• by Masha Geller , July 30, 2001

If you've been reading the online advertising press lately, you've probably seen a few dozen stories on the subject of "what doesn't work online." Namely, the pop-under format.

In my opinion, it's too early to tell whether the pop-under format is effective or not - those who sell them say they're the hottest things going (naturally), yet those who see them online seem to hate them - so I'd rather talk about things that do work and have been working for a while. One of those is paid search engine placement.

For example, Jupiter Media Metrix today released a report which said that paid search engines are faring well during the soft online ad market because they are among the few that have successfully aligned the needs of both consumers and marketers.

The report reveals that paid search placement models are succeeding because consumers are finding relevant listings much faster on paid search engines, while advertisers are only paying for qualified lead traffic on a per-click basis.

Media Metrix ratings data reveal that visitors to Goto.com, a paid search engine, spend an average of just 56 minutes on the site, while the average user of Yahoo!'s proprietary search engine spend 106 minutes -- an indication, say Jupiter analysts, that consumers are much more satisfied with their findings from paid search engines.

Jupiter analysts have found that current market conditions have forced advertisers to seek out solutions that are cost- effective and require low up-front investments. SEC filings show that advertisers indeed turned to paid search engines increasingly during the first quarter of 2001, as Goto.com managed nearly 30% revenue growth from the fourth quarter while many other ad-supported sites experienced double-digit declines. Looksmart, another paid search engine, fared much better than others in the media sales business, with a less than 7% decline.