SEM Studies & Research

Canadians love surfing the web! According to comScore, Canadians spend more time online than users in any of the countries tracked. Canada has the highest penetration of Internet access too. About 68% of the Canadian population is online, comScore estimated in April 2010, compared to 62% in France and the United Kingdom, 60% in Germany, 59% in the United States, 57% in Japan, and 36% in Italy. Second, online video site users in Canada were also more active in passing videos along to others, and were more likely to have received links to video content. Canadians are significantly ahead of their counterparts in the US and UK by both of these social measures. Both these spell out immense opportunities for the Canadian Marketer! To read more, visit these articles by The Globe and Mail, eMarketer and TechCrunch.

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I seriously thought for a long time that the introduction of the universal search, the additions of videos, docs and so on in search results, would have a tendency to shift importance to the top 10 positions in search results (as opposed to the top 5, the golden triangle as it was popularized by the Enquiro folks). A new study conducted by Chitika shows revealing facts: position #1 provides twice as much traffic than position #2. Bottom position of page 1 is 143% better than top position of page 2, which people only rarely read. Bottom line: if you are not on page 1, in the top 5 positions, you are done. Now, with all the new sites being launched every week, this task become increasingly difficult as it becomes tougher to reach the same positions.

Here is the link to the results of the study:
http://www.searchnewz.com/blog/talk/sn-6-20100601WhatIsTheTrueValueOfTopRanking.html

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NEW YORK, NY - April 27, 2009 - Hitwise(r) , an Experian company, today announced plans to measure Internet usage in Canada. Hitwise will report on 85,000 Web sites across more than 160 industry categories based on the Internet activity of 100,000 Canadian Internet users from all provinces and territories. The Hitwise Canadian data sample comes from partnerships with Internet service providers and opt-in panels.

“In order to grow and protect market share, businesses must have sound data to base decisions on,” said Chris Maher, president of Hitwise. “Hitwise provides the most timely and comprehensive intelligence about Internet usage and will now help marketers better understand the specifics of the Canadian market. And as in all our markets, Hitwise clients will receive the service and support they need to go beyond the data, take action and generate immediate return.”

The Canadian service will provide clients with data on Web sites traffic rankings, Clickstream, search terms and demographic segmentation. Clients also will have access to additional tools to create custom categories, search term portfolios and customized dashboards.

Follow Hitwise Canada on Twitter.

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WAKEFIELD, Mass., April 8, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE)—Online advertisers are embracing new marketing platforms and showing an increasing willingness to pay more for targeted reach through behavioral targeting and local search, and to expand marketing channels through video and mobile search, according to the data findings of the 2008 State of the Market survey of advertisers and agencies by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), http://www.sempo.org.

Social media also continues to build market share as more than 40% of advertiser respondents report they are using in-house marketers to actively promote their brand on social media. Of respondents using social media, Facebook is the leader: more than four out of five advertisers are using Facebook to promote their brand.

SEMPO previously reported that survey findings project 2009 SEM spending to rise to $14.7 billion, with long term spending to reach $26.1 billion in 2013. SEMPO’s detailed online survey by Radar Research was completed by 890 search engine advertisers and SEM agencies and administered via IntelliSurvey, Inc. The executive summary is available to the public online at http://www.SEMPO.org.

“When you look at long term growth of the search marketing sector, it is evident new forces such as mobile advertising and contextual video ads will fuel increased online ad spend. These forces are still in the early stages but clearly the consumer is embracing these new channels with enthusiasm,” notes Sara Holoubek, SEMPO president and corporate strategy consultant.

Here are key survey findings on trends:

Behavioral Targeting:
Respondents are overwhelmingly interested in behavioral targeting opportunities: 75% say they would pay more for clicks targeted to in-market consumers. There is also significant interest in demographic targeting such as age and gender. Advertisers, on average, would pay 10 percent more for demographic targeting and daypart targeting, and 13 percent more for behavioral search targeting. Two in five advertisers said they are not currently targeting or retargeting searchers but plan to in the next 12 months.

Local Search:
Almost a third of respondents has tried locally targeted search ads and thinks “it works great.” About a third (34%) had tried locally targeted search and thought “it works okay.” More than three out of five marketers (62%) are willing to pay a premium of 1%-5% for local targeting, up from two in five advertisers last year. Beyond that, one in five claim they are willing to pay between 6%-10% premiums, dropping from one-third in 2007.

