Paid-Search Revenue Grew 40% Last Year, to $1.4 Billion
In 1998, Overture was the first to charge advertisers to be listed in its search results. Now, all the major search companies have jumped in. So-called paid-search revenue grew 40% last year, to $1.4 billion. It's now up to 23% of the $6 billion Net advertising market, which shrank 17% last year. Search-related revenues, mostly from advertising, will grow 43% this year, to $2 billion. Search advertising is cheap. At an average of 35 cents a click, paid search undercuts the $1-per-lead average for Yellow Pages ads. The money is split between the portal, which generates the traffic, and its search-advertising provider. When a user clicks a search-related ad on Yahoo, for example, Overture keeps 14 cents and sends 21 cents to Yahoo. [Full story: Search Engines Are Picking Up Steam - BusinessWeek]
Related Posts: