The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) recently released the results of a study it conducted on the impact of paid search advertisements on brand awareness. The study documented the reactions of over 10,000 individuals to find the brand lift that occurred when companies were running paid search ads.

The results showed a clear impact on brand awareness by the ads, including a clear-cut increase in brand awareness for companies that had an ad featured in the top paid listing spot. An interesting find of the study is that even sites appearing as low as the fifth listing still achieved a notable increase in brand awareness.

The full article is available at the ClickZ site and is titled: "Yes, Virginia, There Is SEM Brand Lift, Part 1"

The full study results are available as a report titled "Sponsored Listings Effectiveness" that can be purchased from the IAB Web site.