With a few exceptions, Web advertising became cheaper in 1998 than in 1997, according to a survey by Boca Raton, FL-based WebConnect, a sister company to marketing services provider Worldata.
The survey, which ranks sites based on their costs per 1,000 impressions (the number of times an ad is viewed), shows that rates among the lower-priced sites have stagnated or dropped.
Of the dozen lowest-priced sites of 1997, eight made it onto 1998’s list. Of these, five held their rates at 1997 levels, two cut theirs (Sports Network and Fortune) and one (National Enquirer Online) raised its price.
Among the highest-priced sites of 1997, eight got on the 1998 list. One site (Advertising Age) raised its rates, six maintained them and one (Biztravel.com) lowered its price.
Grouped by category, the pattern of most sites either maintaining or reducing prices continued.
WebConnect’s survey evaluates sites regardless of traffic and with a weighting analysis that factors in traffic volume.
Looking at straight average costs per 1,000, three types of sites, including those focused on women, search engines and children, maintained their cost from 1997.
Seven types of sites-travel, sports, gaming, financial, entertainment, download/shareware, and computing-lowered their rates. And only two-news/information and business executives-raised theirs, by an average of $2.
WebConnect speculates that the biggest drops, $6 in the financial category and $5 in the gaming and computing categories, are attributable to new, lower-priced entrants into these highly competitive sectors.
Despite the $5 cut, computing remained the highest priced at $78 per 1,000 impressions, followed by business executives, which rose $2 to $66 per 1,000.
Web sites geared to women and news and information sites were the next-most-dear, at $42 and $40 per 1,000, respectively.
The category with the lowest average price was search engines, which at $19 maintained its position from 1997 as the cheapest per 1,000 impressions.
At $26 per 1,000, the gaming sector also trailed the rest of the pack, followed by entertainment ($30), sports ($33) and download/shareware ($36).
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