What do clients really think about search marketing? Reform’s State of Search Marketing survey provides unique insight into how brands & businesses value, plan, organise and deliver their search marketing.
Reform’s State of Search Marketing survey is an industry-first study which sets out to gain a better understanding of how client businesses and brands value search marketing. To find out more about why brands have continued to invest in this seemingly recession-proof channel, Reform conducted an online survey of 100 client-side decision makers and asked questions about their investment in and practical delivery of search, as well as about the challenges of engaging with the search marketing and technology services industry.
What the State of Search Marketing survey tells us…
Search is booming but should buy-in from other business stakeholders be better? 83% of respondents believed that search became more important to their business in 2009, and 66% believed that search is their most important marketing channel. The same number also forecast that their search spend will grow in 2010. However only 31% of our respondents thought that other business stakeholders fully understand the contribution that search marketing activity has on their business, leaving 69% who believed that they only partially understand or don’t understand at all.
As search spends continue to increase, clients are exploring the cost benefits in bringing SEO and PPC functions in-house. 32% of respondents manage their search in-house and an additional 56% of agency clients have also considered taking search in-house. The decision to take search in-house is largely driven by a desire to take control of search as a whole. 33% of respondents believe that search is too important to their business to be outsourced.
Search still has a long way to go in terms of integration with the full marketing mix. Design, e-commerce and content functions operate closely alongside search experts, however above-the-line and PR campaigns are significantly less well integrated. There is also a growing desire for budgets to be assigned to developing dedicated search strategies.
Clients’ understanding of the implications of agency technology contracts and data ownership is limited. 47% of clients who use an agency don’t own the technology or the tracked data. 52% of these clients don’t own – or don’t know if they own – the PPC data. If clients take ownership of data from their search agencies they will gain the ability to move providers more easily and get a better understanding of customer behaviour. Is more transparency needed from agencies?
The full survey is available to download here. If you would like to discuss the findings or the implications for your business, please contact Amanda Davie: amanda@reformdigital.com or 020 3 178 3086