Shoppers Turn to Search More, But Buying Behavior Unchanged

In a recent survey by the Performics performance marketing unit of DoubleClick, most respondents said that customers turned to search engines earlier in the purchase process than in years past. Although the shift indicates a significant shift in shopping behavior, there wasn’t a notable shift in buying behavior, according to companies queried in the Performics 50 Index. Some of the most noteworthy findings include the following:

4 total sales from search engine marketing programs grew as search spend increased

4 total Q4 revenue attributed directly to search increased by 43 percent over Q4 2005

4 overall search-attributed sales for all of 2006 increased by 55 percent from the previous year

4 significant growth in search spend resulted, in part, from the addition of new advertisers to the Performics 50 Index; some of these advertisers were new to paid search in 2006.