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February 8, 2005

Keyword Stock Index?

Posted by Adam Viener

Paul Kedrosky hypothesizes that there could be a financial model built around the trend in category keyword prices and the stock market segment.

Interestingly enough, I have had several calls from investment firms and hedge funds over the past few weeks trying to understand the changing policies of Google and how they might affect companies future revenues and thus stock prices.

I agree with Paul, that watching the trends in keyword prices could be a valuable predictor of future stock prices, I would also suggest that as an affiliate marketer that markets across multiple categories, that we may be in a position to understand customer buying behavior and sales conversion trends better than most.

For example, British Airways has had a run up on their stock of 15% since December, but this month their conversion rates tanked on the traffic I had been sending them and I lost quite a bit of money. Could that be a predictor that British Airways is going to have a stock slide?

Prices in keywords could be a good predictor, but tracking the trends in site conversion rates could be even better.