• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 8, 2016

Search marketing and branded terms are playing a role in the increase in the time Internet users spend with digital media -- specifically rich media like video, which is expected to reach 85.5% of total data traffic by 2020, according to PwC data released Wednesday. 

AdGooroo data shows that Amazon generated more than 4.3 million clicks on the keyword "amazon prime" between March 9 through June 6 for paid-search ads running on Google desktop campaigns, while 
Hulu received 600,000 clicks on the term "hulu plus," whereas Netflix received 354,000 clicks on the term "Netflix."

Amazon generated around seven times more paid-search clicks on Google desktop searches related to its streaming video service on the branded term "amazon prime" than Hulu did on "hulu plus," and around 12 times more clicks than Netflix did on the term "netflix," according to the AdGooroo data released Wednesday.

The data analyzes the number of paid-search clicks on three branded terms during the same time period: "amazon prime," "Netflix." and "hulu plus." It also analyzes 57 non-branded terms for video-streaming sites.

Amazon was the top advertiser on Google desktop by paid-search spend for specific keywords from March 9 through June 6, but still fell behind Crackle and Yidio in total number of actual clicks on ads, showing that it had a less efficient campaign.

AdGooroo estimates Amazon paid $83,000 to sponsor the keywords during the 90 days, compared with $38,000 by Crackle and $33,000 by Yidio. The difference in total ad spend between the three competitors was a result of the varying cost per click. Estimates show Amazon had an average CPC of $2 on the keyword group during the specific time frame, while Yidio had a $0.68 CPC and Crackle had a $0.57 CPC.

Interestingly, Crackle produced the best-performing campaign, generating more clicks on the non-branded streaming video keywords, at a lower average cost per click than any other advertiser.

Hulu came in at No. 5 in click share, while Netflix remained absent from the competition for clicks for the simple reason it did not advertise on any of the 57 non-branded video-streaming keywords during the period, per AdGooroo.

"Amazon is by far the most successful paid-search advertiser out there, which is why AdGooroo was surprised to see a case where they’re not dominating for a category in which they are actively competing," said Jim Leichenko, director of marketing at AdGooroo. "Amazon sponsors millions of keywords, so you can’t make a judgement about their program based on their performance in this particular study."

Just analyzing the non-branded terms alone does not tell marketers much, other than that Crackle and Yidio are doing better on them, compared with Amazon.

"The real story is in branded keywords, where Amazon is clearly concentrating its efforts and is far surpassing everyone else," Leichenko said. "They had 4.3 million clicks on the term 'amazon prime' during the 90 days. The top non-branded streaming video keyword only got 160,000 clicks. So it may just be a case of Amazon not being especially engaged in a keyword group where there’s not all that much traffic, especially when they’re driving significantly more traffic with their own branded term."