Despite Recent Controversy, Paid Search Continues To Gain Acceptance: Report

Search engine keywords represent the contemporary equivalent of a newsboy holding up a paper and yelling “Extra!” as Murray Gaylord, VP-marketing for NYTimes.com, puts it. The street corners have been replaced by Yahoo, Google, AOL, MSN and Ask.com, while, as the WSJ reminds us, buying keywords to attract new traffic has become routine among news sites. The method drew scrutiny after some news organizations (including nytimes.com) paid for terms associated with the Virginia Tech shootings, which reached a price of $5 per click. That’s on the high end of the spectrum and the cost-per-click eventually dipped down to a more average price of $.06 last week, according to search marketing firm Reprise Media. Beyond the usual suspects, the WSJ, which keeps most of its content behind a subscription wall, has tested buying news-related keywords to entice readers into paying. Comedy Central has gotten into the act, too, buying the term “George Bush,” which leads to sponsored links to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

With such popularity, costs are rising. ABC News tends to limit its search-related marketing dollars to phrases that relate to exclusive news coverage or in-depth reporting, as when it recently bought phrases about gun control to link back to network reports. Meanwhile, Fox News focuses on keywords on celebrities or products like the iPod that tend to lend themselves to online video, which brings in more online ad revenue and attracts unique visitors who might not necessarily be regular viewers. Bert Solivan, SVP-digital media, Fox News: “It’s an ideal way to tap into a huge audience that may not look for us immediately but may get pushed over to us.”

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