In a recent study desiged to uncover where viewers first looked on a search results page, where they first scanned a listing, and where they eventually clicked, there were some quite telling results.
With Yahoo 84 percent of the first views were on the top sponsored listings, with Google 81 percent and on MSN (MSFT) it was 87 percent.
Now on the scanning, both Yahoo (YHOO) and Google (GOOG) had a strong connection with the original viewing point as Yahoo had 79 percent read the top sponsored ads and Google had 71 percent. MSN was different as while 87 percent looked at the top sponsored ads, only 55 percent began reading from there. Close to a third of the viewers went past the sponsored ads completely.
Concerning the actual clicks that were recorded, Google had a 26 percent clickthrough rate, Yahoo had 30 percent and MSN came in last with a miniscule 17 percent in the top sponsored ads.
These type of statistics are already creating changes in the search companies. Yahoo is already starting to integrate click through rates and relevancy into the sponsored positioning algorithm. Along with that it has been revealed that very soon message and landing page relevancy is also going to be one of the factors involved in the position equation.
The end of all of this is that now and in the future, to get the viewer to click on your ad is going to be more and more determined by relevancy and not only the position you are in.
Comment Preview