AdGooroo Releases Q4 Search Engine Advertising Update

New Report Presents Q4 Share of Advertisers and Other Performance Data for Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! and Documents Big Gains for Google, Microsoft

CHICAGO – A new report released from AdGooroo (www.adgooroo.com), a leading provider of online marketing competitive intelligence and keyword tools, documents extensive growth in number of active, first-page advertisers for Google and Microsoft, with only slight growth from Yahoo!, likely due to seasonality.

“Google led in Q4 with first-page advertiser growth of 58.0 percent, followed by Live Search with 42.3 percent. Yahoo! trailed with a mere 8.8 percent, surprisingly low given the brisk pace of online holiday sales,” said AdGooroo Founder and Chief Gooroo Rich Stokes in the new report.



The five-page report, “Search Engine Advertising Update – Q408,” offers an easy to digest overview of the successes and relative failures of the three largest U.S. search engines in the fourth quarter. The complete report consists of two pages of analysis, two pages of charts and lists of each search engine’s top 25 advertisers.

“Ad coverage on the search engines continues to provide a reliable indicator of advertising activity and is the focus of increased industry chatter,” added Stokes. “The Q4 report shows that we measured large increases in ad coverage on Google. Microsoft ad coverage fell, on the other hand, likely indicative of their continuing focus on ad quality control and holistic search. Yahoo! showed little change in ad coverage from other 2008 reports.”

Other significant findings contained in the report include:

* A combined Microsoft/Yahoo! entity would increase large advertiser counts on the Live Search network by 157 percent, making a strong case for Microsoft acquiring Yahoo!
* Microsoft continued to close the gap in advertiser share with Yahoo: In Q3, Yahoo! led by 17.6 percent, but this lead has narrowed to 3.0 percent at the end of Q4

Those interested in learning more can view and download a complimentary copy of the report, “Search Engine Advertising Update – Q408” in the AdGooroo Research Library: http://www.adgooroo.com/adgooroo_research_library.php.

About AdGooroo

AdGooroo provides online marketers and agencies actionable, on demand competitive intelligence tools that proactively monitor an industry’s advertising landscape to help them build a long-term competitive advantage. Based in Chicago, AdGooroo provides competitive intelligence to search engine marketers through its tool suite, including AdGooroo Express, SEM Insight and Trademark Insight. AdGooroo tools leverage access and automation to provide advertisers with lists of competitors’ top keywords, ad copy, campaign statistics and more. Top agencies and brand advertisers leverage AdGooroo competitive intelligence tools. For more information, visit AdGooroo.com.