Comparing Organic Search Clicks vs PPC Clicks

Here’s an interesting article I found on the net recently about the conversion rates of organic searches vs paid per clicks.

Conversion Rates Are Roughly Equal

A 2004 MarketingSherpa survey of 3,007 marketers highlighted that paid search works slightly better for B2B (Business to Business) oriented offers, while organic search works better for B2C (Business to Consumer) offers.

Survey results revealed that much depends on what your target demographic is and what your conversion action is. So, B2B marketers seeking lead generation wound up with 7.6% conversions from paid search versus 6.7% conversions from organic clicks. On the other hand, B2C ecommerce sites with an average sale of US$51 to US$100 converted 4.8% of paid search clicks to buyers versus 6.5% of organic clicks.

A 2006 WebSideStory study gave paid search a slight edge on B2C ecommerce sites, stating that paid conversion rates favored organic search rates 3.4% to 3.13%.

Organic Search Gets More Click Volume

A 2004 iProspect study [PDF] showed the click through rates at the major engines for organic vs paid search results

Please note that a large part of that data is skewed for Microsoft was because they used LookSmart, which was far more aggressive with ad placement than current search engines are.

• In 2004 at the New York Search Engine Strategies conference a JupiterMedia analyst stated that 5 out of 6 commercial purchases which originated from search originated from the organic search results. They also stated “algorithmic listings in search indexes generate an estimated six in seven commercially natured search referrals.”
• In early 2008 Google’s Avinash Kaushik stated that 14% of Google clicks are on paid search ad and 86% of clicks are on organic search results.
• 2008 Penn State research titled Determining the informational, navigational and transactional intent of Web queries [PDF] found that roughly 80% of search queries were informational, while approximately 10% were each navigational and transactional. With so many searches being informational and navigational, it is unsurprising that people click the organic search results more often than the associated PPC ads.

Article Source:  seobook.com