Search Has A Powerful Sales Effect Online and Offline

Search engine advertising has a big impact on both online and offline sales according to an ROI Research study highlighted in Revenews. According to the results of the ROI survey, 49 percent of online sales and 42 percent of offline retail sales were influenced by paid search advertising. That is a substantial number, and it demonstrates how integral search engines have become to most shoppers.

Similar results were also released last week in a survey from Performics, a division of DoubleClick. It revealed 58 percent of adults in the U.S. plan to research products and prices online during the 2006 holiday and 43 percent plan to make purchases either online or offline as a result of that research.

Both the above surveys come on the heels of a detailed comScore study released this March that underscores the effects of search engines on both offline and online buying. The comScore survey provides a detailed breakdown by product category about how search influences both purchases on the Web or through brick and mortar stores. However, unlike the ROI Research study, the comScore numbers show offline the biggest beneficiary of online search in every category.

No matter which company or which survey you examine, the evidence seems abundantly clear: search has a profound effect on sales wherever the transaction takes place.