comScore Launches Search Marketing Comparisons

Online measurement specialist comScore Media Metrix has launched a new service, Competitive Search Marketing Reports, as part of its qSearch suite of products. The service allows comparison of the effectiveness of online search campaigns with that of competitors.

A sample released by the firm looks at the relative success in this respect of top online travel agencies Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com and CheapTickets.com. More than 50% of the total click-throughs to these sites were generated by sponsored ads, compared to just 11% across all Web search activity: Orbitz.com and CheapTickets.com were ahead in this respect, each getting c.72% of their click-throughs from sponsored ads.

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'With search advertising accounting for roughly 40 percent of total online spending, it's clear that advertisers view the medium as a critical component of the advertising mix', comments Peter Daboll, President and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. 'This is particularly true for the leading online travel agencies, which receive nearly two-thirds of their search-generated click-throughs from sponsored ads. This high volume of advertising makes it even more important for advertisers to focus on the search terms that have the most relevance to their target audience.'

comScore says that while it receives a lower number of sponsored ad click-throughs than Expedia.com or Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com 'appears to be the most effective sponsored search advertiser, yielding a 6.5% click-through rate, compared to the 4-5% click-through rates achieved by competitive sites.'

The analysis also revealed that Yahoo! was the preferred engine for sponsored ad campaigns for these sites in April 2006, with nearly 44% of the sponsored ads - however, Google generated a slightly higher sponsored click-through rate (35% vs 32% for Yahoo!), which comScore says indicates higher ad relevancy.

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comScore's home page is at www.comscore.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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