May 6, 2013 at 9:00am ET by Myles Anderson

Last week, we published the findings of the BrightLocal Local SEO Industry Survey 2013. The objective of this survey is to gain greater understanding about the health and nature of the local SEO Industry. Through this survey, we aim to find out what life is like "on the ground" for those in the local SEO industry and share those findings publicly to help improve the knowledge and insight within our industry. This is the 2nd wave of the survey. The 1st wave was conducted in 2011 and looked ahead to 2012. Wave 1 survey results can be viewed here. About The BrightLocal Local SEO Industry [...]

Data: The Digital Common Denominator

May 1, 2013 at 9:00am ET by Lionel White

In April 2013, the IAB released a report that revealed double-digit growth for both search and display. Additionally, within digital, video was named the fastest-growing sector, reaching $2.3 billion. I spoke with three industry experts in display, search and video to gain deeper insights into how and why search, display and video will continue to show a positive curve. Display: Audience Buying In Prime Time When it comes to display, it’s obvious that the driving force behind its growth is data. Gerry Bavaro, Chief Strategy Officer of Resolution Media, says, “Audience-based planni [...]

A Good Start For Paid Search In 2013

Apr 25, 2013 at 9:40am ET by Josh Dreller

It's April, which means that spring is here and the first quarter of 2013 is in the books! The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and the ads are clicking. Aren't the landing pages pretty at this time of year? At Kenshoo, we sit on some massive data sets that we share each quarter in our Global Search Advertising Trends reports. You can download the full Q1 2013 report here; but, let's dive in and look at some of the highlights. Note: In the report, you can read about our methodology to see how we arrived at these numbers, so I won't go into that here. Just know that our [...]

Report: Tablets Yield 15% Lower RPC Than PCs; (Another) Rebuttal To AdWords Tablet/PC Combo

Apr 10, 2013 at 10:09am ET by Ginny Marvin

The proliferation of tablet devices has begun to lower the value of the tablet segment overall for paid search marketers, even as competition heats up. That's according to the Q1 Digital Marketing Report by RKG, which finds that tablets generated 15% lower revenue per click than traditional computers. Revenue Per Click by Device Type vs Computer "Discrepancy is More Likely to Increase" Much has been made of Google's decision to combine tablets and PCs in enhanced campaigns. The RKG report is not alone in challenging Google's claim that usage behavior and ad performance among the devices [...]

CPC Decline Ends: Rising 7% In Q1 Due To Mobile & PLAs [Covario]

Mar 28, 2013 at 2:07pm ET by Ginny Marvin

We may have seen the end of CPC stagnation. Covario's Global Paid Search Spend Analysis for Q1, released today, suggests that the cost-per-click trends of the last six quarters have reversed with CPC prices rising 7% from the previous quarter and 23% year-over-year. Overall paid search spend grew 9% quarter-over-quarter and 33% year-over-year. The following chart shows global paid search activity for Q1 ‘13: Google CPCs Rise 39% Year-Over-Year The study suggests that rising CPCs on Google a [...]

New PPC Report: Bing Ads Vs. Google AdWords In 6 US Verticals

Mar 20, 2013 at 8:15am ET by Ginny Marvin

AdGooroo has released a new study titled Yahoo! Bing PPC Performance Metrics that analyzes advertiser participation and performance metrics on the Yahoo! Bing network through Bing Ads compared to Google AdWords. The study looked at U.S. advertisers in six verticals during Q312. Backing up one of the loudest complaints among advertisers about the Yahoo! Bing network, the study found that AdWords out-delivered Bing Ads by serving 7.3 million more ad impressions in the Shopping and Classified category. A surprise, however, was to see Bing Ads come out ahead in the Financial Services categor [...]

Google Shopping Tops Amazon Product Ads: 32.7% More Cost Effective

Feb 20, 2013 at 2:11pm ET by Ginny Marvin

A new report from CPC Strategy looks at how Google Shopping fared against its rival, Amazon Product Ads, after making the switch to a commercial model in Q3 last year. The analysis finds its performance changed significantly compared to Amazon Product Ads, and provides further evidence that the move bolstered Google Shopping. Surge In Traffic & Lower CPCs In the second half of last year, Google Shopping sent 120% more traffic to merchants than Amazon Product Ads. In fact, Google Shopping more than doubled the amount of traffic it sent to merchants compared to 2011. At $0.31, Google Sh [...]

