Gord Hotchkiss of Enquiro will probably never have to worry
about losing his "search behavior monitoring" crown.
As kids today say, "he rocked".
His new study - to be released later today, so you're getting
a sneak peak - demonstrated that despite all of the things
we think lead to click-thrus and sales, "rank" and
"page position" are still the two most important
factors to searchers.
Who gets the share of clicks? The number one organic position
received 27.4% of all organic clicks, while 51% of all
who click on paid results, pick the top paid search listing.
This clearly shows that in paid search, you need your ad to
be in the top position, while in organic, you can be in the
top 3 to 5 results and still get a good share of the click-thrus.
Hotchkiss then went on to display a graph that demonstrated
how confidence in search results reduces, the longer it takes
a searcher to find what they are looking for. Changing their
search request, gave the searcher a brief bump in confidence.
It may be hard to top the next piece of data shared by Hotchkiss.
He demonstrated his eye-tracking survey (50 participants)
- where participant's eye movements were tracked to accurately
record which search results received the most attention.
He
showed a Google search results page with an "eye tracking
map" that looked similar to a thermal imagery chart (with
the "hotspots" showing the most eye contact). The
study distinctly showed most eyes look at the top left corner
of the search results, with a small coverage at the top of
the paid search results.
Hotchkiss explained that a users' eye is drawn to a triangle
pattern which he named "Search's Golden Triangle",
with searchers scanning from the top left to the page's "fold"
line and then left (in a triangle pattern). While the triangle
did not really extend below the fold, 60% of participants
scrolled down below the fold, with only 40% taking a look
at the paid search results on the right (above fold).
Finally he shared some data on how page position impacted
visibility and ultimately click-thrus.
For Organic Results on Google:
100% visibility for the top 3 organic results
85% for the No.4 position
60% for the No. 5 position
For Organic Click-Thrus on Google:
28% click on the No.1 position
Drops to 12% by position No. 3
Remainder share 3-12% of click-thrus
For Paid Search Results on Google:
90% visibility for the top 2 AdWords advertisers
50% visibility for the No.3 position.
compiled by Andy Beal
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