UK Search Engine Marketing
Benchmark Report
E-consultancy in partnership with
Neutralize (*\\*)

Methodology
• Online survey in March 2007
• E-consultancy’s user base
– 62,000 registered users
– 145,000 unique user sessions per month
– Client-side & agency digital marketers
– Many sectors well represented including retail,
financial services, travel and publishing
• Press releases

Response
• 744 respondents
– 384 client-side search marketers
– 284 agency / consultant respondents
– Predominantly UK respondents (76%)
• SMEs and Blue Chips
• Range of sectors

Topics covered in research
• Search activity and search
services
• Budget / spending
• Objectives and effectiveness
• Search engines
• Problems and issues

What did people say?
“E-consultancy continues to
churn out great research on
the UK search marketing
space, with the release of
their UK Search Engine “Another excellent
Marketing Report 2007.” report…well worth
purchasing. ”

Who are Neutralize (*\\*)?
Full-service Search Engine Marketing
(SEM) agency
Over 10 years’ experience
23 staff in office (260 worldwide)
Pan European / Multilingual skills (in-house)
Our approach to search engine optimisation
is distinctly different to our peers
- Unique proprietary software slashes
timescales and increases efficiency
- Large ‘offsite’, link building and SEO PR
team
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

What do other companies spend on their
search engine marketing?
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

A quarter of UK respondents (25%)
reported spending of more than
£100,000 annually.
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Company
How much do you spend on Search Engine Marketing per
year?
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
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© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing No

About two thirds of respondents said
their companies would be increasing
their budgets in the next 12 months for
both paid search (65%) and SEO (64%).
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Company
Do you expect your budgets to increase or decrease in the
next 12 months?
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00% Increase
30.00% Decrease
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Paid SEO Email Online Mobile Affiliate
Search display marketing
advertising
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Agency
Do you expect your clients budgets to increase or decrease
in the next 12 months?
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00% Increase
40.00% Decrease
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Paid SEO Email Online Mobile Affiliate
Search display marketing
advertising
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Online display advertising is the area
where budgets are most likely to be
decreasing with 10% of respondents
saying that spending will be less.
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Company
If they are increasing, by how much do you expect your search budgets
to go up in the next 12 months?
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
Paid Search
30.00%
SEO
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
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© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Why all this investment in search engine
marketing and the increasing budgets?
lead generation
direct online sales
driving traffic
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Objectives from Paid Search
Lead Generation 53%
Direct Online Sales 53%
Drive Traffic 51%
Branding 32%
Not relevant / Don’t know 2%
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Objectives from SEO
Drive Traffic 65%
Lead Generation 51%
Direct Online Sales 49%
Branding 36%
Not relevant / Don’t know 2%
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

E-consultancy’s Online Lead Generation Report
Paid Search and SEO were the online
marketing channels getting the biggest
share of lead generation budget (and
were the channels deemed to be the
most effective).
http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/online-lead-generation/
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

What about my brand?
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Paid Search and SEO impact on brand
What is m ore im portant in term s of the im pact on your
brand? (Clients)
50.00%
40.00%
30.00% Paid Search
SEO
20.00%
Equal importance
10.00%
0.00%
1
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Paid Search and SEO impact on brand
What is m ore im portant in term s of the im pact on your
brand? (Agencies)
50.00%
40.00%
30.00% Paid Search
SEO
20.00%
Equal importance
10.00%
0.00%
1
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

What types of search engine marketing
services are companies using?
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

If you use an agency, what Paid Search se rvices do
you use or plan to use ?
60.00%
50.00%
40.00% Using now
Planning to use
30.00%
No plans to use
20.00% Don't know
10.00%
0.00%
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© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

The four Paid Search services most likely
to be on the radar were:
1. Landing page optimisation (35%)
2. Competitor research (33%)
3. Joint 3) Contextual advertising (27%)
4. Joint 3) Click fraud audits (27%)
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Company
If you use an agency, what SEO services do you use or
plan to use?
45.00%
40.00%
35.00%
30.00% Using now
25.00% Planning to use
20.00% No plans to use
15.00% Don't know
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
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© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

The four SEO services most likely to be on
the radar were:
1. Online PR optimisation (38%)
2. Joint 2) Competitor research (37%)
& Link generation campaigns (37%)
3. Landing page development (35%)
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

What types of issues were impacting the
success of your search engine
marketing?
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

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© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing
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Pay Per Click “Obstacles to Success\"
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
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422 respondents
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing
client

New for 2008
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Facebook
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Hitwise UK - Top 20 Websites - December, 2007
1. www.google.co.uk 7.69%
2. mail.live.com 3.13%
3. www.ebay.co.uk 2.66%
4. www.facebook.com 2.01%
5. www.google.com 1.72%
6. uk.msn.com 1.63%
7. www.bebo.com 1.49%
8. www.youtube.com 1.14%
9. www.myspace.com 1.01%
10. news.bbc.co.uk 1%
11. www.bbc.co.uk 0.87%
12. uk.mail.yahoo.com 0.85%
13. uk.yahoo.com 0.81%
14. www.orange.co.uk 0.78%
15. www.amazon.co.uk 0.77%
16. www.microsoft.com 0.75%
17. news.bbc.co.uk/sport 0.6%
18. images.google.co.uk 0.59%
19. www.wikipedia.org 0.49%
20. www.msn.com 0.48%
Source: Hitwise (ranking is based on share of UK visits)http://www.hitwise.co.uk/datacenter/rankings.php
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Social Media
© Neutralize (*\\*) - Search engine optimisation and marketing

2008 survey is live today …
• New report will include trends data
plus new questions
• Complete online survey and get free
copy of report (normally worth £150)
– URL = http://tinyurl.com/3al59r
– Deadline = Thursday 6 March

http://tinyurl.com/3al59r

Questions?
Linus Gregoriadis, E-consultancy.com
Email: linus@e-consultancy.com
Teddie Cowell, Neutralize (*/*)
Email: teddie@neutralize.com