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Injury lawyers tap into paid search
Day after Vioxx disclosure, ads look for drug's victims |
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By Bambi Francisco, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 10:58 AM ET Oct. 1, 2004 |
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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- You know paid search has really come of age when a day after Merck recalls its arthritis and painkiller Vioxx drug, class-action lawyers instantaneously begin bidding for the term "Vioxx" on paid-search engines. |
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A search for that term on Google (GOOG: news, chart, profile) will bring up three law firms advertising their services to represent anyone who's been injured by taking Vioxx. The top paying law firm, Brown & Crouppe, said the advertisement just went up.
In a subtle sign that Google's ads are more relevant than Yahoo's in this particular case, Yahoo's (YHOO: news, chart, profile) Overture ad division kept an online drugstore selling Vioxx in the No. 1 position. But in the No. 2 spot was Fort Myers, Fla.-based law firm, Paige & Tropp.
A Google search for "vioxx victim" also resulted in sponsored ads for law firms while the same search on Yahoo did not result in sponsored links.
Paid search isn't new, but the immediacy of the ads going up underscores the real-time and personalized nature of this channel.
The advertisements went up in response to Merck's (MRK: news, chart, profile) announcement on Wednesday that the drug company was withdrawing the drug, which generated $2.5 billion in sales last year, from the global market.
Vioxx currently has 2 million users worldwide. An estimated 84 million people have taken the drug since its approval by the FDA in 1999.
That's a lot of people. And, increasingly, paid search has proved to be one of the best ways to target and find specific buyers, or in this case, possible victims.
At the moment, the price the law firms are paying for the term "vioxx" is roughly $2 per click.
If all 84 million people went to a search engine and clicked onto the ads, they'd ring up $168 million worth of clicks for the ad agencies. The best online ad agency will put various keywords together in order to target the most people.
It's important for search companies to have the ability to deliver ads for any combination of search terms. New search terms have helped drive the paid-search industry in the last couple of years. Some search terms are ridiculously expensive. For instance, the price to be ranked at the top of the sponsored links for the term "mesothelioma" is $100 per click. Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that legal cases seek to link to asbestos exposure.
Paid search has been the fastest-growing segment in the online advertising business. Paid search shot up 182 percent in 2002, and rose to $2.5 billion by 2003, or about a third of the online ad pie, according to Thomas Weisel Partners. TWP also estimates that paid search will be half the total ad pie by 2008, implying an annual growth rate of 21 percent.
Currently, paid search accounts for 35 percent of U.S. Internet advertising. And, Internet advertising accounted for 3 percent of the total U.S. advertising pie in 2003, according to Morgan Stanley.
Market moves
Google added nearly 2 percent to $132. Yahoo rose nearly 3 percent to $34.83.
Netflix (NFLX: news, chart, profile) shot up 9 percent to $16.77 while TiVo (TIVO: news, chart, profile) gained 4 percent to $6.89. Both companies formally announced that they'd collaborate on delivering movies to the home.
Research In Motion (RIMM: news, chart, profile), the maker of the popular BlackBerry handheld device, saw shares slip 1.76 percent, after the company issued a sales outlook that just matched expectations. RIM had been delivering an upside to its numbers for some time, an analyst suggested. To just match Wall Street's outlook was not good enough.
Shares of InterActiveCorp (IACI: news, chart, profile) rose 3 percent to $22.65. Earlier this week, Cendant (CD: news, chart, profile) said it was paying $1.25 billion in cash to purchase Orbitz (ORBZ: news, chart, profile), IAC's rival in the leisure-ticketing industry.
The price paid by Cendant highlights IAC's low valuation, wrote Mark Mahaney, an analyst at American Technology Research.
Editor's note: Bambi Francisco will be among the featured speakers on the first CBS MarketWatch investment cruise, Oct. 24-31, in the Caribbean. Get information on the cruise here.
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CASTLETON-Crossing the buckling floor of a cavernous warehouse, Andrew Confortini of the federal Environmental Protection Agency said that the more answers he finds at the abandoned Fort Orange Paper plant, the more questions pop up.
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- You know paid search has really come of age when a day after Merck recalls its arthritis and painkiller Vioxx drug, class-action lawyers instantaneously begin bidding for the term "Vioxx" on paid-search engines.
Asbestos sides find common ground By Elisabeth Sexton October 2, 2004 Talks on future asbestos compensation are off to a good start, with the chairman of James Hardie, Meredith Hellicar, and the union chief Greg Combet saying progress has been made.
A dynasty waits for the dust to settle October 2, 2004 Former chairman John Reid was the third generation of his family to run James Hardie. He remains a major shareholder. Photo: Belinda Pratten
Unions hopeful of new deal for asbestos victims October 1, 2004 - 4:08PM Optimistism grew today of an agreement with James Hardie Industries about the best way to compensate asbestos victims.
James Hardie continues talks October 1, 2004 - 1:19PM James Hardie Industries is continuing talks with the ACTU and representatives of asbestos victims about how James Hardie will fund its outstanding and future liabilities to victims.
Asbestos death toll rises again October 1, 2004 00:03 TRAGIC deaths from killer building material asbestos continue to blight families across the country. Every day, more and more people die from a cancer brought on by exposure to asbestos many years ago and their families are left devastated by a disease that destroys these once healthy and happy people.
Asbestos death toll rises again October 1, 2004 00:03 TRAGIC deaths from killer building material asbestos continue to blight families across the country.
James Hardie to meet unions 01oct04 JAMES Hardie Industries will today sit down with union officials for the first time to begin discussions about the best way to compensate the company's asbestos victims. |
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