According to a study of 1.4 billion successful search queries from 28 million people in the United Kingdom, which was conducted by GroupM UK and Nielsen, only 6% of clicks from search engines come from paid search while 94% come from natural (unpaid) search.
The research also found that women are more likely to click on PPC search results (53%) than men (47%).
Furthermore, the number of people who click on paid search results increases with age as follows:
- Ages 2-17 = 5% click
- Ages 18-24 = 11% click
- Ages 25-34 = 18% click
- Ages 35-44 = 21% click
- Ages 45-54 = 21% click
- Ages 55+ = 23% click
Brands will be interested to learn that the study found 80% of U.K. searches for brand terms ended with the searcher clicking on the first search result. In fact, just 10% of respondents clicked beyond the third result for branded search terms. That’s significantly different from the 39% of people who click on search results after the first three for non-brand search terms.
Furthermore, industry affects click-through rates (CTRs) as well. The study found the highest CTRs for search result positions one, two, and three in the following verticals: airlines (93%), auto manufacturer (84%), and broadcast media (83%). On the other side of the spectrum, the lowest CTRs for search results positions one, two, and three were found in computers and consumer electronics (56%), home and gardens (60%), and current events/news (69%).
More data is offered in the infographic below from eConsultancy, which was produced by MEC and Neo Mammalian Studios. There is a lot of information in it that could be considered as you develop your paid search strategy for your brand in the future.
Econsultancy.com – Become a smarter digital marketer
Image: Ariel da Silva Parreira
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
