Digital Marketing Depot Evaluates Paid Search Management Solutions

Last week, Digital Marketing Depot released the second edition of their Market Intelligence Report. This report examines 10 of the industry leading paid search management platforms and highlights what each is doing to integrate Facebook and other social media advertising into their solutions. To prime the discussion, the report provides an overview of several compelling industry trends, including:

• Search revenues increased 27% from $11.7 billion in 2010 to $14.8 billion in 2011
• Search revenues represented 46.5% of the online advertising market in 2011, up from 44.8% in 2010.
• In 2011, online advertising surpassed cable television spending for the first time and was the second most popular advertising medium (to broadcast television)
• 84% of advertisers use Facebook for marketing, up from 73% in 2010
• Between 2010 and 2011, advertising spend on Facebook increased by 68%, from $1.89 billion to $3.15 billion

Less than 49% of companies now manage their paid search program in-house using Excel and free publisher tools, this is down from 57% in 2009. Digital Marketing Depot’s annual report seeks to help online marketers make an informed decision when abandoning in-house tools in favor of third-party paid search management platforms. Some interesting trends and highlights of the profiled vendors include:

• Profiled vendors range from the largest, Marin Software, with more than $4.0 billion in annual ad spend under management, to one of the smallest, SearchForce, with $500 million in annual ad spend under management
• DoubleClick Search is the only profiled vendor that does not support Facebook campaign management and optimization, or automated campaign management based on an inventory feed
• Every profiled vendor features algorithmic bid optimization, keyword-level attribution and multi-channel attribution capabilities
• Clickable is the only profiled vendor that does not have display buying capabilities

To round out the discussion, the report highlights 15 questions online marketers should ask potential vendors, stressing that the functionality of each toolset within a solution should be considered closely beyond simple campaign and bid management.