TFM Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report

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

What do other companies spend on their
search engine marketing?


A quarter of UK respondents (25%)
reported spending of more than
£100,000 annually.


Company

How much do you spend on Search Engine Marketing per
year?

25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%

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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%).


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


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


Online display advertising is the area
where budgets are most likely to be
decreasing with 10% of respondents
saying that spending will be less.


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%
%

0%

0%

0%

+
%
20

0%
00
-4

-6

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to

21

41

61

10
81
p
U


Why all this investment in search engine
marketing and the increasing budgets?

lead generation
direct online sales
driving traffic


Objectives from Paid Search

Lead Generation 53%
Direct Online Sales 53%
Drive Traffic 51%
Branding 32%
Not relevant / Don’t know 2%


Objectives from SEO

Drive Traffic 65%
Lead Generation 51%
Direct Online Sales 49%
Branding 36%
Not relevant / Don’t know 2%


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/


What about my brand?


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


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


What types of search engine marketing
services are companies using?


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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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%)


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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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%)


What types of issues were impacting the
success of your search engine
marketing?


La
ck
of
in
te
La rn
ck a lr

0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
of es
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oo co
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414 respondents
co pe
nv ti t
er io
ti n n
La g
ck w
of eb
SEO “Obstacles to Successquot;

C in si
te
om te
pa rn
ny al
bu
po y-
li t in
ic
s
/c
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tu
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w
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agency
company

Pay Per Click “Obstacles to Successquot;

60.00%

50.00%

40.00%

30.00%
20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
et

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422 respondents
client

New for 2008


Facebook


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


Social Media


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

Questions?
Linus Gregoriadis, E-consultancy.com
Email: linus@e-consultancy.com

Teddie Cowell, Neutralize (*/*)
Email: teddie@neutralize.com

TFM Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report

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