Comscore MMX Announces New Competitive Search Marketing Service

Comscore Analysis Demonstrates Travelocity has Highest Sponsored Click-Through Rate and Orbitz has Highest Percent of Click-Throughs from Sponsored Ads Among Most-Visited Online Travel Agencies

RESTON, VA, July 27, 2006 – Comscore MMX, a leader in digital media measurement, today announced the launch of the Competitive Search Marketing Reports, the latest addition to the Comscore MMX qSearch suite of products. The service enables agencies, publishers and online marketers to compare the effectiveness of their online search campaigns to campaigns run by competitors.

Comscore MMX showcased this new service by examining the effectiveness of search campaigns conducted by the most-visited online travel agencies: Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com and CheapTickets.com. The analysis revealed that more than 50 percent of the total click-throughs to these sites were generated by sponsored ads, compared to just 11 percent across all Web search activity. Among the sites analyzed, Orbitz.com and CheapTickets.com led the pack, each receiving approximately 72 percent of click-throughs from sponsored ads.

“With search advertising accounting for roughly 40 percent of total online spending, it’s clear that advertisers view the medium as a critical component of the advertising mix,” said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of Comscore MMX. “This is particularly true for the leading online travel agencies, which receive nearly two-thirds of their search-generated click-throughs from sponsored ads. This high volume of advertising makes it even more important for advertisers to focus on the search terms that have the most relevance to their target audience.”

While receiving a lower number of sponsored ad click-throughs than Expedia.com or Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com appears to be the most effective sponsored search advertiser, yielding a 6.5 percent click-through rate, compared to the 4 - 5 percent click-through rates achieved by competitive sites.

“Although both Expedia and Orbitz demonstrate leadership in total ad exposures and sponsored click-throughs, our analysis shows that Travelocity is making very effective ad placements,” Daboll commented. “While they have a lower percentage of their total click-throughs coming from sponsored ads (59.9 percent) than the other three competitors, Travelocity.com seems to be quite adept at search engine optimization, the other critical component of search engine marketing.”

Yahoo! is Preferred Advertising Channel, but Google Provides More Click-Throughs

Comscore’s analysis revealed that Yahoo! was the preferred engine for sponsored ad campaigns among the most-visited online travel agency sites in April, receiving nearly 44 percent of the sponsored ads placed by these sites. However, Google generated a slightly higher sponsored click-through rate (35 percent vs. 32 percent for Yahoo!), indicating higher ad relevancy.

Top Ad-Supported Sites Attract Travel Searchers

Marketers seeking to target specific consumer segments can safely assume that the segment’s search behavior will reveal a list of topically-relevant sites for advertising purposes, but oftentimes less obvious sites can provide marketers with the greatest financial return. To aid marketers in this effort, Comscore provides insight into Web-wide behavior for virtually any consumer segment, including those who exhibit specific search behavior.

As part of this analysis, Comscore examined the non-travel (and travel) sites that were popular among consumers whose search behavior ultimately led them to online travel agency Web sites. These consumers were more likely than the norm to visit a variety of non-travel sites, including those offering local content (About Cities & Towns, Citysearch.com, MSN Local Search and SFGate.com), and wedding sites such as TheKnot.com and Weddingchannel.com, most likely in preparation for future trips.

Based on MMX Ad Focus (entities with 1 million or more Unique Visitors), which reports the top advertising-supported sites on the Internet.

Note: Index is the propensity of consumers conducting travel-related searches to visit a site compared to the average Internet user. An index of 100 represents parity. For example the table should be read as “Consumers conducting travel-related searches are 127 percent more likely than average to visit site Bizjournals.com.”

Profiling Travel Searchers

Consumers conducting online travel-related searches are more likely than the norm to be from higher income households without children, and are more likely to conduct their searches from work:

• Households with an income of more than $100,000 are 10 percent more likely than average to conduct a search on travel terms, while households with an income of $75,000 – 99,000 are 3 percent more likely to do so.
• Households with one member are 7 percent more likely to conduct a search on travel terms, while households with two members are 5 percent more likely to conduct travel searches.
• In households where children are not present, consumers are 6 percent more likely to conduct a search on travel-related terms.
• Consumers in the 25-34 and 55-64 age ranges are more likely to conduct travel-related searches (2 and 4 percent, respectively).
• Consumers are 23 percent more likely conduct travel-related searches while at work.

About Comscore MMX

Comscore MMX, a division of Comscore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. Comscore MMX continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its MMX syndicated Internet ratings – long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers – while drawing upon Comscore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. All Comscore MMX syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About Comscore Networks

Comscore Networks is a global leader in measuring the digital age. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given Comscore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. Comscore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, Comscore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. Comscore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. Comscore services are used by global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com

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Bill Daddi
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646-370-1341
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