Search Bids – Home Loans

For the past few months I have been collecting Bid information from Overture/Yahoo! Search Marketing’s View Bid tool for 200+ keywords.

Data collected includes: Top 10 bids on Y!/Overture, trended over time with information on which company bid on the term, ranking of that bid, and creative/copy.


The above graph trends average bids on Yahoo for Home Loan related keywords, which probably is the most highly contested (and expensive) category in the SEM world – with bids as high as $25.

Notice that in recent months Home Loans related bids have been trending down. My resulting deductions/hypothesis —

  • Google’s (and Yahoo’s) search revenue per click is decreasing. Search marketing revenue constitutes a majority (95%+) of total revenues for Google, and Home Loan related keywords bring in much of that.
  • Lower bids = is there less competition? Is the Online Home Loans market cooling down a little?
  • Marketers are becoming smarter about SEM and are better understanding search ROI and market dynamics. Bid prices as a result might be settling into more rational ranges.
  • Maybe it’s just seasonality? — a summer slowdown. You’ll notice in the graph above that September is trending up marginally for Purchase and Refinance.

Note: Not affiliated/endorsed by Yahoo!™ or Overture™/Yahoo Search Marketing™

3 thoughts on “Search Bids – Home Loans

  1. Jay,

    This is a great post, which I saw via your comment on The Internet Stock Blog. I’d like to republish your post with a link back to you in the first line of the post; would you be OK me doing that? If so, let me know by email (david.jackson@gmail.com).

    David Jackson
    Editor, Internet Stock Blog

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