An academic study concluded that brand adverts in internet searches have “no short-term benefits”, and added that “returns from all other keywords are a fraction of conventional estimates.” The study’s author Byron Sharp, Professor of Marketing Science at the University of South Australia tweeted, “Google won’t like this”.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study concluded simply that as users become more familiar with the web, they get savvier at avoiding adverts. “New and infrequent users are positively influenced by ads but existing loyal users purchasing behavior is not influenced by paid search,” he found. With much of the web funded by advertising, and more advertising needed to make mobile pay, it seems that web business is becoming even more difficult.
