Companies spend millions advertising their brands and products on search engines such as Google and Bing. Research from eBay suggests that the money is wasted:

• In an experiment eBay turned off its paid search listings across a third of the United States.
• It found no appreciable drop in revenue. For the most part those who were going to search for a product on eBay were going to find eBay regardless of whether or not they saw an ad for it.
• Overall the research concludes that for every dollar spent on search engine ads, anywhere between zero and 25 cents of revenues is generated.
• The researchers note that paid search listings might be useful for less well-known companies.

Read more about the study, its caveats, and its methodology over here.

Source: Slate