Google and Yahoo Dominate Local Search:
Google AdWords Local Targeting has solidified its lead as the most popular local search advertising program, used by 80% of advertiser respondents. Some 56% of advertisers reported using Yahoo! Search’s Local Match paid placement program.

Video Search:
Some 54% of respondents said they would be interested in contextually targeted advertising attached to video search results. Two in five advertiser respondents claim they want to pay the same for video search as they’re currently paying for traditional search. Among advertisers who report the willingness to pay a premium for video, most prefer to pay 20% or less as a premium.

Mobile Search:
Respondents are also warming up to mobile: some 48% said they would be interested in contextually targeted advertising delivered to mobile search users. Almost two in five advertiser respondents claim they want to pay the same for mobile search as they’re currently paying for traditional search. Among advertisers who report the willingness to pay a premium for mobile search, they show an unwillingness to pay more than 30% premium.

Social Media:
Among advertisers doing social media marketing, more than four out of five are using Facebook to promote their brand. Digg is the second most popular social media site, with more than two-thirds of advertisers using it. Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Technorati round out the most popular sites to promote brands.

“Online advertisers are redefining the touchpoints which extend search and keyword targeting, all of which provide additional opportunities to reach the consumer. We know that consumers don’t look exclusively to search engines for information; while they are communicating they are also gathering information,” says Kevin Lee, SEMPO board of directors member and Chairman & CEO / Co-Founder, Didit.

About the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)
SEMPO is a global non-profit organization serving the search engine marketing industry and marketing professionals engaged in it. Its purpose is to provide a foundation for industry growth through building stronger relationships, fostering awareness, providing education, promoting the industry, generating research, and creating a better understanding of search and its role in marketing.

Representing thousands in over 30 countries, SEMPO has more than 850 members. It represents the common interests of companies and consultants worldwide and provides them with a voice in the marketplace. SEMPO’s education and outreach initiatives are funded in part by Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Superpages.com, ABC Search, SMX and Search Engine Strategies. For more information, or to join the organization, please visit http://www.SEMPO.org.

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2228

About Radar Research
Radar Research is a Los Angeles-based research and consulting firm aimed at the nexus of media, technology, culture and commerce. It was founded by two former Jupiter Research analysts, Marissa Gluck and Aram Sinnreich. Radar conducts research on behalf of both corporate clients and non-profit organizations, such as DoubleClick, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Nielsen//Netratings, the Online Publishers Association and The Norman Lear Center. For more information, please visit http://www.radarresearch.com.

CONTACT: Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, Greg Jarboe, 978 549-9537,

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I just received another great eye-tracking study today conducted by Gord (Hotchkiss) and his team at Enquiro Research. This one was commissioned by Google and it demonstrates that contextual relevancy affects ad value.

Here is a summary from the release:

Business to business (B2B) advertisements which are relevant to their context can lift purchasing intent amongst viewers by up to 36% above a non-relevant placement. This finding comes from a new study commissioned by Google which examines high-level B2B purchasers and effectiveness of Internet advertising as it relates to brand, messaging and recall.

--> Download the 7 page mini-whitepaper

Key findings from the study included:

The test readers’ intent to purchase a particular brand, a key success indicator, is lifted by 24% with relevant ads.  But a non-relevant placement leads to a 12% drop in purchasing intent for that brand - meaning a non-relevant placement can actually hurt the advertiser’s bottom line.

When it comes to remembering the actual message of an ad, users were 52% more likely to recall the details of the ad’s message when they were fed a contextually relevant ad as opposed to a non-relevant one.

Interestingly, the study’s findings show that non-relevant ads stick out more than their relevant counterparts.  Users were 16% more likely to temporarily remember a non-relevant ad, likely due to the “surprise factor” of it being out of context. However, when it comes to actual impact as measured in higher purchasing intent, the contextually relevant ads showed higher value.

High level findings from the study are now available on Enquiro’s research portal, http://www.enquiroresearch.com/whitepapers.

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SEMPO Canada, the Canadian Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (www.sempo.ca), needs your input to help grow the awareness and use of search engine marketing services by Canadian companies and organizations.

