Microsoft Adcenter converts better than Google in Paid Search
A recent study by Receptional's Web Analytics partner, IndexTools has reinforced Microsoft's claim that their paid search product converts better than Google's across a broad range of search verticals. It was no small study either... covering over 15 Million visitors from paid search, the study found that Microsoft Adcenter adverts converted into sales around 20% better than Google's AdWords product. Here's a normalised graph of the results.
Dennis found that this was across all verticals, but was careful not to say that it would be true for everyone.
There is a question mark that arises here, though. It MAY be that the people advertising on Microsoft's platform are a n experience or expert subset of those advertising on Google. In other words, the conversion rate may be higher on Microsoft not because the quality of the audience is better, but because the quality of the PPC manager is better. If that was the case, however, then one would also expect an uplift in Yahoo's conversion rates compared to Google's as the same would presumably be true. Yahoo's traffic quality, however, falls behind both of its competitors.
Unfortunately, Dennis's research has been very careful not to give away an overall "benchmark conversion rate" either for one engine or for PPC as a whole. In fact he gave no actual conversion rates at all.
Our own research suggests, though, that Microsoft's traffic is, indeed, superior to Google's in terms of quality. In fact, we find Yahoo's traffic to be better in some verticals than Google's as well. Yahoo, however, tends to be really quite vertical dependant. The real challenge for Microsoft is quantity. Typically, for every £100 we spend on Google at the moment, we can spend about £20 tops on Yahoo and £5 on Microsoft. These are very rough numbers, but show that even IF Microsoft buys Yahoo, they still have a long way to go to "move the dial" towards parity in the UK. I still believe (I have to believe) that Microsoft can make inroads into Google's market share, though. They have many routes to market and Google are not the "we can do no wrong" protégés that they once were. market share will be one in gradual but significant steps.
If you have our live tracking on your site, you can find out for yourself whether your conversion rates between PPC suppliers are in line with expectations. Further, you can compare the conversion rates of all your online advertising, side by side. this is a very useful chart. If you would like, Receptional can take the analysis further, seeing how your site's conversion rates compare with the market as a whole and perhaps take this into a full website usability review.
My thanks to Dennis for his research. His colleague Charlie writes for us here in Receptional's Newsroom.
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04.03.2008.
