Global Paid Search Spend Analysis – Q3 Update

NOTE: To learn what was presented and discussed at this meeting, see the post-event meeting summary and notes below, following the meeting details.

Topic: Global Paid Search Spend Analysis – Q3 Update

Date: Thursday, October 23rd

Time: 4:00pm Pacific; 6:00pm Central; 7:00pm Eastern

Presenter: Craig Macdonald, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management, Covario (previously Director of Product Management for the service and management group within Hewlett Packard’s OpenView division)

Host Chapter: Portland

Location: Will be sent directly to ISF members

At the first Internet Strategy Forum meeting of the Fall series on October 23rd we’ll discuss important paid search-related topics such as:

• What are the current trends in global paid search spending?

• How have corporations adjusted their global spend on paid search over the past several months? How has the economic slowdown impacted the spending and the results?

• How are advertisers justifying and defending their 2009 paid search program budgets?

Covario, our key presenter, does the only quarterly study on spending patterns by search engines and the results of paid search programs on a global basis – looking at not only Google and Yahoo, but also Baidu, Yandex and the international performance of paid search.

They will present their most recent findings on the trends in how the firm’s global advertising clients are spending their paid search budgets.

As usual, ISF members can attend this event either remotely via the Web or in-person (Portland chapter).

Update on October 28, 2008 by Didi Lomont

Meeting Notes

Caig Macdonald, Vice President of Products and Marketing at Covario, delivered a comprehensive update on search marketing trends both nationally and internationally.

On the financial side of things, growth in U.S. paid search advertising declined in 2008 but still came in around 30 percent. Despite the economic downturn, Corvario is anticipating a 5-10 percent increase in keyword search cost per clicks next year. This surprising cost increase is attributed to higher competition for given keywords as more businesses make search advertising a marketing priority.

Here are some other key points from Craig’s presentation:

• Google continues to be the market leader in paid search, capturing 82 percent of the market this year.
• Microsoft has the highest pay-per-click conversion rate (50 percent) followed by Google.
• Universal search is making search marketing more complex. It’s more important than ever now to tag pictures, video, books, news, products and other content so that they show up in Google’s universal search results.
• If you have both paid and organic search, use terms in your paid search that won’t cannibalize your organic search to stretch your dollars farther.

 In terms of how search is managed within organizations, Craig sees more organizations managing website search within a centralized “center for digital excellence” that can provide integrated management of an organization’s websites to achieve a global strategy around search management. A global strategy can avoid internal competition for keywords.

So where are ISF members going with their search marketing? An informal roundtable of participants brought these responses:

• The majority of attendees see their search spend going up, sometimes shifting from other marketing avenues such as display ads.
• Members are keeping a closer eye on keywords they’re using.
• Members are watching ROI closely and investing in search wisely

Craig’s presentation included many interesting charts and graphs. Click here and open the presentation posted to see for yourself.