All Eyes on Coverage To Understand Google’s Performance

Posted by Richard Stokes on July 18, 2008 to

Industry powerhouses, investment firms, and fans of the world's most widely used digital media research tool all sat up and paid attention yesterday when Google announced it's Q2 performance. One of the most high profile developments that came out of the announcement was the discussions of Google's decreased coverage. With recent quality controls put in place by Google to improve the overall relevance of search results for users and improve performance for advertisers, coverage dropped significantly and seems to have contributed to a less than stellar quarter from a Google AdWords perspective.

AdGooroo tracks coverage in many forms. We have been tracking average coverage metrics for the top three engines by analyzing and tracking the average number of ads/keyword in place at Google, Yahoo! and MSN, and we released the most recent set of findings on July 7, almost a full two weeks in advance of Google's earnings announcement. To read about and see graphic representations Google's falling ads/keyword and other critical performance metrics, visit the AdGooroo Research Library to download a copy of "Search Engine Advertiser Update – Q208."

AdGooroo champions coverage as an important metric to agencies and advertisers alike, because it harnesses the unique power of pre-click data to illustrate important branding performance metrics for AdGooroo customers. When an advertiser needs to understand how often, at what rank and in what company their ads show up against a particular keyword, no metric in existence paints as clear a picture as coverage.

Being the champions of coverage that we are, the AdGooroo team was delighted to see not only Google but also some important media outlets begin to examine coverage. This was already happening prior to the Google earnings announcement and continued on afterward. Some of the articles that highlighted this important metric and cited AdGooroo's data included:

• "Google: Weathering the Economy" Business Week, July 18, 2008
• "Can Google (GOOG) Fix “Quality Control” Keyword Mistake And Boost Revenue?"
Silicon Alley Insider, July 18, 2008
• "Even Online Ads Face Slowdown," Investor's Business Daily, July 11, 2008
• "New data point to trouble for Microsoft search business," MarketWatch, July 8, 2008

AdGooroo looks forward to continuing to track these important data points and releasing another report in early October. In the meantime, marketers, don't forgot to keep tabs on your own coverage metrics. Log in today to find out where you stand.