Microsoft Squeezed by Search Market Struggles
06/22/07 - 10:54 AM EDT
Ivy Lessner
Of aQuantive's three business units, its Atlas operations would be affected by being connected to a declining search engine, but not significantly, he says. As a tool for publishers to manage their search programs, Atlas doesn't need search hits. It focuses on management of rich media and on-demand video.
"The success of platforms like Atlas and DoubleClick is to serve ads on anyone's sites," Frank says. He concedes there's still revenue in search, but Frank discounts the importance of Microsoft's dwindling search market share to its plans to integrate aQuantive. "I don't think there's a great deal of synergy to be had from owning both an ad-serving platform and being in the media sales business," he says. But Atlas' own research points to how critical search is to effective online display advertising. A recent report by the company, written by Esco Strong, shows that search clicks bring more than three "conversions" -- meaning sales or other actions, like filling out a Web form -- for every single conversion produced by clicks on display ads only. Looking for the synergy between display and sponsored search results, Strong suggested that display ads likely drive brand searches. Analyzing 2006 data from 11 advertisers who gathered 10.8 million "impressions," or views, by 1.8 million users, Atlas found a conversion rate of four-to-one (for display ads only) for consumers exposed to both display and targeted search ads for a brand.
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