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The average cost of keywords--which had fallen during the first two months of the year, after rising steadily from September through the holidays--now exceeds last December's $1.70 by about 3 percent. Matt McMahon, Fathom Online's executive vice president-corporate development, attributed the upswing in keyword pricing to seasonal shifts in ad spending.
While some industries' keywords went up in price more than others, none of the categories tracked by Fathom Online fell last month. Telecom/wireless terms gained the most ground, growing by 23 percent to 95 cents a click--although this figure is less than the $1.09 per click that the category garnered last year.
Consumer travel and hotels also increased by 15 percent to 93 cents a click, which is almost back to the December average of 97 cents--the highest for the category since Fathom began its index last September. Also showing large gains was finance and investing, which saw average keyword prices rise 13 percent to $1.86--the highest since September.
Prices for automobile-related keywords rose 11 percent to $1.42, and terms related to retail increased by 11 percent to 51 cents per click.
Mortgage-related keywords climbed to $5.39 a click, showing a modest 6 percent growth. But terms related to mortgages have increased consistently since last September, when their average price was $3.17.
The smallest gain came in consumer services, such as movie ticketing or hair-cutting. The average cost of keywords in that group rose by 4 percent, to $1.08--still short of the $1.36 they commanded last December.
Fathom Online Keyword Price Index
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| 09/04 | 10/04 | 11/04 | 12/04 | 01/05 | 02/05 | 03/05 |
| Automotive | 1.54 | 1.39 | 1.35 | 1.41 | 1.34 | 1.28 | 1.42 |
| Retail | .32 | .48 | .60 | .58 | .52 | .46 | .51 |
| Consumer Services | .54 | .96 | 1.27 | 1.36 | 1.29 | 1.04 | 1.08 |
| Travel/Hospitality | .64 | .85 | .90 | .97 | .88 | .81 | .93 |
| Finance/Investing | 1.76 | 1.60 | 1.70 | 1.76 | 1.73 | 1.65 | 1.86 |
| Finance/Mortgage | 3.17 | 4.31 | 4.74 | 4.79 | 4.93 | 5.10 | 5.39 |
| Telecommunications/Broadband | 1.89 | 1.78 | 1.59 | 1.63 | 1.67 | 1.72 | 1.85 |
| Telecommunications/Wireless | 1.09 | 1.06 | 1.09 | 1.09 | .79 | .77 | .95 |
| Overall Average | 1.37 | 1.55 | 1.66 | 1.70 | 1.64 | 1.60 | 1.75 |
| Source: Fathom Online. Indices are based on a weighted average of bid prices of the top five ranked positions across U.S. Tier I, II, and III Search vendors of keywords within a search engine marketing campaign. The industry keyword list is composed from the 500 most queried keywords within an industry. The keyword list does not include brand keywords. The index's goal is to represent a typical search engine marketing industry campaign and track the cost per click over time without being subjected to abnormal search activity due to random events regarding well-known industry brands. |
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