top 10 search marketing research results · #8 the impact of seo – six months on lift from seo -...

© 2000-2005 MarketingSherpa, Inc. You may distribute this presentation providing it is not altered in any way. Thank you.

Research drawn from:

Annual Teleconference:

Top 10 Search Marketing Research Results

Research drawn from

Search Engine Benchmark Guide 2005 – 2006

Anne Holland, Publisher

Stefan Tornquist, Research Director



Facts not Opinion: MarketingSherpa Methodology

! Primary Research from MarketingSherpa" Survey of 3,271 SEM marketers and agencies." Survey of 776 affiliate marketers and merchants." 7 eyetracking tests of major search engines and

shopping comparison sites.

! Exclusive Data" Unique data produced for the Guide from 16 research

sources, including Nielsen/Netratings, Hitwise and comScore.

! ‘Best of’ Secondary Research" Data and analysis from 49 studies, surveys & research

projects from research organizations and search marketing experts.



#1 The U.S. Search Market

Search Market Spending (in 000s)

$5,500,000

$238,000

$660,000

$3,300,000

$0

$1,000,000

$2,000,000

$3,000,000

$4,000,000

$5,000,000

$6,000,000

2004 2005

Paid Search SEO

7% of Paid Search 12% of Paid Search

Source: MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing Benchmark Survey, August 2005 & Merrill Lynch, Internet Advertising Report, June 2005

SEO spending grew by more than 277%.



#2 Cost per Click – 2004/2005

Cost per Click: Overall 2004/2005

$1.29

$1.03

$1.87

$1.61

$1.34

$2.56

$0.58

$-

$0.50

$1.00

$1.50

$2.00

$2.50

$3.00

Google AdWords Yahoo/Overture PPC Shopping engines 2nd tier search properties

2004 2005

Source: MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing Benchmark Survey, August 2005 and MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing Metrics Survey, June 2004

Growth in Shopping engine CPC outpaces growth in usage.



#3 Keyword Buying –Growth 2004/2005

Keyword Volume - 2004/2005

9,100

14,700

17,314

-

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

Keywords for September, 2004 Keywords for March, 2005 Keywords for September, 2005

12 Month Growth Rate: 90%

6 Month Growth Rate: 36%

Source: MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing Benchmark Survey, August 2005 and MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing Metrics Survey, June 2004

Keyword volume growth slowing, but holidays will tell for sure.



#4 Keyword Research –Tactical ROI

Keyword Research ROI - 5+ Years Exp.

17%

24%

23%

44%

18%

15%

34%

8%

13%

5%

8%

24%

59%

60%

12%

58%

49%

44%

40%

39%

39%

30%

58%

17%

17%

44%

24%

37%

24%

48%

48%

56%

60%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

In-house keyword software

Tools from the search engines

Scraping/analyzing competitors'sites

Focus groups

Client marketer feedback

Client customer service/sales stafffeedback

Negative matching

Exact matching

Phrase matching

Analyzing website log files forfrequently occurring keywords

Segmenting website log fileslooking for highly converting

keywords

Great ROI

MediumROI

Low ROI

Source: MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing Benchmark Survey, August 2005

Marketer feedback isn’t the best route to identifying keywords.



#5 Eyetracking - How we view search

Proof of the importance of rank, and the uniqueness of search engines.

Source: MarketingSherpa & Eyetools Inc Lab Study August 2005



#6 B-to-B Search - Impact of Rank

Impact of Rank on Organic and Paid Search

3.7%

3.9%

2.6%

5.3%

6.7%

8.6%

9.5%

12.8%

19.5%

27.4%

1.3%

5.2%

0.6%

4.6%

9.8%

24.2%

51.0%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Rank 10

Rank 9

Rank 8

Rank 7

Rank 6

Rank 5

Rank 4

Rank 3

Rank 2

Rank 1

PaidSearch

Organic

Source: Enquiro with MarketingSherpa, The Role of Search in B-to-B Buying Decisions, October 2004

You knew rank was important –but especially so in paid ads.



#7 Affiliates & Search -Trademarks, etc.

Affiliates and Search

29%

39%

50%

21%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

We essentiallyoutsource our search

engine marketing to ouraffiliates, and we give

them free reign with TMsand branded terms.

We don't allow ouraffiliates to use our

TMs/branded terms inthe search engine

marketing.

January '05August '05

Views on how affiliates use TMs are changing fast.

Source: MarketingSherpa Affiliate and Merchant Survey, August 2005



#8 The Impact of SEO –Six Months On

Lift from SEO - Agency vs. In-house

38%

110%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

In House SEO SEO Agency


34% of SEM marketers use an agency for SEO.



Conversion by Campaign Goal

4.1%

6.3%

5.2%

3.9%

2.8%

4.2%

3.8%

4.2%

5.7%

4.3%

3.6%

3.6%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7%

eCommerceproduct/service

purchase

DelayedeCommerce/service

purchase

Registration data

Specific action taken

Offline conversion

Average

Paid Search

SEO


SEO is a huge driver of ‘latent’conversions.

#9 PPC/SEO Conversion Rates



#10 SEO and Public Relations

Source: Shawn Collins Consulting, December 2004

Press releases are for customers, not journalists.



How to get your own copy today:

Our research team welcomes feedback and/or questions.

Stefan Tornquist, Research [email protected]

! For more information or to order call 877.895.1717 or http://SearchMktgGuide.SherpaStore.com


! 210 charts and tables; 296 pages

! 7 full-color eye-tracking heatmaps

! Real-life data from 3271 marketers

MarketingSherpa, Inc.

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(877) 895-1717

Outside the U.S.(401) 247-7655http://www.MarketingSherpa.com

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top 10 search marketing research results · #8 the impact of seo – six months on lift from seo -...

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