Not All Search Engines Created Equally… In The Eyes Of Advertisers

from the gullibility-index dept

Users know that there are differences in the various search engines, but it would appear that search engine advertisers are beginning to recognize that there are differences in search engine users as well. A new study has looked at “conversion” rates — the percentage of people who go from browsers to buyers when they see an ad on a search engine, and the results probably won’t surprise you at all. Google, followed closely by Yahoo, have fairly low conversion rates. The people who surf there tend to browse, and not be easily convinced to buy something they weren’t planning on buying. Alternatively, folks at MSN and AOL were much more likely to convert to buyers. The study claims that these sites tend to have “a more buyer friendly demographic,” which the more cynical among you may translate to “a more gullible demographic.” Either way, though, it’s likely that information like this helps drive just how much advertisers are willing to pay on the various search engines.


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Comments on “Not All Search Engines Created Equally… In The Eyes Of Advertisers”

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7 Comments
txjump says:

surprise surprise!

really? ask the people whose lively hoods are technology based if they use aol or msn search engines, ha! or for that matter, aol isp. ick!

then ask those whose lives don’t involve technology if they know that there are different search engines. my mom tells me, “i typed in the address bar and selected the third site listed. that will get you there, now what do you think about …”

she doesnt even know what search engine she’s using or that she is using a search engine. of course its msn.

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