Report: Mobile To Drive A Third Of Paid-Search Clicks By Year End

Feb 12, 2013 at 9:52am ET by Greg Sterling

Marin Software has released a report on paid click, CPC and conversion trends across the globe, with a focus on mobile. Called "The State of Mobile Search Advertising in the World," the 2012 data are drawn from search campaigns conducted in 13 geographies including the US, UK, China, Europe and Australia. Some of the findings, however, will effectively be rendered moot by Google's new Enhanced Campaigns, which lump together PC and tablet targeting and create new default pricing intended, in part, to equalize CPC prices across platforms. Source: Marin Software Marin forecasts in th [...]

Advertisers Increased PLA Budgets By 600% In Q4; Trend Likely To Continue

Jan 29, 2013 at 9:07am ET by Ginny Marvin

The Google Shopping gamble paid off – for both Google and e-commerce advertisers who ran product listing ad campaigns last quarter. A report from Adobe and a study by RKG each highlighted consumer interest and advertiser opportunity in Google product listing ads. Today, Marin Software released findings showing that, after the transition of Google Shopping to an entirely paid model in October, advertisers increased their share of search budgets directed toward product listing ads by nearly 600%. Those advertisers were rewarded with higher click through rates and lower cost per click than [...]

Sign of Hope? Banned Advertisers Rises Just 8 Percent in 2012

Jan 18, 2013 at 12:52pm ET by Ginny Marvin

The battle against bad ads getting past the AdWords review process rages on. Google announced in a blog post this week that the company axed 224 million bad ads in 2012. That’s up 67% from 2011. The 2012 numbers underscore that there is no shortage of scammers, however they may also point to a sign of hope. The number of banned advertisers plateaued from 2011, rising just 8%. Last year the number of banned advertisers increased by 70%. That leveling off could mean Google’s efforts are paying off and scammers aren’t flocking to AdWords the way they used to. Last year, Google announce [...]

Report: PLAs Drove 28% Of Google Non-Brand Ad Clicks In Q4

Jan 16, 2013 at 3:51pm ET by Ginny Marvin

Google Product Listing Ads generated 28% of Google non-brand clicks in Q4 according to RKG's latest Digital Marketing Report released today. PLA CPCs were 26% lower than CPCs for competitive text ads. RKG also found a larger than average gap between bids and actual CPCs for PLAs, suggesting competition is still relatively light. Product Listing Ads are also having a big impact on non-brand Google ROI when compared to Bing. RKG reports, “As Google CPCs have declined overall and compared to Bing, the non-brand ROI for Google now stands 22% higher than that for Bing.” Google Nonbrand Paid [...]

Report: Global Paid Search Spending Up 18% In 2012

Jan 15, 2013 at 8:07am ET by Ginny Marvin

Advertiser spending on paid search rose 18% in 2012 according to Covario’s Global Search Advertising Spend Analysis, which tracks paid search spending in more than 45 countries. That growth trend is down just slightly from the 21% annual increase Covario reported for 2011. In Q4 Google commanded 86.5% of global paid search spend and a whopping 93% of impressions. Advertisers spent 13% more on search spending with Google than they did a year ago. Spending on the Yahoo Bing Network increased 23% over the past year, however spend fell 6% from Q3. Source: Covario Regional Outloo [...]

SEMPO & ClickZ Look To See How Much Search Marketers Make With A Survey

Jan 10, 2013 at 12:35pm ET by Barry Schwartz

SEMPO and ClickZ are partnering to find out how much money search marketers are earning. The Search Marketer Salary Survey 2013 can be accessed over here and is open for all agency or in-house search marketing professionals. This survey is an annual industry wide survey to assess the current state of compensation of search marketing professionals in relation to region, experience and responsibility. The variables the survey hopes to collect include SEO and SEM jobs, from entry level to executive; salary variations by geographic markets, the total compensation package beyond salaries s [...]

