IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orisre/v26y2015i4p695-713.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Organic Results Help or Hurt Sponsored Search Performance?

Author

Listed:
  • Ashish Agarwal

    (McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712)

  • Kartik Hosanagar

    (Operations, Information and Decisions, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104)

  • Michael D. Smith

    (School of Information Systems and Management, Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213)

Abstract

We study the impact of changes in the competitors’ listings in organic search results on the performance of sponsored search advertisements. Using data from an online retailer’s keyword advertising campaign, we measure the impact of organic competition on both click-through rate and conversion rate of sponsored search advertisements. We find that an increase in organic competition leads to a decrease in the click performance of sponsored advertisements. However, organic competition helps the conversion performance of sponsored ads and leads to higher revenue. We also find that organic competition has a higher negative effect on click performance than does sponsored competition. Our results inform advertisers on how the presence of organic results influences the performance of their sponsored advertisements. Specifically, we show that organic competition acts as a substitute for clicks, but has a complementary effect on the conversion performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashish Agarwal & Kartik Hosanagar & Michael D. Smith, 2015. "Do Organic Results Help or Hurt Sponsored Search Performance?," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(4), pages 695-713, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:26:y:2015:i:4:p:695-713
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.2015.0593
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.2015.0593
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/isre.2015.0593?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anita Elberse & Jehoshua Eliashberg, 2003. "Demand and Supply Dynamics for Sequentially Released Products in International Markets: The Case of Motion Pictures," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 329-354.
    2. Susan Athey & Glenn Ellison, 2011. "Position Auctions with Consumer Search," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1213-1270.
    3. Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang & Juan Feng, 2011. "Cyclical Bid Adjustments in Search-Engine Advertising," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(9), pages 1703-1719, February.
    4. De Liu & Jianqing Chen & Andrew B. Whinston, 2010. "Ex Ante Information and the Design of Keyword Auctions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 133-153, March.
    5. Brunel, Frã‰Dã‰Ric F. & Nelson, Michelle R., 2003. "Message Order Effects and Gender Differences in Advertising Persuasion," Journal of Advertising Research, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 330-341, September.
    6. Michel Wedel & Rik Pieters, 2000. "Eye Fixations on Advertisements and Memory for Brands: A Model and Findings," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 297-312, October.
    7. Benjamin Edelman & Michael Ostrovsky & Michael Schwarz, 2007. "Internet Advertising and the Generalized Second-Price Auction: Selling Billions of Dollars Worth of Keywords," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 242-259, March.
    8. Nevo, Aviv, 2001. "Measuring Market Power in the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 307-342, March.
    9. Jerry A. Hausman, 1996. "Valuation of New Goods under Perfect and Imperfect Competition," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of New Goods, pages 207-248, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Bernard J. Jansen & Marc Resnick, 2006. "An examination of searcher's perceptions of nonsponsored and sponsored links during ecommerce Web searching," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 57(14), pages 1949-1961, December.
    11. Thomas A. Weber & Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng, 2007. "A Model of Search Intermediaries and Paid Referrals," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 414-436, December.
    12. Peter E. Rossi & Greg M. Allenby, 2003. "Bayesian Statistics and Marketing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 304-328, July.
    13. Timothy F. Bresnahan & Robert J. Gordon, 1996. "The Economics of New Goods," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number bres96-1, March.
    14. Chrysanthos Dellarocas, 2012. "Double Marginalization in Performance-Based Advertising: Implications and Solutions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(6), pages 1178-1195, June.
    15. Qiang Liu & Thomas J. Steenburgh & Sachin Gupta, 2015. "The Cross Attributes Flexible Substitution Logit: Uncovering Category Expansion and Share Impacts of Marketing Instruments," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 144-159, January.
    16. Erik Brynjolfsson & Michael D. Smith, 2000. "Frictionless Commerce? A Comparison of Internet and Conventional Retailers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(4), pages 563-585, April.
    17. Anindya Ghose & Panagiotis G. Ipeirotis & Beibei Li, 2012. "Designing Ranking Systems for Hotels on Travel Search Engines by Mining User-Generated and Crowdsourced Content," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 493-520, May.
