The Wall Street Journal, citing a new report by search marketing firm Efficient Frontier (EF), is reporting U.S. search advertising spending fell an unprecedented 8% year-over-year in the 4th quarter.
It was the first time search advertising spending declined in a quarter year-over-year since Efficient Frontier began keeping track.
EF said Google maintained its 76% market share of search ads, Yahoo increased it share 1/2% to 20%, and Microsoft live search took the biggest hit, down from 4.9% to 4.2%.
Other highlights from the report:
“”Advertisers who spend less than $50,000 on search ads cut their spending by 23% year-over-year, while advertisers that spend more than $200,000 on search per month cut spending by 9% during that time. Purchases by advertisers who spend between $50,000 and $200,000 were relatively flat.
Finance and automotive advertising continued to deteriorate. Search-ad spending among financial advertisers fell 20% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007. Search spending from automotive advertisers declined 15% during that period.””
We should get a better feel for the 4th quarter, when Google announces its results after the market closes on Thursday.
“Finance and automotive advertising continued to deteriorate. Search-ad spending among financial advertisers fell 20% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007.”
They had to cut ad expense.
The $ is needed for Management Bonuses and Resort Vacations. 🙂
It doesn’t feel like less in that ad area. It looks and feels the same.