• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 31, 2017

The streaming video industry has seen rapid growth during the last year. AdGooroo recently analyzed paid-search advertising for streaming video services, analyzing U.S. Google desktop text ad activity on 43 non-branded video-streaming keywords during the first six months of 2017.

AdGooroo found the 741 advertisers collectively spent $4.1 million sponsoring the 43 non-branded video streaming keywords from January through June 2017, at an average cost per click of $2.37 for the terms "streaming television," "streamed tv," "streaming movies." and "watch television online."

Netflix -- obviously absent from sponsoring any of the 43 non-branded terms -- generally leads in pay services for streaming TV and movies, with about 50 million subscribers.

The data suggests that paid-search advertising is not a focus for Netflix in general. AdGooroo found limited desktop text ad activity during the last 12 months, with campaigns running only in October and December 2016 and January 2017, per the analysis.

Netflix does not seem to have any challenges generating traffic to its site. "I looked at their organic traffic, analyzing 48 different keywords during January of this year, and they generated 750,000 paid-search clicks on those keyword, but generated 50 million organic clicks in January on the same keywords," said Jim Leichenko, director of marketing at AdGooroo. "I looked at their programs during the past 12 month. They had about 159 million organic clicks."

Those keywords include "Netflix" and "Disney junior."

AdGooroo estimates Netflix’s organic clicks in January to have an equivalent paid-search value of $18.3 million.

YouTube's Red also missing from the list. "Google sends search visitors to YouTube routinely," he said.

A newcomer, AT&T’s DIRECTV NOW, led all advertisers in clicks on the non-branded keyword group in the first half of 2017 -- taking 14.9% click share, while promoting live streaming “your favorite channels” with no annual contract.

Dish Network’s Sling TV ranked No. 2 with a 12.3% click share, while Sony’s Crackle took 7.7%, followed by Hulu with 7.4%; and Amazon at 4.3% rounding out the top five. Amazon also provides product placement, per one report. 

Amazon also seems to earn revenue through product placement. At least one product placement per show, says Bill Gates' product integration company Branded Entertainment Network (BEN), per one report.