Figure 17: Cross-Channel: Length of targeting criteria for paid search ads over time

by Figure 19. The dierence in price decline between Figure 18 and Figure 19 makes sense, given that advertisers could already use the internal search engine metrics to improve cost per click, but that it is only with the evolution of attribution technologies that they could improve cost per conversion. Due to the fact there is less transparency in display advertising markets, I was not able to get likely cost estimates for the display campaigns in my data. I was, however, able to get useful data about the typical length of a display advertising campaign or how long it ran before it was pulled by the advertiser. This can act as a proxy for costs, since the price of display campaigns is typically determined by the number of impressions which in turn is determined by the length of the campaign. Of course making this comparison assumes that in each case the reach (or number of impressions) on each day was similar for each campaign.7 If less eective campaigns were running for less time after the adoption of the
A quick comparison of impressions data rules out alternative more mechanical explanations for Figure 20 such as the number of daily impressions for each campaign increasing over time.
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