UK companies are continuing to invest in search marketing as both paid and natural search continue to deliver, according to a report from Guava and Econsultancy.
The third annual
UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report is based on a survey of more than 800 company and agency digital marketers.
Search engine optimisation (SEO or natural search) is the digital channel where companies are most likely to be investing more money, the research found, with 55% of respondents expecting an increase in their budgets this year.
Just under a third of respondents (31%) said that SEO spending will stay the same and only 6% say there will be decreased investment.
It also found that 45% of responding organisations are increasing their budgets for paid search.
Only 11% of respondents say they are decreasing their spend on pay-per-click marketing, for reasons which include click cost inflation and lower conversion rates caused by the credit crunch.
The SEM statistics are less positive for online display advertising, although there are still more organisations (24%) who are increasing budgets than there are companies cutting back (16%).
Linus Gregoriadis, Econsultancy’s research director, said: “UK search marketers are still getting strong return on investment from paid search marketing despite the recession, increased competition and click cost inflation.
“This research provides more proof that companies are turning to digital channels such as paid search and search engine optimisation where there is a demonstrable return on investment.”
Earlier this year, a report from the BIA Kelsey Group forecast that US mobile search and display advertising revenues are expected to grow to $3.1 billion by 2013, from $160 million in 2008, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 81.2% (see US search and display ad revenues to grow to $3.1bn by 2013).
eMarketer, meanwhile, cut its forecast for UK online ad spend, predicting that it would grow 7.2% in 2009, down from its May 2008 forecast of 17.2% (see UK online ad spend forecast to grow 7.2% in 2009).
