According to new data from Fathom Online, an SEM services and technology provider, the average keyword price in October drop from the preceding month for most industries, except travel/hospitality (+14%), finance/investing (+4%) and wirless (0%).

There are at least two speculations about the cause of this:

• Monthly abberration - Fathom inaugurated its keyword price index in September 2004, and over the first full year prices increased on average from $1.37 to $1.44, a weighted average increase of 19%.
• Competition - Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) and MSN adCenter give both advertisers and publishers more options. The growth of advertisers jumping on Pay Per Click may not grow as fast.

The survey data from Deutsche Bank and MediaPost paint a different picture though. They reported that online ad buyers foun that 40% of respondents said that prices for paid search cost-per-click ads rose up to 10% in the third quarter, while 18% saw increases of 11% or more. Only 11% said they paid less.

eMarketer: Are Internet ad prices clipping?