• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 2, 2006

Search marketing costs held fairly steady in the second quarter, according to data released late last week by DoubleClick's Performics unit.

The "cost-per-keyword" increased 14 cents--or less than .5 percent--throughout the second quarter, according to Performics. To arrive at a cost-per-keyword, Performics combines cost-per-click with the volume of clicks; the figure represents the average cost to a marketer of purchasing a keyword for the entire month.

But while pricing held steady, the volume of activity continued to rise. Year-over-year overall spending on search and impressions grew by almost 50 percent; active keywords grew by 58 percent while total clicks increased by 32 percent, according to Performics.

The second quarter also saw an increase in activity for keywords at the most expensive end of the spectrum. Performics reported that keywords that cost more than $1 per were displayed more often in June (up to 20 percent of impressions) than March (14 percent).

Performics attributed the increase to both a spike in pricing and a surge in new, popular keywords. The company reported that terms that previously cost between 21 and 99 cents now go for more than $1, while other, new $1-plus terms now are in play.