The Search Engine Marketing (SEM) industry continues rapid growth as marketers adopt tools to increase the presence and visibility of Web sites online.
Some 23% of search marketers spent more than $500,000 on SEM campaigns in 2005, compared with 11% in 2004, according to research firm JupiterResearch.
“If I was spending one dollar for a keyword in 2004, that same keyword is costing me more today because competition is increasing,” said Sapna Satagopan, research associate at JupiterResearch and lead author of the report. The increases will force smaller marketers to optimize their campaigns in order to compete in the search marketplace, Satagopan added.
Just last week, Fox Interactive Media said that it was set to launch its own search engine joining powerhouses Google, Yahoo and MSN (Xtra, June 9, 2006).
The survey also indicates that the number of companies with more than $15 million in revenues who use SEM tools jumped from 25% in 2005 to 37% this year.
“More of the bigger guys are getting into search marketing and are spending more because their campaign sizes have increased,” Satagopan said.
The number of marketers who used software tools to organize keyword searches, track ROI and Web traffic also grew from 19% in 2005 to 26% this year, according to JupiterResearch. Half of them ranked Web traffic as their preferred metric for measuring success.
Forty percent of marketers used SEM to generate immediate sales, build brand awareness (31%), and generate leads for online products (27%). Most search marketers surveyed were in the retail category (16%) followed by entertainment and media (9%).
Sixty-six percent planned to increase search spending this year. The figure climbs to 72% for marketers who use special tracking tools, according to JupiterResearch.
Marketers who indicated they outsourced SEM functions inched up from 42% in 2004 to 45% this year, according to JupiterResearch.
For the study, JupiterResearch surveyed 317 search marketers.
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