Study: Paid search benefits CPG brands

Paid search may not be the newest advertising area but it still has strength, especially in the Consumer Package Goods (CPG) segment. According to a recent study from Yahoo and MediaVest, paid search ads help to increase brand awareness and purchasing intent even if consumers aren't clicking the ads.

by Kristina Knight

Yahoo and MediaVest sponsored the study, conducted by comScore.

On average brand awareness increased by 160% thanks to paid search ads compared to the awareness level of brands not involved with paid search. The study further found that brands garnering the top search position were seen as better than brands in the second or third position and that purchasing intent increased by 30% when the brand was listed at the top of search query results.

"Search moves the branding needle for CPG," said Yaakov Kimelfeld, senior vice president of analytics for MediaVest (via AdAge). "It's really good news for brand marketers, because there are really strong efficiencies they can find in search marketing. [T]he price for this branding value is zero, because it's being served anyway (and marketers pay for clicks, not number of impressions)."

Even though paid search seems to be a good investment for CPG brands, these marketers spent only about 20% of their online ad budgets on paid search in 2007.