 Since the demise of the Keyword Price Index in early 2007 I have been compiling statistics to develop a Keyword Bid Index©. My opinion is that “Bid” more accurately reflects the reporting of this statistic. Bid information can be compiled from public sources (such as Google Keyword Tool and Yahoo Advertiser) , but to determine the Keyword Priceone would need to compile private information from thousands of companies that pay the bill for the price!My data gathering is complete and I am working on the formula to provide the most accurate stats possible. One insight I can clearly note is a rapid escalation in the Keyword Bid paid after November of 2007. This occurred due to a change in the way Google AdSense displays text ads. Prior to November of 2007 nearly 100% of the “area” of a text ad was “clickable”. Post November only the “headline” and “URL” are clickable. Thereby reducing the click area by ~75%.
The result appears to have improved the “relevancy” (ERGO quality) of the click-through. The extended result is willingness of advertisers to pay more per click. As a specific example, one client I consult for in the “Home Decor” category of Internet Business Opportunity has seen his average click price paid increase from $.84 to an average of $1.07 over the six month period from November 2007 to April 2008.
The spelling of ggoogle (actually Google) is a misspelling. However, you might find it of interest that this typo is searched, on average, more than 17,000 times each month. There are Google AdWord bidders that pay up to $4.00 to capture this traffic with an ad on the search results page for “ggoogle”.
The average Keyword Bid Index© at the end of the first quarter 2008 was $2.26; by the end of the second quarter the average was $2.49; and at the end of September the average bid price across the 7,760 keywords being tracked was $2.54; for an overall increase of 12% since the beginning of 2008. It does not appear that the nasty economic conditions have impacted the inflating price of online advertising. Of course, for publishers that display Google AdSense, like Internet Business Guide, click revenue increased 15% in 3rd quarter 2008 over 2nd quarter 2008.
Here is an insight into the data collection creating the ~7,500 keyword strings (longtails) in the Keyword Bid Price©:
| General |
% of Total |
| typos & misspellings |
10% |
| Minimum Bid |
12% |
| Bids Over $10 |
5% |
| The Keyword Bid Price© list is subdivided into categories (this incorporates the above General categories.) |
| Categories |
% of Total |
| Shopping |
28% |
| Publishing |
42% |
| Passive |
12% |
| Web Services |
12% |
| Uncategorized |
6% |
| TOTAL |
100% |
|
Each primary category is broken into subcategories. For example, the “Shopping” category contains 39 longtails related to “wine”, or 2% of the total Shopping category. Wine is a focus as it is one if the fastest growing categories for search. This is in part due to the 2005 Supreme Court decision requiring State compliance with Federal law.
Shortly, I’ll be comparing the October Keyword Bid Index to the 3rd Quarter of 2008. Initial indications are a significant drop in bidding for keyword terms (longtails). Some categories are down by as much as 50%. Even though online is still growing, it is growing at a decreasing rate.
To receive updates to the Keyword Bid Index© remember to subscribe to the Internet Business Guide. If you pay for keywords, or receive PPC income you will want to know the hot, and not so hot, categories. |
