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Paid Search Traffic Share Down 26%
May 13, 2009
Hitwise data indicate that the share of search traffic coming from paid listings is decreasing at the expense of organic traffic. In the four weeks to May 9, 2009, 7.25% of search engine traffic to All Categories of websites was from paid clicks. This compares to 9.84% in the same four week period in 2008 - representing a 26% decline in the share of paid clicks. This trend is apparent across 16 of the 17 Hitwise parent categories (i.e. Automotive, Food and Beverage, Health and Medical, etc). The only category that didn't see a decline in paid traffic was Education, which received 1.45% of search visits from paid clicks compared to 1.39% last year.
The following chart shows the share of search traffic coming from paid clicks over the past year to All Categories, Retail 500 (a custom category of 500 leading retailers), Insurance and Travel Agencies.
The share of paid clicks to Insurance websites was down 22% for the year, Retail 500 down 20% and Travel Agencies down 25%. The steady and consistent decline across categories indicates that this is not an isolated or seasonal variance.
I looked at the top search terms sending visits to the three categories to compare rates of paid clicks year over year. Consistently, brand name terms (such as "travelocity", "orbitz" and "walmart" saw a sharp decrease year over year in the share of paid clicks. For example, 35.75% of clicks on searches for "orbitz" were on paid listings in the four weeks to May 9, 2009. This compares to 46.56% in the same four week period in 2008. This represents a 23% decrease year over year.
Even more extreme, 0.83% of searches for "home depot" went to a paid listing in the four weeks to May 9, 2009 compared to 39.06% in 2008. Similarly, "usaa" saw 0% of clicks on paid listings in the last four weeks compared to 28.88% in the same period in 2008.
Referrals from search engines continue to climb but the proportion of clicks going to sponsored or paid listings is decreasing. This is no doubt a result of cutbacks in marketing spend due to the recession.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 09:24 AM
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- SEM: Paid Search Traffic Declines, Again (Wir sprechen Online.)
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Hitwise: A small rest of 7.25% of search traffic to websites was from paid clicks in May (down 26%); http://tr.im/lfgc ... [Read More]
Comments
What about non-branded keywords? Are they declining because of reduced searches or because of reduced interest from advertisers?
Posted by Jean Thibaudeau | May 14, 2009 08:25 AM
I just wrote a follow up post on this. I'm with David, not 100% sure its about the crunch, it may be they are managing the PPC and SEO spend more closely.
http://www.mediavisioninteractive.com/blog/index.php/seo-strategy/are-marketing-managers-finally-getting-the-message-about-balancing-ppc-and-seo-budgets
Posted by Louis Venter | May 14, 2009 09:45 AM
Google have seen 17% Paid Clicks growth Q1 2009.
http://investor.google.com/releases/2009Q1_google_earnings.html
Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 17% over the first quarter of 2008 and increased approximately 3% over the fourth quarter of 2008.
Not sure which one to believe.
Posted by Tom | May 14, 2009 11:26 AM
My guess is that it may be a combination of factors:
1. More brand advertisers controlling their copyrighted and trademark terms. We have seen huge growth here in the last year with many realizing they can limit others bidding on them.
2. Better search quality for organic based on more awareness for SEO techniques. Few sites these days incorporate no SEO friendly aspects. Not true even last year or two.
3. Better search quality due to better algos. Hard to say, but they must be getting better.
4. More "answer engine" results. Put in a flight number, you get the flight time, address you get the map, stock you get the quote. No need to click on as much anymore.
Put it all together, throw in a dash of weakened demand and it isn't surprising.
Posted by Stuart Meyler | May 14, 2009 09:01 PM
Agree with you @David
Reading along... I came to the same conclusion... People are getting smarter about "paid" listings vs. organic and don't want to be "tricked" into clicking on a paid listing that may not be as relevant.
Posted by marc | May 16, 2009 12:12 AM
To the previous poster also named Tom: the number Hitwise quotes here is the share of paid traffic out of all traffic. The number you quote from google is of paid traffic compared to itself in the past. So it's entirely possible for both to be correct.
Posted by Another Tom | May 16, 2009 03:06 AM
I do PAID Search ads for the company I work for and I agree with marc
"People are getting smarter about "paid" listings vs. organic and don't want to be "tricked" into clicking on a paid listing that may not be as relevant.
"
People certainly are getting smarter about SERP and the quality of the Organic Listings vs. Paid Listings.
Posted by John Kobel | May 18, 2009 02:07 PM
This makes no sense to me. Advertisers are not pulling back on SEM spending on Brand.. the suggestion that CTR on paid brand terms has fallen just isn't logical. If impressions are flat, then the advertisers are still firing ads, so this has nothing to do with spend. If the data is accurate then it's a shift in user behavior, not ad spending.
Posted by Reid Spice | May 21, 2009 01:30 PM
It's the searcher, too many retail and ratings websites have bought out the top positions. They have nothing to do with the results so organic results offer more relevancy.
Posted by Jill Fox | May 22, 2009 04:09 PM
Interesting stuff. I just don't see why you say that 'This is no doubt a result of cutbacks in marketing spend due to the recession.' How did you come to this conclusion?
The whole time I was reading the article, I thought it was due to other factors such as better search result quality or more consumer savvy at the nature of organic vs. PPC links.
Do you think the explanation for this trend is that companies are spending less on quality PPC ad management?
Posted by David | May 13, 2009 11:07 AM