• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 27, 2007

 According to the current Keyword Price Index from Fathom Online, the average keyword price paid by online advertisers declined 3.3% percent in the first quarter of 2007 to $1.46. Despite the modest decrease, the recent trend in keyword prices over the past three quarters has been relatively stable, and is just 5% higher than the first quarter of 2006, when the average keyword price was $1.39.

The Keyword Price Index is a weighted average of more than 20,000 active keyword prices across all major search engines covering a broad range of industries, including automotive, computing, consumer services, electronics, finance, healthcare, media, entertainment, retail, telecom, and travel. 

Fathom Online Chairman and CEO, Dean DeBiase, said "This quarter's average keyword price points to a longer term trend of stable prices and consequently the growing importance of sophisticated analytics to manage integrated campaigns, rather than a focus on keyword prices alone..."

Matt McMahon, Vice President of Products and Services of Fathom Online said, "...keyword prices has become a short-term game with little growth opportunity... designing, measuring and managing engagement and interaction with the consumer across all channels is the next generation of marketing..."

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