Search Marketing – NZ is Catching Up!

Posted 30th September 2009 by Mark Sceats.

NZ marketers are finally realising the value of search marketing.

Latest figures from the IAB show online advertising spend continues to grow & that paid search is now the biggest online marketing channel in NZ.

Hallelujah!

At last we’re starting to catch up with other markets where 50% or more of online spend is invested in paid search.

There are plenty of good reasons for this level of investment. Here are 3:

1. Traffic from search engines – by definition, people actively interested in finding out more about your company & products – is highly valued by marketers. These visitors are more engaged than other site visitors, viewing more than twice the number of pages per session & spending twice as much time onsite.
2. Search engines are now seen by users as an arbiter as to the sites – and brands – of value. In one study by Yahoo! & Compete, 61% of users responded that they expect brand leaders to consistently appear in the top search engine results.
3. In their annual polling of marketers as to the most effective forms of offline & online advertising, both eMarketer and MarketingSherpa have consistently concluded that, along with email marketing, SEO & Paid Search Marketing are the strongest tactics producing the best Return on Investment (ROI).

In summary, the reason marketers are increasingly investing in search is simple – it works! And very cost effectively compared to other channels.

If you’re not doing it yet, maybe it’s time you gave it serious consideration. Your competitors probably are…

Related posts:

1. Search Marketing Predictions For 2010
2. What Is Search Engine Marketing?
3. What’s Best – SEO or Paid Search?

Tags: paid search, search marketing, SEM, SEO