Search ad spending wavered in late q1

disbursement on hunt ads remained strong across several verticals in the first one-fourth, according to study from two hunt engine selling firms. Nevertheless, one of them said it measured a lag in March that might point to problem in Q2.

The determination came ahead of Google's strong net income report this afternoon. The company nailed its first one-fourth, reporting net income of $1.31 one million million on $5.19 one million million in gross. CEO Eric Helmut Schmidt said Google had felt no impact as a consequence of macro-economic conditions.

SearchIgnite said its largely retail clients increased their year-over-year ad spend in the first one-fourth. Across all engines, same-advertiser spend increased 28.5 percent. Nevertheless, the month-to-month breakdown reveals a diminution over the course of study of the one-fourth. Spending growing was 47.6 percentage in Jan; 33.5 percent in Feb; and 19.1 percentage in March.

"They are for the most part dipping their toe in a little more carefully month-over-month," said Will Margiloff, CEO of invention Interactive, SearchIgnite's parent company.

"We believe that online is insulated from a downswing from traditional marketing, and online search is double-insulated... For the most part more dollars will flow into hunt, even although some of the tendency year-over-year won't be as robust as others," said Margiloff.

Spending growing trends vary depending on the industry. In its own study today, Efficient Frontier said traveling sector clients increased their spend by 23 percentage year-over year. Meanwhile search disbursement in the financial services class is down by 17 percentage, compared to the first one-fourth last year.

Where money is being spent is another issue. Searchignite says it increased its Yahoo spend at Google'e expense in Q1, even as comScore reports Google expands its laterality in user question. The hunt agency said Yahoo's share of hunt spending increased by 4.6 percent points betwixt the end of 2007 and the end of March. During the same time period, Google's share dropped by 4.1 percentage points. Searchignite attributes some of Yahoo's gains to the maturation of Panama.

"Yahoo technologically has put a lot of advances in its platform, and over time, provided a lot more advances for marketers," said Margiloff. "One of the things we think is exciting about the search space is innovation at Yahoo and innovation at MSN."

Efficient Frontier tells a quite different story. "We are seeing that click through rates and CPCs are up in Google, and they're down on both Yahoo and MSN," said LeeAnn Prescott, director of research. "What that indicates to us is that Google has become more efficient. Its quality measures are taking effect and becoming more beneficial to advertisers

Efficient Frontier said its advertisers have pulled money out of Yahoo and spent it on Google. Google grew its share of Efficient Frontier's ad spend to 77 percent. Yahoo lost three points, shrinking from 21 to 18 percent. MSN remained flat at 5 percent.

Throughout the first quarter, Google's click volume has been closely scrutinized with the release of multiple reports from comScore showing declining click growth. Investors were scared by sequential declines in clicks in January, and by low growth thatcontinued through March. Updated with Google Q1 results information.