Do 80% of people By-pass Pay Per Clicks?

% of people that by-pass Pay Per Clicks at the top of Search Engines.

[CygnusX1]

Hi All,

I was told a year or so back that about 80% of people who search on Google or Yahoo, bypass the top pay-per clicks and will not click on the pay-per click listings and go straight to the organic listings. I happen to be one of these types of people.

I need to know if the number 80% is true?

If so, I would like to have some kind of documentation from an article on-line somewhere that I can show a client.

Any help would be appreciated.

Remember, no matter where you go, there you are. :)

[Shak]

NOT true is all I'm willing to say

just ask anyone who does professional ppc and they can verify

shak

[defanjos]

I've lost count of the non web-savy people that I have seen click on the first and second PPC results (Google) thinking they were the regular results. When you explain to them those are PPC, they are totally surprised.

So I would say that is not true.

[vinnie2227]

I am a professional in the PPC market and I think this statement is false. Take a look at the thermal imagery search engine eye chart (sorry---I don't have a link), but you can do a search for the above phrase and you'll be able to find it.

[peewhy]

I remember reading the report by a market research group. It said that nearly 80% of people interviewed clicked on the organic index in preference to the sponsored links.

[ken_b]

that nearly 80% of people interviewed clicked on the organic index in preference to the sponsored links.

Would that have been 80% of the people that know the difference?

[peewhy]

Well in Google, organic are on the left, sponsored on the right.

[Shak]

peewhy

ask the ppc players who spend millions a month on Google and they can let you know that a lot more than 20% click on the ads:)

ymmv

Shak

[edited by: Shak at 8:44 pm (utc) on June 13, 2005]

[CSE_Monkey]

FYI - Google's S1 indicated that 70% of the traffic volume flowed out to the organic results and 30% to paid listings. These numbers are now a year out of date, but I have seen little in terms of lay-out to suggest there has been a quantum shift here.

Cheers!

[Shak]

CSE

are we referring to a page with organic and full ad serving, or are we referring to Organic type searches "local hospital" V commercial "credit card"

Shak

[peewhy]

ask the ppc players who spend millions a month on Google and they can let you know that a lot more than 20% click on the ads

What's that saying, "lies, damn lies and statistics".

If you stand outside a butchers and ask customers what they feed their pet, you'll get totally different stats than if you stood outside a pet shop.

[Shak]

at least they have some reports of CTR :)

so unless you have become an employeeof the engines organic depratment, what data you got?

Shak

[peewhy]

Sorry totally lost and confused on that one.

[CygnusX1]

If there is anywhere some of you could point me to, so I can read the documentation on the %. If my understanding is correct it could be 20 to 70%.

I would like to see where you guys get your information, so I can print it out. I can then show the client.

[peewhy]

I remember reading the report by a market research group. It said that nearly 80% of people interviewed clicked on the organic index in preference to the sponsored links.

This came from a search engine watch type news bulletin.
Usually the market research companies sell the full analysis results but publish a snapshot free.

Try a search with 'research' as a keyword.

[1milehgh80210]

I think general statements regarding %'s are meaningless. If someone searches for 'pacific ocean' and they see an ad 'buy pacific ocean on ebay' on the right, how many click on the ad? Are all searches included in the statistics?

[peewhy]

It depends how you see 'a general statement'.

If a market research company interview 10,000 people and publish their results, its hardly a general statement.

There is always the argument with stats that you can ask the same question in a different way and get different results.

If Google conducted the same research but targeted Adwords clients, it will get different results that if it targeted visitors searching for the dreaded widgets.

The market research company can prove the stats are 100% accurate. It all depends if you are buying or selling.

[netchicken1]

Personally I always shy from paid placements, and can't remmebr a time when I have clicked on them over organic hits.

Just because the site is physically high on the page is no indication that its any good, when that position has been achieved by paying for it.

So although the % may be debatable certianly there may be some truth in the statement.

Wouldn't suprise me at all.

[peewhy]

There was another survey based on number one position not delivering the best results. This I can see too.

[larryhatch]

I never click on the paid ads.
If they are up top and easily mistaken for organic results, that engine turns me off. -Larry

[Arsi]

Hi!Certainly not 80%.Mostly people avoid clicking on ppc Ads.Thats all I can say.
Arsi.

[peewhy]

Arsi, are you saying more than 80%?

[bathgrrrl]

Funnily enough, on the Overture/ Yahoo presentation it says 80% of users click on PPC ads which may be where the 80% figure came from.

[Arsi]

Hi,there,I said people avoid clicking on PPC ads.

[bathgrrrl]

Like that game telephone though I think sometimes things get distorted. I am just speculating that the 80% figure may have originated from Overture. Although on the subject of PPC success and popularity I can say from experience that the CTR will depend on the market. I have often found PPC less successful in B2B markets when compared with organic search results (bear in mind this is assuming that you have done SEO on th esite and have good organic rankings). Although I have also had a good deal of success with PPC in B2C markets especially the aggressive retail markets like automotive where people will often browse deals on the paid results rather than wandering through your site.
HTH
D

[CSE_Monkey]

Shak,

The 70-30 numbers were based on overall click-outs irrespective of query. I did not see it broken down based on commercial versus non-commercial queries, but I would suspect that the percentages would differ.

Cheers!

[peewhy]

That's correct. Search type didn't come into the equation, just the behaviour pattern of a number of people.

[DXL]

In my experience its been 1%-15%, and that's being the first sponsor listed for a given search.

[peewhy]

DXL can you explain more about how you get the 1 - 15% figure?

[DXL]

Well, I'll have a term that might get 1,000 impressions in the course of a month. I'll be the first listed result for those keywords.

Out of the 1,000 impressions, I might only get about 10-150 click throughs. On average its more like 10-50 clickthroughs, though. That's using Overture, I've been far from impressed with their services, but its better than nothing.