Ahead of its Internet conference, investment banker SG Cowen (caveat, I’m giving a speech there this week in NYC, they are buying books for the event) released a survey of the US online advertising industry. The bank also surveyed US Internet users and found a few interesting tidbits. As with Piper, the report is not online. Irritating, eh? So here it is as a download, and here is Piper’s to boot. From SG Cowen’s report:
There are possibly more dimensions to this trend, than are being shown. 😕
Sophisticated users ARE gravitating towards Google, but, Getting a Top 2 spot on MSN or Yahoo or AOL – will REALLY help you get buying prospects according to some studies.
It appears that while Google users are more sophiticated searchers – many also SEARCH MORE and Persist MORE to get MORE options, or to analyze the competition or to research the industry.
MSN Yahoo and AOL users appear to just want to get the first couple of good prospects.
Online Searching is not an as captivating an undertaking
So for sheer quality traffic, if you have an information site or forum, it is Google all the way, but for ecommerce or business sites – getting at or near the very top of MSN AOL or Yahoo, either organic or PPCs, can REALLY offer an R.O.I. conversion rate!
http://www.websidestory.com/news-events/press-releases/view-release.html?id=208