Search spend up ahead of Christmas rush
Search spend increased for the first time in six months during Q3 2009, suggesting brands’ confidence in the channel is improving in the run-up to Christmas.
Efficient Frontier’s UK Search Engine Performance Report said search spend in Q3 was up 10% year on year and 11% on Q2, having seen a decline over the previous two quarters.
Spend on Yahoo declined both year on year and quarter on quarter, dropping to 9.1% of overall spend share from 10% this time last year and 9.6% last quarter.
In contrast, Google saw its share of search spend increase from 85.7% in Q3 2008 to 86.5% in Q3 2009, slightly up from 86.3% last quarter. Microsoft’s Bing remained steady at 4.3% against 4.2% last quarter.
However, Bing has seen its share of user clicks decrease over the period. In Q2 it accounted for 4.7% of the market, declining to 3.7% in Q3. Year on year it was down from 5.2%. Yahoo also dropped from 15% to 11.4% share year on year, and from 12% last quarter. Google was up from 79.8% to 84.9% year on year, and from 83.3% last quarter.
David Karnstedt, Efficient Frontier president and CEO, said, “The third-quarter results and a look beyond provide some encouraging signs for the search marketing industry as well as the overall economy.”
This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk
