Marketing Spending is Shifting to Search
I was just speaking at a regional Sharp Minds event and explaining Search Engine Dominance in Web 2.0. Much of business blogging’s success and the move into the social media for corporations has been driven by Search Engines. It’s not enough to build a cool site and wait for it to be found – you need to make your site findable and find other mediums to spread the word.
Here’s some highlights taken from the survey results:
SEMPO has released an analysis today at the Search Engine Strategies conference. While the numbers appear robust, and reflect a desire for marketers to continue to spend on search, the survey can not estimate the result of a shortage of search inventory (searches) caused by a major economic downturn.
Marketing Expenses are Shifting TO Search
A critical finding is that search marketing spending is increasing at the expense of print magazine advertising, website development and other marketing functions, as marketers essentially shift the portions of their spending pie, following consumers as they increasingly rely on search engines to conduct pre-purchase research.
Here are key findings:
- The North American SEM industry grew from $9.4 billion in 2006 to $12.2 billion in 2007, exceeding earlier projections of $11.5 billion for 2007
- North American SEM spending is now projected to grow to $25.2 billion in 2011, up significantly from the $18.6 billion forecast a year ago.
- Marketers are finding more search dollars by poaching budget from print magazine spending, web site development, direct mail and other marketing programs.
- Paid placement captures 87.4% of 2007 spending; organic SEO, 10.5%; paid inclusion, .07%, and technology investment, 1.4%.
- Google AdWords remains the most popular search advertising program, but both Google and Yahoo sponsored search spending has decreased from a year ago.
