CPC Rises on Multiple-Word Keyword Phrases

[rustybrick]

Battelle (http://battellemedia.com/archives/000970.php) shares graph that shows the trend of PPC advertisers purchasing more specific keyword phrases at a higher dollar value.

http://battellemedia.com/images/MMeekerRPSpyramid.jpg

This graph comes from Mary Meeker's research report on Search. It shows how PPC on particular terms has rise, and the raw potential of paid search against mutliple-word keyphrases.

[Robert_Charlton]

Intriguing little chart, albeit I wish the examples were better chosen. I'd think of "credit card" as such a common pairing that it's effectively a one-word term.

And the third phrase is unfortunate as an example. Six words.... As I expected, it doesn't even show up on the Overture Suggestion Tool (powered by MatchDriver). Maybe it's not intended to be typical... hard to tell without the original Mary Meeker report or any commentary, which I'd love to see but can't find anywhere.

But I find the premise interesting if true. I'd love to see some good stats on perhaps a range of one, two, three, and four word phrases likely to be searched. If the same pattern holds and it's a solid trend, it's a great argument I can use in pitching organic SEO.

[andrewgoodman]

I can't think of a worse example!

In the current credit boom, and with folks doing the affiliate thing on credit card signups, there are so many folks out there doing keyword research on all these credit card related terms... I'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to be telling us.

Meeker would be better off looking inside any given PPC account at real data showing search frequency, real PPC's, real numbers rather than these huge ranges.

I suppose the idea here is that SE's continue to leave something like half their keyword inventory unmonetized... which is of interest to investors, which is why Meeker would look at it. Absolutely.

But unfortunately many are taking away from research the inaccurate conclusion which is that you have to worry a lot about four-word phrases. Yes and no. Matching options mean you're covered with longer phrases without having to load your account with a whole bunch of them.

As for every study and every chart proving that organic SEO is the answer, why try to read that into Meeker's data? From what I understand we are indeed seeing more multiple-word searches these days, but I find it amazing that a discussion of one topic must always be turned around to be a means of "pitching organic SEO."

A more interesting question is: what's Meeker pitching, and why?