Marketers in the US and Canada spent a total of $5.75 billion on search engine marketing and optimisation in 2005, an increase of 44% compared to the same period last year.
According to a new study from The Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organisation, paid search spending is forecast to reach $11 billion by 2010.
Commenting on the findings, Kevin Lee, chairman of the organisation said: “Paid search continues to be very strong. It shows no sign of abating, and the respondents seem willing to go a little higher on price.”
The report revealed that the majority of search engine marketing spend was focussed on auction based pay-per-click advertising. Keyword searches for such sites were found to claim 83% of total search engine marketing spend, while optimisation accounted for 11%.
Looking towards 2006, search engine marketing is expected to continue the strong performance seen in 2005, with interactive marketing experts, 24/7 Real Media, predicting the medium to reinvent itself as a lead-generation channel, while continuing to drive significant advertising revenue (see Search Engine Marketing To Enjoy Popularity Surge In 2006).
Meanwhile, paid search is also forecast to enjoy a healthy 2006, with a recent report from Piper Jaffray expecting the medium to generate more than $14 billion globally over the coming year, enjoying an increase of 41% from the estimated $10 billion that it made in 2005 (see Paid Search To Reach $14 Billion Worldwide In 2006).
Paid Search’s strong growth over the next year is also predicted in an earlier study from JupiterResearch projecting paid content searching to reach $8.9 billion in 2010 (see Paid Search To Hit $8.9 Billion In 2010).
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