The sky is falling! The Sky is falling!

ComScore released numbers stating that Google’s search marketing produced a 0% increase from the previous year. A complete article can be found at Silicon Alley Insider . What does this all mean? Well, it means that Google isn’t recession proof and they too feel the pain when consumers aren’t buying or clicking in their case. According to Alley Insider Google began seeing a decrease in growth starting in October of last year.

Jeffries adds Comscore’s monthly data on Google click growth for October through January. This adds more fuel to the theory that Google’s click growth has ground to a haltl:

October: 37%
November: 27%
December: 12%
January: Flat

Of course Google is rejecting the numbers and claims that they are inaccurate, which they probably are. Similar to the Neislon ratings they frequently jump around month to month, but the steady decline gives the numbers another level of significance.

These are interesting times for Internet Marketing and lead generation. Companies are slashing affiliate payouts, banner ad budgets, and now are see a decreased click through for there CPC campaigns. I think it comes down to who can make the changes the quickest and retain quality. Many of these changes are fairly late. It reminds me of real estate developers in California. They just recently stopped building houses. Granted many were knee deep in plans and budgets, just like many of the big display and search advertisers.

If this decline in CTR for Google continues or stays flat it will be very interesting to see what this does to lead prices and over all volume, if anything at all, for providers that are heavily weighted in paid search marketing.

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