Growth of Search Marketing Will Contribute to SEM Outsourcing, Says Jupiter Research
Thursday, 08 June 2006
JupiterResearch, an authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, finds that the share of search marketers with annual revenues of $15 million or more has risen from 25 percent in 2005 to 37 percent in 2006.
According to the new JupiterResearch report, "US SEM Executive Survey, 2006," the number of marketers using bid management and Web analytics tools has risen from 19 percent last year to 26 percent this year.
"The continued growth in size and complexity of search campaigns will spur search engine marketing (SEM) outsourcing," said Sapna Satagopan, Research Associate at JupiterResearch and lead author of the report. "More than fifty percent of large marketers outsource at least one of their search marketing services."
The report also finds that spending on search marketing jumped in 2005. Almost 24 percent of search marketers spent more than $500,000 on SEM campaigns in 2005, compared with 12 percent in 2004. The growth in the size of spending will push the competition as well, forcing smaller marketers to optimize their campaign to compete in the search marketplace.
This year, 66 percent of marketers plan to increase search spending. This number climbs to 72 percent when referring to sophisticated marketers, or those who use bid management tools and Web analytics packages. One of the factors contributing to the surge in spending is the increasing cost of traffic.
"Half of search marketers rank Web site traffic as their preferred metric for measuring success," said David Schatsky, President of JupiterKagan. "There is an increasing cost associated with this traffic, primarily driven by the rise in keyword prices and the cost of expanding to new search providers."
The complete findings of this report are immediately available to JupiterResearch clients online at www.jupiterresearch.com. For additional information on this report or JupiterResearch's Travel research service, visit www.jupiterresearch.com or contact Kieran Kelly, Vice President of Global Sales and Client Service, at 1-800-481-1212 or researchsales@jupitermedia.com.