Sponsored search links accounted for 34 percent of the 13 billion online ad impressions delivered the week ending Aug. 21, according to research released Wednesday by Nielsen//NetRatings' AdRelevance.
The five advertisers who placed the most sponsored links for that week were eBay (379 million impressions); Shopping.com (138 million); InterActive Corp. (98 million); MyCashNow.com (94
million), and Yahoo! (91 million).
Retail and Web media industries accounted for nearly half of all sponsored search ads, with retailers placing 22 percent of sponsored links and Web media
placing 21 percent. eBay led the retail goods and services category, while Shopping.com helped boost Web media's placement of sponsored links.
Financial services companies such as
LowerMyBills.com accounted for 6 percent of sponsored links, while travel companies such as Orbitz placed 5 percent. Business-to-business sites accounted for 3 percent of sponsored links.
Nielsen//NetRatings' AdRelevance unit has long tracked online display ads, but just started tracking search impressions the last week in July.