SEO is the number one source of leads for both B2C and B2B marketers, beating out both PPC and social media marketing in a recent survey of online marketers. But more of those surveyed say they plan to increase their social media marketing budgets in 2012, ahead of SEO and PPC. The numbers come from the 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report, which was compiled by Webmarketing123, a California-based online marketing agency. The company surveyed more than 500 U.S. online marketers in August and September; about two-thirds of all respondents identified themselves as B2B marketers. Whether [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing: General | SEM Industry: General | SEM Industry: Stats | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News

Paid search advertising grew 24% in the third quarter of 2011 as compared to the year-ago period, according to a new report by interactive marketing agency Covario. A second report on the quarter conducted by Marin Software finds that click volume increased by 22% year-over-year while cost-per-click prices were lower, indicating marketers achieved increased efficiency. The Covario figures represent a rebound from a lull in Q2 of 2011. The agency attributes the comeback to strong back to school spending to market consumer technologies and strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region. Covario exp [...]

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Efficient Frontier released its Q3 Digital Marketing Performance Report this morning. The document covers a range of trends from search marketing to Facebook and display advertising to mobile and tablets. However the report is primarily focused on paid search trends. Here are some of the bullets from the report: Search spend increased 20 percent year over year in the US and 16 percent in the UK Google regained market share "for the first time" since the Yahoo-Bing search alliance (see today's comScore numbers) Facebook CPC increased by 54 percent vs. Q2 with further increases antici [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News

Online search is largest slice of the advertising pie, with 49 percent of all spending according to the IAB's recent report. But paid search has also been significant in driving mobile advertising revenues. Source: IAB A new mobile ad spending forecast out today from eMarketer argues that US mobile advertising revenues will cross the $1 billion threshold and reach $1.2 billion this year. Of that SMS-based marketing contributes 44 percent and search represents 28.5 percent or $349.4 million. According to eMarketer paid search will assume the lead in 2013. By 2015 mobile paid search [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Stats: General | Stats: Spend Projections

In their regular analysis of revenues generated by the online advertising industry, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers say search unsurprisingly accounted for the most spending of any category (49%) in the first half of the year. Display was next with 37 percent of interactive spend in 1H 2011. Total spending on Search came in a $7.3 billion during the period. "Strong online advertising growth has continued into the first half of 2011," said David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in a statement. "Fueling this growth is the ability of adver [...]

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Global growth in search marketing spend slowed in the second quarter, according to reports from two large agencies, Covario and Efficient Frontier. Data released this week is consistent with an earlier report from Citibank. According to Efficient Frontier, search spend grew only 8% in the second quarter, as compared to the same period in 2010. Covario, which reported numbers from its tech and consumer electronics clients, said growth in paid search advertising was up only 7% in Q2 compared to a year earlier. The first quarter was up 26% compared to the same quarter a year ago, according to [...]

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Researchers at Citibank talked to four large agencies doing a lot of SEM -- Covario, Efficient Frontier, Marin Software and Position 2 -- and what emerged was a picture of second quarter spending that looks weaker than once expected. And the full year, by most accounts, will be down from what most previously thought, if only slightly. Covario said many of its clients spent much of their first-half budgets in Q1, leaving less left over for the second quarter. That will result in only a 7% year-over-year growth rate for Q2 among Covario's client base, versus the 26% seen in Q1. Search spend [...]

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There are a couple of new search and display ad forecasts out from eMarketer. They run through next year with Google increasing its dominance of search advertising, while Facebook steals the top slot from Yahoo in display. The firm sees Google US search ad revenues opening up a bigger lead despite Bing's gains among consumers. However eMarketer says that Microsoft will pass Yahoo in terms of search revenues this year, with Bing controlling 8 percent and Yahoo 7.9 percent of paid-search revenues in 2011. In total eMarketer says that search revenues in the US will reach $14.4 billion t [...]

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Search will bring in $14.4 billion this year in the U.S., representing 46.1% of total online spend, and it will continue to command the lion's share of spend through 2015, according to a new forecast by eMarketer. The big picture for U.S. online ad spending is looking bright, as well. EMarketer expects the sector to reach $31.3 billion this year, which represents a dramatic 20% increase over 2010 spending. EMarketer predicts that spending on online ads in the U.S. will rise to nearly $50 billion by 2015. Though formats like video and display are growing significantly, search is still exp [...]

