Search marketing is gradually becoming an all-pervasive marketing tool in business-to-business. This is according to new research by B2B Marketing, which revealed that it is currently being used by 81 per cent of companies, an increase of eight per cent since September 2004, when the publication last ran a search marketing survey.
This growth is set to continue, according to the survey, with almost 80 per cent of respondents expecting to increase their investment in search during the next 12 months, whilst under two per cent expect spend to decline. During the previous 12 months, almost 60 per cent increased spend. Figures from B2B Marketing’s previous research suggest that the trend is increasing: two years ago only 59 per cent expected to spend more on search in the coming year.
Further to this, the fact that almost 19 per cent of companies are still not using search marketing confirms there is considerable scope for the market to continue to grow. This is supported by the results for the question on types of search marketing used, with ‘website optimisation/natural search’ and ‘pay-per-click’ predictably proving to be the most popular flavours.
Yet with 69 and 61 per cent penetration respectively, there remains a significant minority of companies who are not using both of these basic search marketing devices.
‘Pay-per-call’ and ‘contextual search’, also predictably, were far less popular, with only five and 20 per cent of respondents respectively using them. Growth in the latter tool, which is still very new, will be interesting to track in the coming months.
Attitudes regarding the effectiveness of search as a marketing medium were less predictable. Only 56 per cent described search as an ‘important’ or ‘very important’ part of their marketing mix.
But when asked which mediums were more effective than search, only email could muster over 50 per cent of respondents. Only 40 per cent of companies currently using search believe that direct mail, the second most popular choice, is more effective than search. Similarly, over 60 per cent of companies described search as ‘effective’ or ‘very effective’ in terms of meeting objectives.
This presents something of a paradox in marketers’ attitudes to search, with less people regarding it as important as part of the mix than believing it is effective. Perhaps there is a lag in marketers’ commitment in terms of spend, due to the relative newness of the medium, and historic reliance on more traditional forms, which will disappear in time.
This may in part be a reflection of marketers’ attitudes towards search, which has been viewed as a ‘black art’ by many. Yet this too seems to be changing, with 34 per cent now describing their knowledge as ‘strong’ in comparison with 11 per cent who selected ‘excellent’ in the previous survey in 2004. According to the 2006 research, the majority believe their knowledge is average, suggesting that the search marketing service providers have some way to go towards educating their prospective customers.
‘Understanding of current techniques’ was cited as the second highest priority for B2B marketers in the coming year (38 per cent), following ‘exploiting emerging techniques’ (41 per cent).
The search engines themselves are the most popular choice in terms of where B2B marketers are spending their search marketing budget. Currently, 38 per cent spend most money with the search engines (presumably mostly on pay-per-click) and this is set to rise marginally to 41 per cent in the next 12 months. ‘Internal site optimisation’ was the second most popular investment during the last 12 months (selected by 25 per cent of respondents). However, this looks set to be caught by ‘specialist agencies’ next year, suggesting that B2B marketers may be seeking to get more from search marketing by using agencies’ more sophisticated approach.
As the pioneer of sponsored search in 1998, Yahoo Search Marketing has been at the forefront of the phenomenal growth experienced by the online advertising industry in recent years. The future continues to look extremely bright, with 60 per cent of the B2B marketers surveyed here stating that their search budgets had increased in the last 12 months and 78 per cent confident that budgets will continue to increase in the next 12 months. It’s encouraging that these B2B marketers seem to be ahead of the general trend 81 per cent of those surveyed currently use search marketing and well over half of the companies questioned are spending up to 40 per cent of their marketing budget online. However, as an industry, we still have a long way to go, with the majority of advertisers still only spending a fraction of their budgets online. If online ad revenues continue to grow at their current rate and broadband connections increase as predicted, revenues will only catch up with the percentage of media time spent online in 2008. Online advertising and sponsored search are both fantastic marketing tools, with clear advantages in terms of building brand and driving online and offline sales. The challenge lies not only in communicating these benefits to marketers, but also in extolling the virtues of fully integrating online marketing campaigns with each other and into the rest of the mix. Increasingly, search marketers are looking at the use of search marketing for branding purposes and to drive purchases offline. As reflected by this survey, where 44 per cent of B2B marketers see search as ‘a great complementary medium’, marketers now appear to be taking a more holistic view of search and looking at how it can complement other campaigns across different forms of marketing. For example, if you are a low-cost airline embarking on a big budget TV campaign, can you be sure people will remember the website flashed up at the end of your ad? If consumers can’t remember the exact address, chances are they will turn to Internet searches to find out more. So, if your website is not listed high in the search results for ‘cheap flights’ at the peak of your TV ad campaign, imagine the number of customers you could be missing out on…
