Online Marketers See High ROI from SEO

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 by Janet Meiners

Online Marketers See High ROI from SEO

While paid search is still the top tactic for internet marketers, more competition and higher costs has dampened enthusiasm. However, SEO (search engine optimization) is more popular with marketers because of its lower cost and high returns.

“SEO continues to increase in popularity. Its low costs and high returns make it a leader among more than half (57%) of the marketers surveyed. Those numbers were 45% in 2006 and 33% in 2005.”

That’s according to MarketingSherpa’s 5th Annual ad:tech Survey. The survey received 421 responses from top internet marketers. These marketers decide how to spend large marketing budgets for well-known brands.

MarketingSherpa asked what worked in the past 12 months and how they plan to budget for the next year.

Here are some additional findings:

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Behaviorally targeted ads. Contextual ads show up based on the content of a web site. Behaviorally targeted ads show based on the perceived interest of a web surfer based on what sites they have visited. People are more likely to click if the ad reflects their interests.So if you have visited several travel sites then you’ll see an ad about travel. This is expensive for smaller retailers but larger brands can target ads based on interest and see a strong response.

In-house email lists are more successful than paid search (and cost significantly less).

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Pop-ups and pop-under ads. These were the worst performer of the year – which comes as a surprise only that marketers still use them. Not one marketer found them successful. They may be effective in a few industries that were probably not represented at ad:tech.

Banner ads. These graphical ads dropped 2% from last year and are down 4% from 2005.

Even with higher costs, most marketers said they plan to spend more on paid ads (PPC, or pay-per-click). That’s good news for Google.

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8 comments on “Online Marketers See High ROI from SEO”

Seomotion Says:

February 12th, 2008 at 3:09 pm

In some Thematics SEO is more expensive than other kinds of advertising. But i want to say – that article is really good.
Michelle Greer Says:

February 13th, 2008 at 4:17 pm

SEM is feeding a meter. Once you stop the campaigns, you lose the benefits. Although SEO does take keeping up with, it at least will have some lasting benefit.
Roger Wilkanson Says:

February 14th, 2008 at 4:41 am

What do you use to determine what to optimise for?

I’m considering signing up for RaSof (http://www.RaSof.com/) to use on my sites.

Does it sound like it works? (Obviously it does to me)
» Website Search Engine Optimization Shows Healthy Returns Website Marketing Journal Says:

February 14th, 2008 at 10:05 am

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Stop Waiting for SEO Heroes and Make Great Stuff | Scott Clark - Finding the Sweet Spot Says:

February 14th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

[...] a good reason. SEOs make great stuff easy to find, to talk about, and to buy, and generally have a good ROI – for companies with something to offer. They should not be expected to make crappy stuff work. The [...]
Weekly Round Up - Stories you Might Have Missed » Hybrid Search Engine Marketing | SEO Consulting to Help Rank Better Says:

February 15th, 2008 at 6:16 am

[...] Online Marketers See High ROI from SEO – Marketing Pilgrim [...]
Alexis Says:

February 15th, 2008 at 11:27 am

I think that in a perfectly competitive market, SEO and PPC costs will ultimately equalize. PPC costs on google are insane lately.
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Web Marketing Research, Part 1 | Blogging Says:

September 15th, 2008 at 8:14 am

[...] Online Marketers See High ROI from SEO by Marketing Pilgrim [...]

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