Who knew, when it was invented about a decade ago, that a simple little ad format matching text links to search queries would spur a $45 billion hostil takeover and prove the rock in an ad market of recession-rumor-fueled uncertainty? Yet, that’s the power of search.
It’s a market so promising that it’s largely why Microsoft launched its failed bid for Yahoo earlier this year. It’s also the only sector that’s continuing to grow double digits during the economic climate of recent months. Because of how important search has become to marketers, Advertising Age’s DataCenter again has compiled a comprehensive guide which I will explore over the next several days.
According to ComScore, overall US search volume increased almost 20% over hte past year. Search-marketing spending is expected to approach $14 billion in 2008. So, where are all these dollars going?
Largely to Google, whose network snagged 72.2% of its advertisers’ search spending in the third quarter, according to SearchIgnite data. That was down from the same period one year ago but up from the first and second quarter of 2008. Yahoo came in second, with 22.3%, an improvement over 2007 that can partly be attributed to its Panama system, which has earned Yahoo more money per search. Microsoft remained in third place, with 5.4% of spending.
Search certainly is not recession-proof; nothing is. And, it’s questionable how long search can continue to grow at such high rates. That’s why it’s important for search engines to stake a claim in emerging, fast-growing areas such as mobile and local search.
About Wendi McGowan