QUALITY OF SEARCH TRAFFIC MOST IMPORTANT TO BUSINESSES CHOOSING PAID SEARCH ENGINES, NEW SEARCH123 SURVEY FINDS

New survey indicates that traffic quality is the most important consideration for companies advertising on paid search engines.

    NEW YORK, NY (PRWEB) November 20, 2002 -- For advertisers using pay-per-click search engines, nothing matters more than the quality of search traffic, according to a new survey of nearly 300 businesses advertising on Search123 (www.search123.com).
    The survey asked advertisers to identify what considerations are most important when selecting a pay-per-click (PPC) search engine. Eighty-five percent cited the quality of search traffic as the single most important factor. Bid prices and quantity of search traffic rounded out the top three criteria, at 67 percent and 51 percent, respectively. Search123 released the survey at the @d:tech New York conference here through Nov. 20.
When we surveyed advertisers a year ago, search engine marketers said that bid prices were the most important consideration. Today advertisers are squarely focused on traffic quality," said James Beriker, CEO, Search123. The message to paid search engines is that traffic quality is not to be compromised. Marketers are looking not for clicks, but for 'e-commerce productive traffic that yields measurable ROI."
   Among the surveys other findings:
·   Fifty-three percent complement paid search with search engine optimization (SEO) efforts to improve rankings within algorithmically-based engines.
·   PPC advertisers use less of other online marketing disciplines. Only 31 percent use opt-in e-mail, followed by affiliate marketing at 24 percent. CPM banner ads finished last with just 14 percent.
·   Sixty-six percent regard PPC search as their most effective method of online advertising, compared with 15 percent who believe SEO offers greater effectiveness. Banner ads did not register at all.
·   Thirty-four percent of respondents allocate at least 75 percent of their online advertising budgets for pay-per-click search engines; another 21 percent devote half to three-quarters of their budget to paid search.
·   Seventy-two percent track sales conversion data from keyword listings, indicating that the majority of search engine marketers are sophisticated about the relationship between traffic quality and ROI.

About Search123
Based in Westlake Village, Calif., Search123 (www.search123.com) is a privately held company that operates a pay-per-click search engine in which advertisers bid for priority placement on search result pages and pay only when users click on a listing. By creating revenue-sharing relationships with its distribution partners, Search123 drives highly targeted e-commerce productive" traffic to its advertiser clients. Search123 is committed to delivering results to its advertisers and distribution partners, and to continually evolving the business and technology of paid search and performance-based online advertising.