Searching Beyond the Paid

Thursday, January 06, 2011

PPC Predictions - A Look Back

Yep, it's cliche - everyone is blogging about their predictions for 2011. It happens every year. Last year, I had the privilege of sharing my predictions on David Szetela's PPC Rockstars podcast, along with several other PPC luminaries.

To be honest, I've never been a fan of New Year's resolutions or predictions (I know, that goes contrary to me participating in a podcast on just that topic, but whatever). So this year, rather than postulate on what will happen, let's look at whether I was right last year.

On the podcast, I predicted that the rate of growth in PPC would slow in 2010 vs. previous years, due to social media and other factors such as increasing CPC in search. I also predicted that the Microsoft/Yahoo merger would happen, but it would make no dent in Google's market share. On the show, David politely disagreed with me. (David's always polite!)

Well, guess what. I was wrong on the first one. According to Efficient Frontier, year-over-year growth from 2008 to 2009 was 6%, and Y/Y growth from 2009 to 2010 was 10-15%. I attribute this to the economy, which rebounded in 2010. It's actually a good thing for PPC that I was wrong on this - it indicates that advertisers still see a high value in this channel.

On the second prediction, about Microsoft & Yahoo, I was right!!!!! (Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah, David!) According to Efficient Frontier yet again, Google's click share in Q3 2009 was 72.0%. In Q3 2010, it was 78.3%. So, despite all the ballyhoo surrounding Microhoo, Google continues to win the search click wars - at least for the time being.

So, I'm batting .500 for 2010. Not too shabby, I'd say!

As I like to say, to thine own self be true - I won't be making any predictions for 2011. If you'd like to see some good ones, though, check out the Search Engine Watch article from John Lee - who, not coincidentally, works for David over at Clix Marketing. Here's to success in 2011!

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3 Comments:

  • Thanks for the shout-out, Melissa. Love that you gave David the school yard "Nyah nyah nyah nyah" treatment!

    By Blogger John Lee, at 5:20 PM EST  

  • Heh, some good-natured ribbing among friends is always fun!

    By Blogger Melissa, at 8:06 AM EST  

  • I simply benefit from making mine in the 'middle of the year'(!) hence i've had a go at making some 2011 ppc predictions -
    http://www.searchmuse.com/blog/2011/2/16/ppc-predictions-for-2011.html
    Topics covered include:
    1/Kaizen
    2/Tracking improvements
    3/Status Quo/ still doing ‘stuff’ well
    4/Pay per action
    5/Mobile
    6/Bingo!
    7/Social Media PPC

    By Blogger Unknown, at 2:22 PM EST  

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