San Francisco, December 8, 2005--Amid all the talk about rising keyword prices, the Fathom Online Keyword Price Index, which has been tracking keyword prices in eight categories consistently for the past 15 months, indicates that November averages were virtually flat, rising one percent or $.01 from $1.45 to $1.46.
Pricing swings were evident in certain categories. Telecom Wireless was down 10 percent to $.95; Automotive bounced back after a drop last month of 14 percent with sector prices rising six percent to an average $1.38 in November. Most surprising, average retail prices were flat for the month at $.45, although one can always find skyhigh examples like iPod at $1.30 and diamond bracelet at $1.80. Consumer Travel and Hospitality was flat at $.97 and Finance Investment rose eight percent from $1.66 to $1.80, likely in anticipation of the predicted year-end increase in the stock market.
Overall, it should be noted, prices have dropped 11 percent from November 2004, one year ago, when the average price for all eight categories was $1.64, partially attributable to a $4.72 average keyword price in the Finance-Mortgage category. The November 2005 price for that category was $3.67.
We hear continued talk about rising keyword prices, but the data indicates that the averages are in fact flat to down across the categories tracked,” said Gregg Stewart, SVP Channel Management and Marketing. “The search market is robust and growing rapidly because more advertisers are allocating more budget dollars to search. Smart advertisers have learned to maximize their keyword spends with creative thinking and bid management and then to optimize their conversions to sales.”
Fathom Online tracks keyword prices daily to spot trends and to provide its clients with advantageous buying opportunities. The keyword list consists of 500 generic keywords across each of eight categories for the top five ranked positions on selected search engines. The pricing fluctuations measured by the KPI should be viewed in the context of the eight categories reported and not as a proxy for the entire search industry.
