PPC vs. Natural Traffic

[FoggieLlama]

Hello All,

I'm looking around for some statistics on the percent of users who click on a natural listing vs. a PPC listing, by engine. Say, for Google, 70% clicked on natural and 30% on paid. I'd like to hear from anyone especially with current information.

Thanks!
John

[David Wallace]

The last I heard it was 80% organic (natural) while 20% was sponsored (PPC). That may have changed as that was quite a few months ago.

[FoggieLlama]

Dave,

Thanks for the quick reply. Do you happen to have a link or know who put those numbers out? I'm hoping to cite my source if possible.

Not looking for numbers of this, but I assume the gap has grown as users get more savvy; have you noticed that?

Thanks,
John

[Chris Boggs]

John, you pose an interesting thought. I would think that it would be the other way around, as more users become aware that the sponsored listings are generally always right-on and usually land you on a very relevant page. Of course the Engines would like this to be true, as it would indicate more revenue for them. (hmmm side thought...maybe the engines want the organic results to be less relevant...hmmm, ok tin hat off now...)

On the other hand, if search engine optimizers (and spammers ) have been doing their jobs, the organic listings are becoming far more relevant than in the past. This would lend credence to your view. I wonder what others feel about this.

Good topic, btw! I am going to look at a few side-by-side reports and see what percentage of traffic is coming from each for particular keyword phrases that I know are have full exposure on the first page both organic and paid. <added>This would be a "by-site" test instead of by engine. </added> It will be a smaller sample because I don't want to spend all day on it, but maybe others would pose such numbers and we can make an informed guess? Maybe someone knows of a white paper or case study out there with recent numbers?

[Robert_Charlton]

Originally Posted by David Wallace

The last I heard it was 80% organic (natural) while 20% was sponsored (PPC). That may have changed as that was quite a few months ago.

David - Do you have a source for this somewhere? I'm not questioning it... It's essentially in line with what I've understood... but I'd like to have an research based article I could send to clients that would provide this info.

I should mention that I've also heard that overall there are seven times as many organic clicks as Adword clicks, and it's a figure whose usefulness I've doubted. My reason being that many searches are non-commercial and don't bring up many ads to speak of. I'd like to get a good comparison for commercial searches.

Obviously, certain commercial searches where there are ambiguities in the search term will probably produce more ads and probably more ad clicks.

[Chris_D]

Ok - I've got the same stats as FoggyLlama - and here's the source:

Google - 72.3% organic, 27.7% Paid ads
All engines - 60.5% organic, 39.5% paid ads

....Internet users are more likely to click on an organic search link on Google, and a paid search result on MSN...

Report from iProspect. Conducted with Survey Sampling International, WebSurveyor, and Stratagem Research. Online survey of 1,649 individuals. Report published April 2004.

And I've read the same stats as David - and here's the source:

Algorithmic listings in search indexes generate an estimated six of seven commercially natured search referrals

Jupiter Research Report, Dec 15th 2004

i.e 85.7% are algorithmic; and 14.3% are paid - for COMMERCIAL searches.

So now we know where these came from - anyone got any newer ones?

[Chris_D]

Oh - and I forgot - Chris B is correct too - for MSN.



The iProspect online survey I mentioned above, published April 2004, gave MSN 28.8% organic and 71.2% paid. Looking at when that was research was conducted (pre the current MSN search engine) - that it is probably the one stat which has changed most dramatically since 2004.

[grasshopper]

i think that enquiro's eye tracking studycould give you some interesting information. it basically outlines the differences in searcher behavior (how often they click) given differences in presentation - i.e.:

- presence of one-box results

- presence of blue-box "sponsored links" across the top of the SERPs

- presence of "sponsored links" down the right side of the page

i thought it was pretty good stuff. well worth the money.

[Robert_Charlton]

Thanks. Links to sources especially welcome. Here's a ClickZ article I found searching for the quote Chris_D posted. It includes the iProspect stats....

Searching for Balance
http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/...le.php/3348071

Haven't had time to search more, but thought this might be the most productive place to save this search result.

[Chris Boggs]

Originally Posted by grasshopper

i think that enquiro's ...
i thought it was pretty good stuff. well worth the money.

yes we bought it too...was well written and great analysis, but I was disappointed in the sample size plus some of the other restrictions.

[Chris_D]

Thanks. Links to sources especially welcome.

Robert - I had to mug a Baker to get enough breadcumbs to be able to leave a trail like that behind me - without leaving an actual 'clickable' link!!!



Hi. I'm Chris. I first joined an SEM forum back in 2001, where we didn't ever link...

...and ever since then - well - you know - I've just felt cheap and dirty whenever I've given one away for free - you know ...... a link

[FoggieLlama]

Good stuff. Thanks for the sources as well. If I find anything more in my research I'll be sure to pass it along.

And I agree the MSN numbers have probably changed the most, and will continue to move some more over the new few months before they settle down.

[Robert_Charlton]

Originally Posted by Chris_D

...Hi. I'm Chris. I first joined an SEM forum back in 2001, where we didn't ever link...

...and ever since then - well - you know - I've just felt cheap and dirty whenever I've given one away for free - you know ...... a link

LOL. I think you need to get over this, Chris. Bad for self esteem, not to mention the future of the web. What with all those link condoms in place, the web will die out unless we propagate useful links.

[Black_Knight]

Originally Posted by FoggieLlama

I'm looking around for some statistics on the percent of users who click on a natural listing vs. a PPC listing, by engine.

This totally varies by the specific search phrase, the creatives of the ads offered, and some other factors too. An across-the board average would be absolutely useless to you, because for some phrases the clicks will be low and utterly unproductive (more fraud and window shopping, no sales) while in others the PPC ads can get 50% of the clicks, especially with good creatives.

[Chris Boggs]

Acording to James Lamberti of comScore, AOL gets the highest percentage of paid clicks at 24%, followed by Google at 13%, Yahoo at 11%, and MSN at 8%. See coverage of James' report at SER SES NYC Coverage.