Travel CPCs Grew Over 20 Percent in January

The average price of CPC search ads in the travel sector grew by more than 20 percent in January on a year-over-basis, according to data from online ad management platform provider Efficient Frontier. Prices also rose in the automotive, finance, and retail categories, pointing to an increasingly competitive overall search ad marketplace and growing investment from advertisers.

Following the holiday period in December, CPCs across all sectors dipped on a month-over-month basis, with retail - unsurprisingly - experiencing the largest change. After a year of strong growth in CPC prices in 2010, Efficient Frontier predicts more modest rises in 2011 as the market returns to more stable conditions following the economic turbulence of 2009.

U.S. Average Search CPC by Category, January 2011 and December 2010
Category	CPC January 2010 ($)	CPC December 2010 ($)	CPC January 2011 ($)	Month-over-Month Change (%)	Year-over-Year Change, January (%)
Automotive	0.51	0.64	0.55	-14.1	7.7
Finance	1.65	1.95	1.76	-9.7	6.5
Retail	0.37	0.55	0.40	-27.3	6.9
Travel	0.49	0.64	0.60	-6.3	21.3
Source: 2011