Search engine marketing is doing much better than projected. Based on a SEMPO survey of SEMs, more people are spending money on search marketing and they are spending more money on search marketing than was projected a year ago. It seems that small and mid-size businesses are taking money away from their off line advertising budgets and moving it to their online budgets. The part about this that I found interesting was this little statement at Marketing Pilgrim:
This should be especially good news for Google (and Google shareholders), since it’s the only search engine in the top four to get a bigger share of the market. 97% of the marketers survey use Google AdWords. 70% utilize Yahoo Sponsored Search and less marketers use MSN and Ask.com than last year.
97% of SEMs and online marketers are using Pay Per Click Google AdWords while MSN and Ask.com are on the decline. Yahoo! has a respectable market share at 70%. That means that Google and Yahoo! are the leaders just as they are in search. It also means that – unlike search – some of the same people using Google are also using Yahoo! And it means one thing, too: Some advertisers at MSN and Ask.com have shifted their focus away from those two search marketing providers to pursue advertising at Google and Yahoo!
I believe the opportunities in search marketing and Pay Per Click are expanding. I didn’t need this study to tell me that. But this form of advertising is obviously working because it wouldn’t be a growing industry if it wasn’t. There’s a good bet that search marketing would work for your business as well.
