- Brian Morrissey

NEW YORK ComScore earlier this week reported a sharp slowdown in Google's paid search clicks and sent the company's shares tumbling. Now, another firm has released data showing those concerns may be overblown.
 
SearchIgnite, a search management technology company employed by agencies and marketers, reports that in the first month-and-a-half of this year, paid clicks on Google are up 45.7 percent compared to the year-ago period. Advertiser spending climbed 40 percent. What's more, ad impressions rose 60 percent.
 
ComScore on Monday reported that its consumer data showed clicks on Google ads were down 7 percent from last quarter and flat compared to the year-ago period. The announcement ignited fears that marketers were reining in search ad spending due to the uncertain economic climate. (Some financial analysts have since downplayed the significance of the report.)
 
SearchIgnite arrived at a much different conclusion based on data culled from the campaigns of 500 large marketers that spent about $250 million on search ads last year.
 
"Our clients continue to have faith in the search marketing channel," said Roger Barnette, president of Atlanta-based SearchIgnite. "There's a bit of economic uncertainty, but we see that being strengthened. There's a flight to quality and a flight to certainty."
 
The methods of comScore and SearchIgnite have shortcomings. ComScore relies on a panel of consumers and doesn't use actual advertiser information. SearchIgnite's data set is actual advertiser data -- but since it is mostly confined to large marketers, it might miss large swathes of what Google advertisers are seeing.
 
"I would look at all the data sources and take them all with a grain of salt," said Barnette.