To date only 60 companies in Canada have answered the SEMPO Survey on Search Marketing. We’re Canadian, we can do better than that!

Time is running out. We NEED your support to get an accurate and trustworthy sample size.

Please take the time to answer the following survey, now:
http://www.sempo.org/learning_center/research/sempo_research/sempo_2007_state/

Why is this survey so important?
Canadians do not get Search Engine Marketing! We need to know why. There is a lack of understanding of the benefits and value Search Engine Marketing offers. As a result SEMPO Canada, a non-profit division of SEMPO.org, has raised the funds to invest in identifying how Canadian companies view and use search engine optimization and marketing. An international study has been commissioned which is now cross-segmented to include and isolate results specifically from Canadians . The results of this survey will be published by SEMPO in a free report on the status of Search Marketing in Canada. We really need your help to increase the number of Canadian respondents in order to provide valuable feedback to the Canadian Search Marketing Industry as a whole.

Your participation counts more than you think.

If you are willing, we ask you to please blog about this survey. Feel free to use copy from this e-mail or from this blog post.

Lastly, please email people who you know in Canada personally to ask them to take the survey. We appreciate any help you can give us!

With your help, we are hoping to bring the sample size of Canadian respondents up to (at least) 100 in the last week of the survey. Deadline of the survey is February 1, 2008.

More on SEMPO Canada:
SEMPO Canada, the Canadian Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, is a non-profit association working to increase awareness and promote the value of Search Engine Marketing in Canada. This Working Group was founded in November 2006 by Ken Jurina and Alexandre Brabant and focuses on improving the growth, awareness and understanding of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in Canada, including best practices in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Link Building, and Pay Per Click Management, and how it uniquely pertains and is of relevance to Canadians worldwide across any sector, vertical or industry.

Your help means a lot to us in improving the growth of Search Marketing in Canada.

Thank you for your support,

Alexandre Brabant & Ken Jurina
Co-Chairs SEMPO Canada

Canadian Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
www.SEMpo.ca
www.SEMpo.org

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I have been a strong supporter this year of the 4th Annual State of the Search Market Survey. In this role, I would really like if you could take a few minutes of your time and fill out the Survey, especially if your are Canadian. A special portion was created for Canadian advertisers this year and we will soon be able to report back on it and assess the state of the Search Marketing Market in Canada. Here are some great reasons why it’s worth 25 minutes of your time to complete the survey:

You could win a 8 Gb iPod Touch

You could win one free pass to a North American Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference

You’ll be the first to receive the summarized results of North America’s most comprehensive snapshot of the search marketing industry

You need to let Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and the other major search players know your thoughts, observations, and concerns about where search is and where it’s going. We have heard directly from them and they all rely on this survey for information!

The survey is conducted by Radar Research, and all responses are kept strictly confidential. All results are aggregated and anonymized. The more people who complete the survey, the better the data we’ll be sharing with you.

Also, please pass along the invitation to any clients or friends who also use search as a marketing channel - this survey is not limited to SEMPO members.  If you have any questions about the survey, please contact . You can also reach Kevin Lee, SEMPO Director and Survey Team Lead () or Gordon Hotchkiss, SEMPO Chairperson () for more information about the Survey and how the data will be used.

Thanks for your support.

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It is no secret to anyone that Canada is one of the most connected country in the world. Canada is also one of the world’s most advanced online cultures. Broadband penetration is over 60%, and more than 63% of the population uses the Internet. But online advertising has been slow to take off-until now.

The latest Canada Online Advertising report from Research & Markets analyzes the trends that are quickly changing the once slow-to-change Canadian Internet marketing and media world.

According to Laura Wood, Senior Manager from Research and Markets Ltd, online advertising didn’t really take off in Canada, partly because advertisers’ options were limited. Linguistic and cultural differences between French Canada and other parts of the country also initially inhibited online development.

But now the environment is changing and Canadian businesses are recognizing the potential of the Web.

Key questions the “Canada Online Advertising” report addresses:

-How much is spent on Internet advertising and commercial e-mail in Canada?
-What are the prospects for future spending?
-How are search and display options changing for Canada’s online advertisers?
-How does online advertising spending vary in different regions of Canada?
-What factors continue to hold back the development of Canadian online advertising?
And many others.

