More research - search engine marketing stats

360i's new study states marketers should look more holistically at campaigns, and not necessarily assume that the final search term is the one that gets the sales. Search users rely on brand search terms late in the buying cycle, marketers end up giving all the credit to such terms that tend to be the last click before a sale.

The highest conversion rates are from searchers using brand terms at the beginning and end of their searches - 9.3 percent - but searches that begin with a non-brand term and end with a brand term have only a slightly lower conversion rate of 8.73 percent, according to the study.

The study is worth a look as it tracks the click path from initial click to conversion, spanning more than 3.9 million users, and 5.1 million clicks during the first quarter of 2006.