SEMPO: Most Search Advertisers Want Brand Impact

Despite the medium's direct marketing reputation, advertisers are hoping to achieve branding results.

A surprising 61 percent of search engine marketers use paid placement to enhance brand awareness, according to a survey by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). The study found more marketers interested in brand impact than were interested in selling products, generating leads or driving traffic, although those were also considered important objectives.

The results come from SEMPO’s “The State of Search Engine Marketing 2004” research, conducted by Executive Summary Consulting. The research was released to SEMPO members Monday night at the organization’s meeting at the Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago.

The survey of 288 search marketers found the industry will spend $4 billion on both paid and organic search in 2004, including in-house and outsourced expenditures. By contrast, a recent JupiterResearch study said paid search would account for $2.6 billion in spending in 2004.

“The focus of a lot of the existing research has been about the paid search part of it. Organic optimization is an important part of the industry,” said Rick Bruner, who conducted the research as president of Executive Summary Consulting before joining DoubleClick’s research department recently.

Though search engine marketing has long been considered a direct marketing medium — most suitable for generating sales and leads — Bruner said paid search’s branding value was top of mind for respondents. Sixty-one percent of respondents said they were using SEM to increase brand awareness, while 58 percent said they wanted to sell products or content directly online. Next in line was lead generation, with 54 percent saying they aimed to generate leads that they could close themselves via another sales channel.

“I don’t want to overhype that point because selling over the Internet and generating leads were right behind it [branding]. It was a photo finish for those results,” he said. “Some big agencies and search engines have heard something along those lines already. There’s a lot of complexity in the way people use search. They do multiple searches before making a decision and buying something. Maybe getting in that consideration set in the first place is kind of a branding opportunity.”

Contrary to what’s been reported in other research, the SEMPO study found that most advertisers plan to handle the majority of their search marketing in-house rather than outsourcing it to an agency. Fifty-two percent of advertisers said they would handle all of their 2005 spending in-house. Larger advertisers were more likely, however, to outsource more of their budgets. A recent JupiterResearch report said that only a third of search marketers used an agency, but, because larger marketers tended to outsource, agencies control more than half of search marketing spend.

“I think the reason why we reached different findings was that we phrased the question differently,” said Bruner. “I think what they asked was ‘are you planning to outsource or not?’…. We asked people what percentage of overall spending they were going to outsource.”

Though the research found that the soaring cost of paid listings was a concern — on average, advertisers said they’d seen bid prices rise 26 percent in the past year — marketers can still spend 33 percent more and still achieve a positive return on investment. The study found that click fraud, which has been getting a lot of attention in the press, was less of a concern than shady SEO practices, which many thought were damaging the industry.

Rather than creating new budget line items for search marketing, the research found that companies are siphoning off money that had been earmarked for traditional or Internet marketing. The biggest budget losers were shopping search listings (13 percent), email programs (9 percent), Web display advertising (9 percent) and print magazine (9 percent) and newspaper ads (9 percent).

Next year, advertisers plan to spend, on average, 39 percent more on all types of search engine marketing than they did in 2004.

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Whitepapers

US Mobile Streaming Behavior
Whitepaper | Mobile

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

5y

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...

View resource
Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups
Whitepaper | Analyzing Customer Data

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

5y

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics f...

Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...

View resource
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people
Whitepaper | Digital Marketing

Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its peopl...

2y

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...

View resource
Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy
Report | Digital Transformation

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

1m

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Exp...

Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...

View resource