Yahoo Share of Seach Ad Spending Increased in 1st Q

According to report today by SearchIgnite, a paid search management technology solutions firm, Yahoo  posted a 57.6% growth in search ad spending in the first quarter compared to a year ago.

Yahoo’s share of search ad spending in the first quater increased to 24.2% from 19.6% in the first quarter a year ago.

Google’s share of the market fell in the first quarter to 70.4% from 74.5%, and Microsoft’s share fell to 5.45% from 5.9%.

Overall, search ad spending was up 28.5 percent in the first quarter but SearchIgnite noted that spending could slow in the second quarter.

SearchIgnite also cautioned that Yahoo!’s strong first-quarter growth was based on a rough quarter a year ago when it was having problems with Project Panama, its platform to distribute online ads.

According to SearchIgnite, Yahoo! posted gains in search ad spending of 79.2% in January, 37.3% in February and 43.9% in March.

SearchIgnite’s results follows a report late last month from research firm comScore that reported a 5% increase in ad-supported clicks for Yahoo in February compared with only a 3% increase for Google and a 13% decline for Microsoft’s MSN paid clicks.

All three companies are reporting their earnings in the coming week: Google on Thursday, Yahoo! on April 22 and Microsoft on April 24.