Fathom: Keyword Prices Rise 3 Percent In June

Search terms across a broad array of categories rose an average of 3 percent last month to $1.72--from $1.67 in May, according to the Fathom Online Keyword Price Index, expected to be released today. Overall, keyword prices were up approximately 25 percent since last September, when Fathom began publishing the index, which tracks average cost-per-click rates in eight categories--cars, consumer retail, consumer services, travel/hospitality, investing, mortgages, broadband, and wireless.

Keywords related to wireless services jumped by 19 percent to $1.19--the highest rate for such terms since the index started. Retail keywords rebounded to 53 cents--9 percent higher than last month's 49 cents, but still less than the November average of 60 cents. Terms in most other categories were up only slightly (investing--5 percent; consumer services--3 percent; mortgages--3 percent; cars--2 percent; and travel--1 percent), while keywords related to broadband fell by 2 percent to $1.97.

But, while many of the categories were relatively static compared to last month, some still showed a good deal of day-to-day volatility not reflected in the monthly index, said Fathom's Gregg Stewart, senior vice president for channel management and marketing.

The mortgage category, for instance, "started out pretty high, retrenched a little, and brought itself back up for a period in the middle of the month," Stewart said. Retail-related keywords also bounced up and down, he said.

Fathom Online Keyword Price Index

09/04

10/04

11/04

12/04

01/05

02/05

03/05

04/05

05/05

06/05

Automotive

1.54

1.39

1.35

1.41

1.34

1.28

1.42

1.40

1.50

1.53

Retail

.32

.48

.60

.58

.52

.46

.51

.52

.49

.53

Consumer Services

.54

.96

1.27

1.36

1.29

1.04

1.08

1.13

1.09

1.12

Travel/Hospitality

.64

.85

.90

.97

.88

.81

.93

.92

.87

.88

Finance/Investing

1.76

1.60

1.70

1.76

1.73

1.65

1.86

2.03

1.81

1.89

Finance/Mortgage

3.17

4.31

4.74

4.79

4.93

5.10

5.39

6.49

4.52

4.66

Broadband*

1.89

1.78

1.59

1.63

1.67

1.72

1.85

2.09

2.02

1.97

Wireless*

1.09

1.06

1.09

1.09

.79

.77

.95

1.01

1.00

1.19

Overall Average

1.37

1.55

1.66

1.70

1.64

1.60

1.75

1.95

1.67

1.72

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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