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The IAB announced this morning that online ad revenues were $7.3 billion in the US in Q1 2011. This is a 23 percent increase over the same period last year. In 2010 total online revenues were $26 billion according to the IAB. For the full year 2010 (graph below) paid search constituted 46 percent of total online ad revenues. If that's still the case it would mean that Q1 2011 search revenues are roughly $3.35 billion. Assuming about 25 percent growth overall this year, 2011 online ad revenues could reach $31 or $32 billion. That would mean 2011 search revenues would be nearly $1 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing: General | Stats: General | Stats: Spend Projections

Search ad spending among tech and electronics companies is way up so far in 2011, so much so that Q1 spending surpassed Q4 levels for the first time. That's the word from Covario's Global Search Advertising Spend Analysis, which tracks about $400 million in annual spending around the world. Covario says Q1 spending was up 6% over the traditionally heavier Q4 period, and up 26% over Q1 of 2010. The huge year-over-year increase is mainly due to how weak spending was in Q1 2010. Much of the growth is coming outside the US: Spending in both the Asia-Pacific and Europe-Middle East region [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: General | Search Marketing: General | Stats: Spend Projections

The IAB released its full year 2010 online advertising report this morning. Paid search constituted the largest category share of the $26 billion online ad spend, at 46 percent: Search was down a point vs. 2009 in terms of overall share. However it grew 12 percent vs. last year in terms of dollar value. By comparison display advertising (a catch-all category that includes video, sponsorships and all types of graphical ads) saw 24 percent growth over 2009. This year also marks the first time that the IAB and its partner PriceWaterhouseCoopers are estimating mobile ad revenues. [...]

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Amazon.com outspent all other search marketers in the fourth quarter of last year in the U.S., dropping $51 million and dwarfing the rest of the field, according to research covering paid search on Google from Kantar Media's new syndicated service. The WPP Group company says AT&T was the next-biggest spender, laying out $27 million. Interestingly, though the fourth quarter is typically characterized by an effort to woo holiday gift shoppers, only a few of the top ten spenders on Google were retailers, Kantar found. Aside from Amazon, Target Department Store spent $25 million, and EBay i [...]

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U.S. search spending was up 17% in the first quarter of 2011 as compared to the same period in 2010, according to analysis of client activity by search marketing agency Efficient Frontier. The agency attributes the growth primarily to a strong quarter in the retail and finance sectors. Click volume and impressions were up year-over-year, according to Efficient Frontier's analysis, but return-on-investment remained steady. The retail sector saw an especially robust quarter, as impressions in the category grew by 30% year-over-year, showing a higher consumer interest, perhaps fueled by an [...]

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Almost 5 percent of paid search spending in the US is now in mobile, according to a report released last week from banking and investment firm Macquarie Group, using Efficient Frontier data. That mobile search spend could double to almost 10 percent by the end of this year if growth continues at an aggressive pace. Using some very rough math that would mean US mobile paid search could be worth approximately $1.1 billion (at least) by the end of 2011. And almost all that money would be Google's. Just as Google dominates mobile search share in the US (with roughly 98 percent), [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Search Marketing: Mobile | Stats: General | Stats: Size | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News

A report on mobile apps report released today by security firm Lookout is being used to discuss the relative sizes and growth of Apple and Google's apps marketplaces. Called the "App Genome Report," the much more striking thing it reveals is just how dominant Google is already in app-display advertising. Take a look at these graphs, which show the penetration of different ad networks/platforms in the iTunes app store and the Android Market: In the Android Market there's no one within a mile of Google-owned AdMob. The next network in line is "Google Ads." In the iTunes app store, iAd [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features: Analysis | Google: AdWords | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Stats: General | Stats: Spend Projections

Spending on search engine marketing (SEM)  grew 23% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2010, signaling optimism both from marketers and consumers, according to the latest report from Efficient Frontier, a search marketing agency that manages more than $1 billion in annual spend for its clients. The company attributed the strong growth to increases in cost-per-click, indicating larger budgets and competition among advertisers for coveted keywords. Consumers' likelihood to click on ads also increased, the 4Q report indicates. Interestingly, while spend increased, return-on-investment dr [...]

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Holiday shopping for consumer electronics is starting earlier than ever in the Americas, according to new research released by Covario, a search marketing agency that works with large global clients such as Intel, Lenovo, Research In Motion and Adobe. Covario found that, among its tech and consumer electronics clients in the Americas, paid search spending only rose 1% in the fourth quarter of 2010, as compared to the third quarter, but that's because growth from the second to the third quarter was 30%. "It appears that consumers are lengthening and extending the definition of the holiday se [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing | Stats: Spend Projections

The IAB reported today that US online ad revenues were $6.4 billion in the third quarter of 2010. That compared with $6.2 billion in Q2 of 2010 and represented 17% growth over the same period a year ago. Through three quarters US online ad revenues totaled $18.1 billion. That would put online ad spending on track to hit almost $25 for the full year 2010 (assuming a good Q4). Google is on pace to reach about $30 billion in revenue globally this year. In the first half of 2010 search had a commanding 47 percent share of all online ad revenues. Display was next with 23 percent. Classifieds, [...]

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In the aftermath of Bing and Yahoo integrating their search ad platforms, the "early winner" seems to be Google, whose share of paid search spending rose more than two percent between the second and third quarters of this year. That's one of the conclusions in the latest quarterly report from Efficient Frontier, a search marketing agency that manages more than $900 million in annual digital spending. The company says that Google's share of paid search spending rose from 75.8% in Q2 2010 to 77.9% in Q3 2010. Paid clicks at Google are also up 9% year-over-year, cost-per-click is up 14% year-o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Ads: General | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News | Yahoo: Search Ads