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Google Continues to Dominate Search Advertising, but Yahoo Gained Ground According to Latest Efficient Frontier Report

Google Gets $1.14 of Every New Dollar Spent on Search, Accounting for 76% of US Search Spending

Sunnyvale, Calif. - October 15, 2008 - Efficient Frontier, the worldwide leader in providing Search Engine Marketing technology and services to leading advertisers and agencies, today released the U.S. Search Engine Performance Report: Q3 2008. The report, the largest independent research in the search marketing industry, was based on an analysis of 60 billion impressions and 428 million clicks across an index of Efficient Frontier advertisers. The results of the research indicate that while overall growth has been slowing throughout 2008, return on investment remains strong in this highly productive direct marketing channel.

The report showed that Google continues to gain ground. For every new dollar spent on search advertising in Q3 2008 versus Q3 2007, Google received $1.14, while Yahoo and Microsoft each lost $0.07. Google continues to dominate the overall share of spending at 76%, although the company's search advertising growth decreased by 1.9 percentage points from Q2 to Q3 2008. Yahoo search gained 1.8 points in the same quarter to bring them to 19.2% of total spent while Microsoft Live Search held relatively steady at 4.8% share.

Of Google's 76% share, 4.6% was from Google content, an increase of 82.8% for non-financial services advertisers. Google content was the only search engine channel for which all advertisers increased spending in Q3 2008.

"Our data shows that search engine marketing continues to be a highly productive direct marketing channel for advertisers, even in challenging markets," said James Beriker, President and CEO of Efficient Frontier. "With increased competition and a decrease in the total number of conversions, advertisers will either slash budgets or use advanced technologies to maximize volume and ROI. We're proud to partner with the most sophisticated search advertisers in the world to continue to drive their ongoing success in these tough markets."

Other Key Findings

ROI improved YOY on all three engines for advertisers outside of financial services in the face of increasingly dynamic economic conditions.
Spending on Google by non-financial services advertisers grew by 3.6% on YOY basis, faster than the overall growth rate of 2.5%. Thus Google gained $1.14 of every new search dollar in Q3 2008 versus Q3 2007, while Yahoo and Microsoft each lost $0.07 for every new dollar spent on search in that period.
Yahoo accounted for 19.2% of U.S. search engine spending in Q3 2008, losing 1.3 percentage points in share from Q3 2007 but gaining 1.8 percentage points from Q2 2008. Total spending on Yahoo increased by 7.2% from Q2 to Q3 2008 for advertisers outside of the financial services sector, and by 2.5% for those in financial services.
Microsoft Live Search accounted for 4.8% of U.S. search spending in Q3 2008, down 0.8 percentage points from the previous year. Overall spending on Microsoft Live Search declined for all advertisers on both a YOY and Q/Q basis.
On a global basis, Google dominated the search marketplace in Q3 2008, capturing more than 85% of search spending share in the UK, Europe, and Australia. In Japan, Google accounted for 55% of search spending.

The complete U.S. Search Engine Performance Report: Q3, 2008 is available for download from the Efficient Frontier website at: http://efrontier.com/resources/research/getResearchQ308.html

Research Methodology
Analysis for the Efficient Frontier report was based on data from a fixed sample of Efficient Frontier U.S. clients from Q3 2007 through Q3 2008, and covers nearly 60 billion impressions and more than 428 million clicks on search and content ads on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live Search. The report includes data from advertisers in the financial services, travel, retail, automotive and business-to-business verticals.

About Efficient Frontier

Efficient Frontier is the market and technology leader in providing Search Engine Marketing (SEM) solutions for leading global advertisers and agencies. Founded in 2002, Efficient Frontier pioneered the application of modern portfolio theory to SEM and today combines its core predictive modeling algorithms and bidding technology with comprehensive strategic and tactical value added services to manage more than $750MM in annual search spend for over 200 leading advertisers in 20 countries. The company has over 200 employees and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA with offices in New York, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Hong Kong, and India, and technology licensing partnerships in Japan and Australia. Efficient Frontier is a privately held company with funding from Redpoint Ventures and Cambrian Ventures. For more information, please visit www.efrontier.com and subscribe to the Efficient Frontier blog at http://blog.efrontier.com/.

For more information contact:

Andrea Cousens
Eastwick Communications
310-270-8903
andrea@eastwick.com