    18. Wood, Stacy L & Lynch, John G, Jr, 2002. "Prior Knowledge and Complacency in New Product Learning," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 29(3), pages 416-426, December.
    19. Pieters, Rik G M & Bijmolt, Tammo H A, 1997. "Consumer Memory for Television Advertising: A Field Study of Duration, Serial Position, and Competition Effects," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 23(4), pages 362-372, March.
    20. Pieters, R. & Bijmolt, T.H.A., 1997. "Consumer memory for television advertising : A field study of duration, serial position and competition effects," Other publications TiSEM 1ae20014-8470-4056-8e3d-6, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    21. Lahiri, Kajal & Schmidt, Peter, 1978. "On the Estimation of Triangular Structural Systems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(5), pages 1217-1221, September.
    22. Jonathan W. Palmer, 2002. "Web Site Usability, Design, and Performance Metrics," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(2), pages 151-167, June.
    23. David Godes & Dina Mayzlin, 2004. "Using Online Conversations to Study Word-of-Mouth Communication," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 545-560, June.
    24. Przemyslaw Jeziorski & Ilya Segal, 2015. "What Makes Them Click: Empirical Analysis of Consumer Demand for Search Advertising," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 24-53, August.
    25. Vibhanshu Abhishek & Kartik Hosanagar, 2013. "Optimal Bidding in Multi-Item Multislot Sponsored Search Auctions," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(4), pages 855-873, August.
    26. Park, Jong-Won & Hastak, Manoj, 1994. "Memory-Based Product Judgments: Effects of Involvement at Encoding and Retrieval," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(3), pages 534-547, December.
    27. Peter Ebbes & Michel Wedel & Ulf Böckenholt & Ton Steerneman, 2005. "Solving and Testing for Regressor-Error (in)Dependence When no Instrumental Variables are Available: With New Evidence for the Effect of Education on Income," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 365-392, December.
    28. Oliver J. Rutz & Michael Trusov, 2011. "Zooming In on Paid Search Ads--A Consumer-Level Model Calibrated on Aggregated Data," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(5), pages 789-800, September.
    29. Zsolt Katona & Miklos Sarvary, 2010. "The Race for Sponsored Links: Bidding Patterns for Search Advertising," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 199-215, 03-04.
    30. Anindya Ghose & Sha Yang, 2009. "An Empirical Analysis of Search Engine Advertising: Sponsored Search in Electronic Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(10), pages 1605-1622, October.
    31. Hausman, Jerry A, 1975. "An Instrumental Variable Approach to Full Information Estimators for Linear and Certain Nonlinear Econometric Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 43(4), pages 727-738, July.
    32. Sha Yang & Anindya Ghose, 2010. "Analyzing the Relationship Between Organic and Sponsored Search Advertising: Positive, Negative, or Zero Interdependence?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 602-623, 07-08.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiuzhi Zhang & Ying Zhang & Zhijie Lin, 2023. "Online Advertising and Real Estate sales: evidence from the Housing Market," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 605-622, March.
    2. Karthik Kannan & Vandith Pamuru & Yaroslav Rosokha, 2023. "Analyzing Frictions in Generalized Second-Price Auction Markets," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 1437-1454, December.
    3. Ashish Agarwal & Tridas Mukhopadhyay, 2016. "The Impact of Competing Ads on Click Performance in Sponsored Search," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 538-557.
    4. Haoyan Sun & Ming Fan & Yong Tan, 2020. "An Empirical Analysis of Seller Advertising Strategies in an Online Marketplace," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 37-56, March.
    5. Siddharth Bhattacharya & Jing Gong & Sunil Wattal, 2022. "Competitive Poaching in Search Advertising: Two Randomized Field Experiments," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(2), pages 599-619, June.
    6. Xingyue Zhang & Yuliang Yao, 2020. "How Much is Too Much? The Effect of Offline Call Intensity on Online Purchase of Digital Services," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(3), pages 509-525, March.
    7. Ziliang Deng & Peter W Liesch & Zeyu Wang, 2021. "Deceptive signaling on globalized digital platforms: Institutional hypnosis and firm internationalization," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(6), pages 1096-1120, August.
    8. Michael R. Baye & Babur De los Santos & Matthijs R. Wildenbeest, 2016. "Search Engine Optimization: What Drives Organic Traffic to Retail Sites?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 6-31, March.
    9. Carsten D. Schultz, 2020. "The impact of ad positioning in search engine advertising: a multifaceted decision problem," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 945-968, December.
    10. Patrick Winter & Paul Alpar, 2020. "Effects of search engine advertising on user clicks, conversions, and basket choice," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 30(4), pages 837-862, December.
