Consumers have a recession message for marketers: Will click for coupons.

As consumers troll online to save money, searches that include value words such as "coupons" rose 161 percent in December vs. 2007, to 19.9 million, and "discount" rose 26 percent to 7.9 million, reported tracker ComScore.

As a result, spending by marketers on such search words is up, too. They bid online to tie their brands to search terms so their Web site appears as a "sponsored link" above the unpaid results, or their text ad is to the right of the results. They generally offer to pay from 4 cents to $1 each time someone clicks on the link or ad.

Google, which controls 60 percent of the paid search ad market and whose AdWords is the largest auction system, said ad spending on value-related words such as coupons rose 30 percent in the fourth quarter over the same period a year earlier.

"Search is very much a barometer of the times," said John Burke, Google director of industry development.

Coupon distribution and redemption had been flat in 2008 until the fourth quarter, when coupon distribution rose 7.5 percent and redemptions rose 15 percent vs. a year earlier, the Promotion Marketing Association said.

Charles Brown, co-chair of PMA's coupon council and a vice president for coupon company NCH, said the Web is the fastest-growing coupon distribution medium for big marketers, up 80 percent in 2008.

How they are searching for sales:

• Kraft. Last fall it added "cooking on a budget" and "value" to its search roster. Offers include $1 coupons for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.

• Procter & Gamble. A brand search for Crest Whitening Strips will yield a $7 coupon. "By understanding what search terms to buy we are able to better understand how consumers are searching for our products," spokeswoman Barbara Hauser said.

• Unilever. A search campaign linking coupon terms with Bertolli's Oven Bake Meals boosted clicks for a $2 coupon.