Seasonal PPC Increases on Some Shopping Destination Engines

I was going to write a summary of the various new pricing "increases" at shopping comparison sites going into the holiday season, and insights into what these increases mean, but a great summary was just posted by eTaildTail friend Brian Smith.

Here are some his insights below.  For all insights click the area below this post for more helpful information.

-- Chip

by Brian Smith, ComparisonEngines.com

"It’s that time of year again. Many of the shopping engines have raised their cost per click (CPC) rates for the holidays. The shopping engines do this to counter increased rates on Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing and justify the move by saying that conversion rates increase during the holidays. In effect, the shopping engines are saying that merchants still made out like bandits and they have to cover their collective asses.

Shopzilla will increase its CPC rates by 25%. The change takes effect on November 12 and goes through December 31, 2007. Ok, at least Shopzilla moved the increase out to the 12th as opposed to starting November 1.

PriceGrabber increased its CPC rates by 25%. The change took effect on November 1 and goes through January 15, 2008. Ahhh…January 15? Excuse me?

NexTag increased its CPC rates by 25%. The change took effect on November 1 and goes through January 2, 2008. A 25% increase never feels good, but this is the one increase I don’t think merchants are worried about. NexTag continues to drive incredibly qualified traffic.

And then there’s Shopping.com. Not only did they they move the rate increase out to November 15 (as opposed to November 1), but they aren’t doing a blanket increase of 25% across all categories."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for more great insights from Brian Smith, ComparisonEngines.com