Search in a Recession
A survey from SEMPO

Well, we are certainly “going through extremely uncertain times” as UK
Chancellor Alistair Darling put it, but is digital and search fairing better
Search in a Recession than most? SEMPO have listened to the market and their members and
have discovered whether search is experiencing a nibble, a great big bite
A survey from SEMPO
or bucking the trend during “The Credit Crunch”.
Hundreds of responses to a simple survey

“Have you recently changed where you spend your
marketing budgets in light of the changes in the
economic climate?”
- unfortunately down in the majority of cases
24%
Yes
No
76%

“Are you considering raising expenditure in search
activity because of the economic climate?”
- 69% of marketers leaving it neutral
25%
Yes
No
75%

“How reliant are you on intent driven marketing like
Search for your wider marketing strategy?”
- 64% of marketers are reliant for a wider strategy success
2%
29%
34%
Very
Quite
Not Very
Unreliant
35%

“Are you aware of the benefits of synergizing your paid and natural
search strategies?”
- A lot of education and things to learn about harmonious campaigns
29%
Yes
No
71%

“Has the richness of the search results and offerings from publishers
changed your SEM approach?
- Half the world is changing, half isn’t
“More use of YouTube” (bloody sales guys pushing irrelevant)
45%
“More video work” Yes
55%
No
“Expanded in-house teams”
“More use of shopping engines”
“Increased affiliate use on performance deals”
“Testing mobile”
“Re-design web site” “More use of widgets and social media”
“Changes to content strategy”

“What would you consider to be the most cost effective
form of marketing in a recession?
- Natural Search, Paid Search, but also…TV, Events, Print, email – 15% don’t know!
1% 1% 1% 1%
2% 2%
2%
3%
SEO
5%
PPC
Other
Social media
11%
display
events
56%
POS
affiliates
15% direct sales
“One that I can turn off quickly” TV
local targetted
“Anything I can measure” email
“Don’t know”
“Natural Search as number one with 3 times as many responses as any other channel”

“Do you use SEM for brand as well as direct
response
- Could this be linked to the increasing richness of SERPS
38%
Yes
No
62%

“What are the main reasons for not spending more of
your marketing budgets online? (obstacles)
The boss, the board, the CFO, lack of belief and balancing the mix
2%
8%
30%
16%
management
Budget cuts
Performance issues
keeping a balance
Lack of Understanding
17%
Contractual commitments
27%
A culprit of company-wide cost cutting?

What our industry still needs to do…
•Increased focus on analytics
•Further research into “holistic search”
•Education for senior management – a UK issue?

Want toahelp?
Search in Recession
A survey from SEMPO
http://www.sempo.org
Richard Gregory (SEMPO)
Richard.Gregory@latitudegroup.com
+44 (0) 1925 420105
Twitter:@smartrich
Paul Doleman (SEMPO)
Paul.doleman@icrossing.co.uk
+44 (0) 7718 585165
Twitter:@pauldoleman