    11. Przemys?aw Jeziorski & Sridhar Moorthy, 2018. "Advertiser Prominence Effects in Search Advertising," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(3), pages 1365-1383, March.
    12. Joseph Golden & John Joseph Horton, 2021. "The Effects of Search Advertising on Competitors: An Experiment Before a Merger," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(1), pages 342-362, January.
    13. Fei Long & Kinshuk Jerath & Miklos Sarvary, 2022. "Designing an Online Retail Marketplace: Leveraging Information from Sponsored Advertising," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(1), pages 115-138, January.
    14. Lesscher, Lisan & Lobschat, Lara & Verhoef, Peter C., 2021. "Do offline and online go hand in hand? Cross-channel and synergy effects of direct mailing and display advertising," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 678-697.
    15. Peter Landry, 2021. "Keywords, limited consideration, and organic product listings," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 505-566, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ashish Agarwal & Tridas Mukhopadhyay, 2016. "The Impact of Competing Ads on Click Performance in Sponsored Search," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 538-557.
    2. Anindya Ghose & Panagiotis G. Ipeirotis & Beibei Li, 2014. "Examining the Impact of Ranking on Consumer Behavior and Search Engine Revenue," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(7), pages 1632-1654, July.
    3. Shijie Lu & Yi Zhu & Anthony Dukes, 2015. "Position Auctions with Budget Constraints: Implications for Advertisers and Publishers," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(6), pages 897-905, November.
    4. Xiaomeng Du & Meng Su & Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang & Xiaona Zheng, 2017. "Bidding for Multiple Keywords in Sponsored Search Advertising: Keyword Categories and Match Types," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 711-722, December.
    5. Shengqi Ye & Goker Aydin & Shanshan Hu, 2015. "Sponsored Search Marketing: Dynamic Pricing and Advertising for an Online Retailer," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(6), pages 1255-1274, June.
    6. Vibhanshu Abhishek & Kartik Hosanagar & Peter S. Fader, 2015. "Aggregation Bias in Sponsored Search Data: The Curse and the Cure," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 59-77, January.
    7. Kinshuk Jerath & Liye Ma & Young-Hoon Park & Kannan Srinivasan, 2011. "A "Position Paradox" in Sponsored Search Auctions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 612-627, July.
    8. Shijie Lu & Sha Yang, 2017. "Investigating the Spillover Effect of Keyword Market Entry in Sponsored Search Advertising," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(6), pages 976-998, November.
    9. Sridhar Narayanan & Kirthi Kalyanam, 2015. "Position Effects in Search Advertising and their Moderators: A Regression Discontinuity Approach," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 388-407, May.
    10. Sha Yang & Anindya Ghose, 2010. "Analyzing the Relationship Between Organic and Sponsored Search Advertising: Positive, Negative, or Zero Interdependence?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 602-623, 07-08.
    11. Avi Goldfarb, 2014. "What is Different About Online Advertising?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 44(2), pages 115-129, March.
    12. Raluca M. Ursu, 2018. "The Power of Rankings: Quantifying the Effect of Rankings on Online Consumer Search and Purchase Decisions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(4), pages 530-552, August.
    13. Mengzhou Zhuang & Eric (Er) Fang & Jongkuk Lee & Xiaoling Li, 2021. "The Effects of Price Rank on Clicks and Conversions in Product List Advertising on Online Retail Platforms," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(4), pages 1412-1430, December.
    14. Przemys?aw Jeziorski & Sridhar Moorthy, 2018. "Advertiser Prominence Effects in Search Advertising," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(3), pages 1365-1383, March.
    15. Woochoel Shin, 2015. "Keyword Search Advertising and Limited Budgets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(6), pages 882-896, November.
    16. Lizhen Xu & Jianqing Chen & Andrew Whinston, 2012. "Effects of the Presence of Organic Listing in Search Advertising," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 1284-1302, December.
    17. Michael Arnold & Éric Darmon & Thierry Pénard, 2012. "To Sponsor or Not to Sponsor: Sponsored Search Auctions with Organic Links," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes 1 & University of Caen) 201207, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes 1, University of Caen and CNRS.
    18. Burguet, Roberto & Caminal, Ramon & Ellman, Matthew, 2015. "In Google we trust?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 44-55.
    19. Patrick Hummel, 2018. "Hybrid mechanisms for Vickrey–Clarke–Groves and generalized second-price bids," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 47(1), pages 331-350, March.
    20. Park, Chang Hee & Agarwal, Manoj K., 2018. "The order effect of advertisers on consumer search behavior in sponsored search markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 24-33.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:26:y:2015:i:4:p:695-713. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.