Businesses are expecting increase in search marketing budgets, according to a report published today by Guava and Econsultancy. Search engine optimisation (SEO or natural search) is the digital channel where companies are most likely to be investing more money, with 55% of respondents expecting an increase in their budgets this year. Just under a third of respondents (31%) say that SEO spending will stay the same and only 6% say there will be decreased investment. This is because SEO advertising consistantly tops all others in terms of ROI. The full Econsultancy / Guava UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmarking Report 2009 research also found that 45% of responding organisations are increasing their budgets for paid search. Only 11% of respondents say they are decreasing their spend on pay-per-click marketing. Why is this you ask? The reasons commonly stated include click cost inflation and lower conversion rates. These factors were caused by the credit crunch.
The SEM statistics are less positive for online display advertising. There are still more organisations (24%) who are increasing budgets than there are companies cutting back (16%). However, display advertising seems to be suffering a little bit of a decline in popularity.
The third annual UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, gives a comprehensive overview of the search marketing landscape, and also includes research about the use of social media.
Twitter, has shown phenomenal growth since last year.3% of responding organisations were using last year compared to an overwhelming 49% this year. Facebook is now being used by 65% of companies as part of their marketing efforts and showing considerable growth. Will this decrease the quality of the facebook experience? Time will tell.
The SEM report also discovered that half of company respondents (48%) report that SEO ROI has increased in the last year. Only 6% who say that ROI from this channel has gone down. For paid search, 43% report that ROI has increased. 15% say that it has decreased. This data could lead to an increase in bid amounts on PPC delivery systems.
Linus Gregoriadis, Econsultancy’s Research Director, said: “UK search marketers are still getting strong return on investment.” This research provides more proof that companies are turning to digital channels such as paid search and search engine optimisation where there is a demonstrable return on investment.
He goes on to say… “Companies are also getting better at measuring their returns from this channel which, in turn, is leading to more investment.”
It appears that there is a bright future ahead for online advertising in general and SEO in particular.
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