March 04 2007
Sponsored search click-through rate up with Panama
comScore Networks, has released the results of a study analysing the changes in Yahoo's click-through rates for sponsored search ads since the official US launch of its new ranking model on February 5, 2007. The introduction of the ranking model is the second phase in the rollout of its new search advertising system, known as Project Panama.
Using the week ending 4 February as a baseline for sponsored search click-through rates (total clicks on sponsored search ads divided by total searches), before the ranking model launched, comScore studied the two subsequent weeks of click-through data to evaluate the impact of the new ranking model. The data indicated that for each of the two weeks subsequent to the launch (ending 11 February and 18 February), Yahoo! sites experienced a noticeable lift in its sponsored search click-through rate. The week ending 11 February saw a 5% increase, while the week ending 18 February showed a 9% jump. The study is based on the online behavior of comScore's US sample of 1 million internet users.
"comScore data show that the recent introduction of Yahoo's new search marketing ranking model is already having a positive impact on the click-through rates for Yahoo's search advertising," said James Lamberti, comScore Senior Vice President of Media and Search Solutions. "comScore will continue to monitor the performance of the new ranking model and plans to issue an additional analysis at the end of the first quarter."
Another anticipated result of Yahoo's new ranking model is a shift in composition of total click volume from algorithmic to sponsored. The "sponsored click composition" metric (sponsored clicks as a percentage of total clicks), is critical in understanding Yahoo's success in improving both monetization and user experience. qSearch data show positive gains in this area, with sponsored clicks representing 10.6% and 11.1% of total click volume in the weeks ending 11 February and 18 February, respectively. These data represent increases of 0.5 and 1.0 points in the weeks following the new ranking model launch.
"While still in its early stages, any good news for Panama is good news for Yahoo! - and this early study shows plenty of good news," added John Battelle, Chairman and Publisher of Federated Media.
Emma Herrod
