Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

A small company's dilemma: using search engines effectively for corporate sales

A small company's dilemma: using search engines effectively for corporate sales Purpose – Smaller companies must continually review the pay‐per‐click (PPC) option or an organic listing on search engines. The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of a small manufacturing firm that is beginning to evaluate which search engine, Yahoo or Google, is more cost effective. Ultimately, management would like to identify if PPC advertising is worth the cost to a small company. Design/methodology/approach – A one month's section of data from Yahoo and Google was examined. Patterns or indications as to which key word landed a better bid position was determined. Seven consecutive campaigns for click‐through rates (CTRs), average cost per click (CPC) and average position of keywords between the search engines Yahoo and Google were observed. Findings – The average CPC was higher with Google. Kennedy Incorporated set a budget with Google and Yahoo to stay below a certain dollar limit, thus the total costs were the same. That would make the difference in the average CPC rather significant. Management also noticed a higher CTR on Yahoo than on Google. Thus it appears that Yahoo outperformed Google most of the time in the monthly samples. Research limitations/implications – Longer historical data need to be studied, to see if these patterns continue. Other statistics that would be interesting to examine are data that would reveal how CTR in Yahoo and Google are affecting conversions to sales. Originality/value – It appears from this data that Yahoo is outperforming Google for Kennedy Incorporated with a better CTR and a lower variance in average position when listed on the screen by a return from a search. The company has the impression that Yahoo is a better company for PPC advertising when the marketing budget is small. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Management Research News Emerald Publishing

A small company's dilemma: using search engines effectively for corporate sales

Management Research News , Volume 31 (10): 9 – Aug 8, 2008

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/a-small-company-s-dilemma-using-search-engines-effectively-for-E0Q1nryN0i

References (6)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0140-9174
DOI
10.1108/01409170810908499
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – Smaller companies must continually review the pay‐per‐click (PPC) option or an organic listing on search engines. The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of a small manufacturing firm that is beginning to evaluate which search engine, Yahoo or Google, is more cost effective. Ultimately, management would like to identify if PPC advertising is worth the cost to a small company. Design/methodology/approach – A one month's section of data from Yahoo and Google was examined. Patterns or indications as to which key word landed a better bid position was determined. Seven consecutive campaigns for click‐through rates (CTRs), average cost per click (CPC) and average position of keywords between the search engines Yahoo and Google were observed. Findings – The average CPC was higher with Google. Kennedy Incorporated set a budget with Google and Yahoo to stay below a certain dollar limit, thus the total costs were the same. That would make the difference in the average CPC rather significant. Management also noticed a higher CTR on Yahoo than on Google. Thus it appears that Yahoo outperformed Google most of the time in the monthly samples. Research limitations/implications – Longer historical data need to be studied, to see if these patterns continue. Other statistics that would be interesting to examine are data that would reveal how CTR in Yahoo and Google are affecting conversions to sales. Originality/value – It appears from this data that Yahoo is outperforming Google for Kennedy Incorporated with a better CTR and a lower variance in average position when listed on the screen by a return from a search. The company has the impression that Yahoo is a better company for PPC advertising when the marketing budget is small.

Journal

Management Research NewsEmerald Publishing

Published: Aug 8, 2008

Keywords: Small enterprises; Internet; Advertising

There are no references for this article.