Google Product Search was the top comparison shopping engine (CSE) in Q1 2012, while Nextag just edged out PriceGrabber for the second spot, says CPC Strategy in a May 2012 report that compares the CSEs to each other. The study looked at overall traffic driven, average amount of revenue generated, conversion rates, cost divided by revenue (COS), average cost per click (CPC), responsiveness rate, and quality of tools, assigning a point category for each metric and weighting the categories (double for COS, 1.5 times for revenue and traffic) to arrive at its conclusion. Rounding out the top 5 were Shopping.com and Amazon Product Ads.
Amazon Tops for Traffic; Google for Revenue
Data from CPC Strategy’s report indicates that Amazon Product Ads drove the greatest amount of traffic in Q1 2012. Expressed as a percentage of Amazon’s traffic, Google was next, at 96.7%, followed by Shopping (80.4%), Shopzilla (79.6%), NexTag (76.6%), and PriceGrabber (69.6%).
In terms of the average amount of revenue generated, Google topped the rankings, with NexTag in second spot (at 91.5% of Google’s average revenue), Amazon in third (78.3%), Shopping (65.6%) in fourth, and PriceGrabber (58.6%) narrowly beating out Shopzilla (58%) for fifth spot.
Google Conversion Rates Easily Best
Google sported the best conversion rates of the top 10 CSEs, with an average rate of 2.78%, down from its leading 3.09% rate during the Q4 shopping season. NexTag followed, at 2.06%, down marginally from 2.11%, with Pronto next at 1.97%.
Also making the top 5 were PriceGrabber, which actually improved from 1.64% to 1.75%, and Shopping, at 1.71%. TheFind had the lowest conversion rate – at 0.71%, down from 0.8% in Q4 2011.
Other Findings:
- PriceGrabber led the paid CSEs with the lowest COS (cost divided by revenue), at 18.17%. NexTag was in the second spot, at 20.78%.
- PriceGrabber also saw the lowest CPCs ($0.27), which CPC Strategy attributes to its ability to bid below rate cards.
- CPC Strategy rated Become tops for responsiveness, ahead of PriceGrabber and Shopping. Google was best for merchant tools, beating out PriceGrabber and Shopzilla.
About the Data: CPC Strategy analyzed more than 4 million clicks, almost 83,000 orders, over $1 million in spend and close to $8 million in revenue across more than 100 clients for its findings.
