A new report on paid search engine marketing in the U.S is fuelling speculation that the industry will see growth over 2010.
Key findings from SearchIgnite’s Q4 2009 U.S. Search Market Report show that after a slump in PPC advertising for search early in the year, the industry has recovered across all markets. In December 2009, all markets reportedly saw PPC growth, with 11.8% spent across the board in 2009 when compared with the previous year.
According to the report, this is the first increase in marketing spend across all vertical markets since August 2009. Then the increase was only 0.6%, though it was significant because it universally affected all markets for PPC advertising. The SearchIgnite report also reveals that Bing has seen an increase in its search engine marketing revenue, sequentially gaining 1% over the past year until reaching a peak of 7% in Q4 2009.
This growth is commonly seen as coming at the expense of Yahoo, whose share has fallen from 20% in Q2 to 16% in Q4. Google remained consistently strong in the market, with its fourth quarter share of 77% maintained throughout most of 2009.
Speaking to Media Post, the president and founder of SearchIgnite, Robert Barnette says that he thinks advertisers are more optimistic in 2010 generally and are making provisions for longer marketing campaigns. Barnette says that he expects the first quarter to show the typical slight depression in marketing spend seen each year. His other predictions include heavier investment from Travel and further investments in locally optimised PPC search advertising.
However, Barnette remains sceptical about the impact of the mobile search market in 2010. “Marketers in the US will test mobile in 2010, but [they're] about a year away from any substantial media spend” he says. “Mobile is big in Japan, but that has to do with the advanced capabilities on smartphone. User behaviour in Japan is more advanced, but over time in the next few years, mobile in China and the United States will grow.”
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