Finance Search CPCs Grew Substantially in March

Search ad CPC prices in the finance category rose significantly in March, on both a month-over-month and a year-over-basis, according to data from Efficient Frontier.

Finance-related clients of the search management platform provider spent an average of 40 percent more per click in March 2011 than they did during the same month in 2010.

The cost of clicks in the travel vertical, meanwhile, dipped by 27.3 percent on a month-over month basis, and almost 30 percent year-over-year.

The retail and automotive verticals remained relatively stable, with the former growing by 4.9 percent, and the latter dropping seven percent, on a month-over-month basis.

U.S. Average Search CPC by Category, March and February 2011
Category	CPC March 2011 ($)	CPC February 2011 ($)	CPC March 2010 ($)	Month-over-Month Change (%)	Year-over-Year Change, March (%)
Automotive	0.53	0.57	0.55	-7	-3.4
Finance	2.03	1.60	1.45	26.9	40
Retail	0.43	0.41	0.42	4.9	3.6
Travel	0.48	0.66	0.68	-27.3	-29.8
Source: 2011