New Study Reveals Untapped Billions In Search Marketing

Even as the global economy falters, spending on paid search advertising remains on a growth trajectory, expected to reach more than $26.8 billion by 2011. New data shows the largest search marketers would spend even more if they could, according to recent study from Jupiter Research, a Forrester Research company, commissioned by Marin Software. The data reveals that 92% of large search marketers would increase their pay-per-click (PPC) spend an average of 22% if major technology and management impediments were resolved. Since large search marketers account for the lion’s share of industry spend projections, this equates to billions of incremental paid search dollars ready to be unlocked over the next five years as enabling technologies gain greater penetration in the market.

These are among the key findings in “Large-scale Paid Search: Challenges and Opportunities”, a study from Jupiter Research and Marin Software that examines different aspects of the paid search advertising market and is based on a survey of large search marketers, spending at least $100,000 per month on PPC advertising.

While paid search market growth remains strong, our research shows that the industry has matured to a point where new technologies and approaches are needed to support and evolve large search marketing programs. Next-generation search management applications are now hitting the market and quickly gaining in popularity, which should facilitate increased spending at the company level and drive additional growth in the search industry as a whole.

Other findings of the industry report include:

Search Marketing is Becoming Increasingly Complex
		85% of marketers responded that the complexity of paid search management is growing.
		44% said that running a well-managed, large-scale search marketing campaign is more difficult than running an election campaign for public office.
Search Marketers Would Spend More if They Had the Right Technology
		92% of companies said they would spend an average of 22% more on paid search advertising if key impediments were resolved in PPC management.
		Many search marketers manage all aspects of their search campaigns through Microsoft Excel rather than through one single solution; 77% said their paid search campaigns would be more effective, if they could manage them all from one application.
Marketers Spending More than $500K Per Month Are Having the Most Trouble
		78% believe managing large keyword lists is cumbersome.
		59% cite they currently have insufficient personnel to manage their paid search campaigns.
		69% said existing applications are not robust enough for their needs.

In spite of these challenges, search marketing remains a top priority for marketers. Some 79% of respondents are spending more on paid search management every year, and the majority of advertisers (67%) reported that increasing the use of PPC campaigns is a top strategic initiative going forward.

Search marketing has become a strategic imperative for many companies, but the lack of technology and infrastructure to support search marketing poses a serious problem for advertisers looking to grow their PPC spend. This represents a potential Achilles heel for search industry growth. The next wave of paid search growth will rely on large advertisers using professional second-generation applications to manage the complexity of their PPC programs, so they can cost-effectively grow their program spend without requiring added resources.

Learn More About the Report

If you want to learn more about the report, please contact us here and reference the JupiterResearch report in the comments field.

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