Business Opportunities

E-Commerce Activity and Conversions Up; Search Marketing Shows Increased Click Volume and Conversions; Cost Per Clicks Stable

New York, NY, 12/3/2004 - DoubleClick Inc. (NASDAQ: DCLK), the leading provider of marketing solutions for ad agencies, marketers and web publishers, today announced the Black Friday Weekend Online Shopping Behavior Study, as part of the four-part DoubleClick Holiday 2004 Shopping Report series. The study analyzes aggregate data from SiteAdvanceSM, DoubleClicks web analytics solution used by multi-channel marketers, and aggregate search performance behavior across retail clients of Performics, the search marketing division of DoubleClick. Online shopping activity and overall conversions were up, and search played a very active role in e-commerce, with click volume and conversions up --although the average cost-per-click for Performics retail clients remained fairly stable.
Online Shopping and Conversions Up

In the week starting on Black Friday, online shopping activity and overall conversions were up, with a majority of shopping traffic occurring over the weekend. Results were compared to the Q3 daily average, and the week beginning on Black Friday one year ago.

Visitors were more active shoppers: they were more likely to cart a product and complete the checkout process. Carting frequency (or the percent of all visits that resulted in an item carted) was 12.9%, a 23% increase over the holiday shopping week last year (10.5%) and an 18% increase over the rest of Q3 2004 (8.9%). Checkout conversion rates were 64.6%, a 13% increase over last years Black Friday holiday shopping week (57%), and a 20 % increase from the rest of Q3 at 54%.

Although holiday shoppers were much more likely to buy, they spent less on each purchase. Overall conversion rates -- driven by the improvements in carting frequency and checkout conversion -- increased 38% to 5.8%, up from 4.2% a year ago and up 26% from 4.6% in the rest of Q3. However, Average Order Value decreased 15% to $124.94 from the same period a year ago ($146.36) and 12% from the Q3 average ($139.24).

Shoppers were less likely to abandon their shopping carts, with cart abandonment at 55% - an 11% decrease over the same holiday shopping week last year (62%), and a 4% decrease from the rest of Q3 2004 (57%).

Search Marketing: Volume, Click Rates, Conversions Up; Cost per Clicks Stable

Over Black Friday Weekend (Friday-Sunday), consumer search behavior was analyzed across aggregate data from Performics, the search marketing division of DoubleClick, showing that click volume and conversions were up, while average cost-per-click for Performics clients remained stable. Results were compared to the Q3 daily average.

On Black Friday weekend, average daily clicks resulting from pay-per-click search campaigns of Performics clients nearly doubled, an increase over average daily traffic for Q3 of 85%.

Average cost-per-click remained relatively stable (-2%) for Performics clients. It follows that total click charges -- the total cost of all keywords for the day -- showed an increase consistent with that of total clicks, at 82% over the Q3 daily average. However, Performics does expect CPC rates to increase in December.

Conversion rates also nearly doubled, with a 98% average increase over daily Q3 levels. With the increase in both clicks and conversion rates, the number of conversions and the amount of revenue from those conversions more than tripled (a 266% increase in daily conversions and a 242% increase in daily revenue during Black Friday Weekend).

The peak day, in terms of traffic (+92%) and revenue (+272%), was Sunday, with Friday leading the pack on increase in conversion rates (+259%).

With revenue increases outpacing cost increases, daily ROI -- defined here as revenue divided by click charges -- showed an increase of 88% over daily Q3 levels.

The following table outlines the average daily metrics for Black Friday weekend as a percent change from the Q3 daily average.

PERCENT CHANGE FROM Q3 DAILY AVERAGE

Percent Change over Q3 Daily Average

Clicks 85%

Total click charges 82%

Conversions 266%

Revenue 242%

Conversion rate 98%

Average order size -7%

Cost per click -2%

ROI 88%

Consumers are clearly using search engines to find and buy products for the holiday season. Contrary to some conventional wisdom, while competition may be stiff on specific keywords, aggregate CPC rates across broad keyword campaigns can be held steady by closely managing bidding, keywords and copy. This allows marketers to maintain an overall Search programs costs and ROI even during periods of high demand, as evidenced by the experience of Performics clients, said Kathryn Koegel, Director of Research and Industry Development, DoubleClick. In terms of the strong ecommerce conversion rates, these show that while Black Friday used to be an in-store phenomenon, it now applies online as well.

About DoubleClick

DoubleClick is the leading provider of solutions for advertising agencies, marketers and web publishers to plan, execute and analyze their marketing programs. DoubleClicks marketing solutions online advertising, search engine marketing, affiliate marketing, email marketing, database marketing, data management and marketing resource management help clients yield the highest returns on their marketing dollar. In addition, the companys marketing analytics tools help clients measure performance within and across channels. DoubleClick Inc. has global headquarters in New York City and maintains 23 offices around the world.

[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]