• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, February 6, 2007

This year, the majority of Super Bowl advertisers also bought pay-per-click search ads, according to a new study by search engine marketing firm Reprise Media.

But did traffic to advertisers’ sites increase? The results appear mixed.

Reprise found that King Pharmaceuticals did a good job of integrating search ads with TV spots that directed people to the American Heart Association site Beatyourrisk.com. Research company Hitwise reported that Beatyourrisk.com's market share of traffic soared 1,727% from Saturday to Sunday.

But at the same time, other companies that Reprise found effectively used search ads, like Careerbuilder.com, saw far smaller traffic bumps. Careerbuilder's market share of visits increased just 25% from Saturday to Sunday, Hitwise said. That proportion is lower than the 66% market share increase seen by Van Heusen/Izod's site, pvh.com -- even though Reprise found that Izod was among the worst advertisers at combining paid search with its Super Bowl ad.

Separately, Hitwise also found that people's focus on the game Sunday seemed to draw their attention away from YouTube, which saw a slight drop (1%) in market share from Saturday. SuperBowlAds.com, meanwhile, saw its market share spike 604%, while AOL Sports' market share grew 78% and CBS Sportsline's grew 12%. IFilm, which also streamed Super Bowl ads, grew market share just 2%.