• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, November 15, 2006

PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. -- The search industry needs to do more research to explore the relationship between search ads, display ads and offline media, senior executives from the top three search engines said Tuesday at MediaPost's Search Insider Summit.

"There is a challenge with search being sold in a different environment than the other online media," said Brian Boland, group marketing manager of the adCenter Communications Group at Microsoft. He added that the separation of search and display ad sales causes confusion among marketers, and results in inefficiencies that deter companies from upping their online spending. Microsoft is currently studying the ways in which display ads as well as ads in traditional media influence consumers' searches.

Diana Pouliot, Google's Southwest regional director, agreed that the company sees a need for more data. "This year we really heavied up on our research and our third-party research," she said, adding that cross-media research "really starts to break down those silos," allowing more effective media mix planning.

Yahoo's Kelly Graziadei, director of channel strategy and development, added that the company is working to coordinate search, display and offline advertising.