Infographic: SEO Hot Cities – New York, San Francisco & LA

Dec 4, 2012 at 11:23am ET by Search Engine Land Infographics

So you want to be an SEO? Try moving to New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles, which have the most job postings. Being an SEO might lead to bigger things, too, as the skill is listed as part of jobs such as "marketing manager" and "director of marketing." These stats come from an infographic from the folks at Conductor on the SEO job industry, based on 1,500 job postings on Indeed.com and Payscale.com: Want the infographic for yourself? You'll find it here, along a downloadable guide to the job details behind the infographic: SEO Jobs Salary Guide. [...]

Forrester Report: The Best PPC Bid Management Providers

Nov 20, 2012 at 3:20pm ET by Chris Sherman

Forrester, the large marketing technology analysis organization, has released the final of its quarterly Forrester Wave reports related to search marketing. The first, Forrester Rates The Top Large Search Marketing Agencies, offered an assessment of large, full service (meaning agencies that offer both organic SEO and PPC) and agencies who serve large clients of $1 billion or more in revenue. The second, The Top SEO Platforms, the relatively new set of tools that has emerged over the past few years to help SEOs automate and bring more efficiency to a broad range of search optimization tasks. [...]

The Top SEO Platforms: Forrester Wave Report

Nov 2, 2012 at 2:58pm ET by Chris Sherman

Forrester, the large marketing technology analysis organization, has released two of three of its Forrester Wave reports related to search marketing. I wrote about the first one yesterday in Forrester Rates The Top Large Search Marketing Agencies, which offered an assessment of large, full service (meaning agencies that offer both organic SEO and PPC) and agencies who serve large clients of $1 billion or more in revenue. Today, a look at the second report, covering what Forrester describes as SEO "platforms" - the relatively new set of tools that has emerged over the past few years to hel [...]

Forrester Rates The Top Large Search Marketing Agencies

Nov 1, 2012 at 6:00pm ET by Chris Sherman

Forrester, the large marketing technology analysis organization, has released two of three of its Forrester Wave reports related to search marketing. The first, The Forrester Wave: Search Marketing Agencies, Q4 2012 rates seven of the largest full-service search marketing agencies. While the ranking results are interesting in themselves, some of the other insights offered in the report are also thought-provoking. The report limited its coverage to large, full service (meaning agencies that offer both organic SEO and PPC) and agencies who serve large clients of $1 billion or more in revenue [...]

Google Algorithm Changes, Mobile Internet Have Most Significant Impact On Search Marketers [SEMPO]

Sep 13, 2012 at 6:50pm ET by Matt McGee

About nine out of 10 search marketers say Google's recent algorithm changes have had a significant impact on them, and about the same amount say that the rise of the mobile internet and local search are also having a significant impact. The data comes from the SEMPO State of Search Marketing Report 2012, which was just released this week. Nearly 900 search marketers responded to this year's survey, which was conducted online between March 12 and May 15, 2012. Survey takers represent 36 countries, with about 64 percent being in the US. What Impacted Search Marketers Most Whether workin [...]

Industry Survey: PPC Is Losing Ability To Generate Leads

Aug 30, 2012 at 8:02am ET by Matt McGee

SEO continues to be the top lead generating channel among U.S. digital marketers, while PPC's effectiveness as a lead gen channel is dropping significantly. B2B marketers are even saying that social media marketing is now more effective than PPC as a lead gen channel. That's according to the 2nd annual State of Digital Marketing survey from WebMarketing123, an online agency based in California. As they did a year ago, Webmarketing123 surveyed more than 500 U.S. marketers, 65 percent of whom self-report as B2B marketers. Reps from companies including GE, Sony, Cisco, Olympus, Bose and Fed [...]

Industry Survey Underscores How The SEO Industry Relies On Google’s Free Tools

Aug 20, 2012 at 7:25pm ET by Matt McGee

If there's one thing that stands out in the 2012 SEO Industry Survey, it's that the SEO industry relies heavily on the free SEO-related tools that Google provides. SEOmoz released the results of its semi-annual survey today -- a survey conducted between March and May that drew responses from almost 6,500 people in more than 100 countries. Almost half of the respondents (47.3 percent) were from the U.S., and 77 percent were males. There's some interesting data about marketing budgets (for example, 34.4 percent say they spend $1,000 and up on consulting each month) and tactics used (76 pe [...]

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