For a complete overview of this report click on:
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/09313d/canada_online_advertising

If you want to order the Canada Online Advertising report, here are some more info:

Pricing:
Electronic : EUR 744

There are three (3) easy ways to place your order:

1] Order online at http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/09313d/canada_online_advertising

2] Order by fax: Print an Order form from http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/09313d/canada_online_advertising and Fax to +353 1 4100 980

3] Order by mail: Print an Order form from http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/09313d/canada_online_advertising and post to Research and Markets Ltd. Guinness Center, Taylors Lane, Dublin 8. Ireland.

Related report also available from Research and Markets:

Advertising in Canada - http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/09313d/advertising_in_canada

For more information, please contact Laura Wood:

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Every time Gord Hotchkiss, President of Enquiro based in Kelowna (BC) Canada, write an article, you can be confident that he is going to hit the nail right on the head. In his most recent article on Ad Agencies and Search Marketing, Gord mentions that Ad Agencies are far from “getting” search and follow search marketing best practices. Even when they include search, for as little as they do, they miss the mark by a mile. It is especially dramatic when it comes to budgeting for it. Media plans & budgets are based on arbitrary numbers which are not a reflection of comprehensive business objectives. According to Gord, “Search dollars should be the first ones in, not the last. Take as much search inventory as you can get. Judge your costs per acquisition not against your top performing keywords, but against your other channels, both online and offline. If even the marginal search traffic is generating a lower CPA, beg, borrow and steal as much budget as you can and top up search. Only then should you move from “pull” (prospects holding up their hands to purchase through search) to “push” (trying to persuade latent prospects to purchase). Only put restrictions on your search campaign if you’re absolutely certain that another channel can exceed its effectiveness.”

Gord Hotchkiss, Enquiro

For a review of all the benefits for doing Search Marketing, budgeting for it as well providing a perspective on the utilization of search to reach branding objectives, take a minute to read the article.

If you are still up for it, take a minute to read this: Search And the Digital CPG Shelf. It is about the utilization of Search Marketing for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), an area that has historically never used Search Marketing. The findings of the study are quite revealing and will convince the most skeptics. 

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Every Monday morning, I get a newsletter that I truly look forward to receive: The Monday Morning Memo from the Wizards of Ads. Unlike everything else I receive through various sources, The Monday Morning Memo from the Wizard of Ads offers a unique experience in our customers’ brain where Roy Williams dissects the human nature needs, behaviors and give us ways to better connect with our customers with an increased understanding of what they really want to satisfy. In most cases, customers’ needs go way beyond what they would say to define it. You need that extra layer of understanding in order to adjust your offer accordingly. This newsletter is awesome and I heartedly recommend it. 

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I just got another search marketing study today. This one was coming from SEMPO Institute which presents Piper Jaffray’s latest search study. It shows how search is the second most commonly used application on the Web with 550 million searches daily in the United States. They have identified key trends in the search industry which you might be interested in:

Search is the new portal

Search is becoming a branding tool

Google’s dominance is increasing

Local search remains a looming opportunity

New search technologies are likely to expand the field

As far as this study suggests, search reach surpasses any other form of web applications as presented in the graph below:

On the other hand, people spend very little time on search pages, which explains why time spent is so low. The fastest you find what you are looking for, the fastest you leave a common SERP (Search Engine Results Page). If you think about it, this means 2 things. Online users are getting more savvy at searching and spend less time doing it. They use more words to further define their search queries. This is consistent with the trend from the last few years. It also means that Search Engines are getting better at providing relevant search results for a wider range of search queries.

Also, as part of this research, it shows the Online Advertising forecast in the upcoming years:

What does this mean if you are an advertiser?
Since users are using more words to define any given query in a search engine, it means that advertisers would need to build a Search Marketing plan around a wider variety of search terms. Targeting the tail (of search queries) is the term that has been used to describe this concept. It is both a burden and an opportunity since it involves more work from the advertiser (and/or their Search Marketing supplier) but allows them to reach their entire audience on very targeted (niche) search terms. It also means advertisers need to allocate more funds into their Search Marketing plan in order to cover both paid search and organic listings. 

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