2015 State of Search Industry Report

SEMPO Research Committee

2

Thank You

Global Sponsors:

Research Partners:

Which most accurately describes the organization you work for?

2013 n=4022014 n=573

Type of Organization

63%

37%

2013 Results

64%

36%

2015 Results

Agency or consultantMarketer/Client

4

Business Focus;Fewer firms in mainly B2C, many focus on both

B2B and B2C Equally Mainly B2B Mainly B2C0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

59%

21% 20%

29% 29%

41%

62%

25%

13%

54%

14%

32%

Agency 2015 Agency 2013 Marketer 2015 Marketer 2013

Does your business operate primarily in the B2B or B2C space?

Which region generated the majority of revenue?

Geography

67%

11%

9%

6%4% 3%

USA Other UK Canada India Australia

In which country are you based?

No r th A m e r i c a E u r o p e A P A C A f r i c a S o u th A m e r i c a

72%

19%8%

73%

18%

8%

Agency Marketer

How many employees are there in your organization?

Size of Company by Number of Employees;Marketers organize in larger firms

<1 0 1 0 - 1 0 0 1 0 1 - 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 - 5 0 0 0 >5 0 0 0

41% 39%

15%

2% 3%

11%

29%

31%

16% 14%

Agency Marketer

Which of the following types of activity does your organization carry out?

Search still leads digital marketing efforts; Marketers outpacing agencies in Email; Mobile efforts lower than expected

Searc

h Eng

ine Opti

mizatio

n

Paid S

earch

Advertis

ing

Socia

l Med

ia Mark

eting

Socia

l Med

ia Adve

rtising

Digital D

isplay

Marketi

ng

Email

Marketi

ng

Mobile

Marketi

ng0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100% 92%84%

74%65% 62%

50% 48%

94%83% 84%

57%

70%

86%

42%

85%78% 75%

54%63%

50%

Agency or Consultant Marketer/Client 2013 Results

Are you investing more or less in the following search engines than a year ago?

More investment in paid search.Google domination growing; Yahoo no longer relevant

More The Same Less Not Relevant

15.2%

31.1%

44.9%

60.2%60.2%

31.8%

11.6%

3.1%

24.6%

37.1%

43.4%

36.7%Yahoo!GoogleBing

How many people have responsibility for digital marketing?

How many people have responsibility for specific initiatives?

0 1 2 3 4 5-10 10+ Don't Know

22.6%

31.1%

10.5%

6.1% 6.1%

12.6%10.0%

1.1%

Social

media m

a...

Display

medi

a

Paid s

earch SEO

We use

an int

egrat.

..

Other m

arketi

ng ...

Email

93.6% 91.6% 90.1%79.5% 79.7%

70.7% 66.1%

6.4% 9.2% 9.9%20.5% 20.3%

29.3% 33.9% 0-45-7

Marketers have limited staff and allocate personnel based on average ROI

What are the greatest challenges in managing search engine optimization efforts?

Measuring the ROI of our SEO efforts

Staying abreast of search engines' indexing algorithms and technology

Optimizing destination pages

Getting budget for SEO efforts

Integration, attribution, and measurement with other online/offline marketing channels

Making the business case for investment

Researching and choosing optimal keyword phrases

Hiring and retaining talent

Obtaining executive buy-in

Determining whether to do SEO in-house or outsource to an outside firm

18.4%

13.0%

11.5%

10.7%

10.1%

9.1%

8.5%

7.3%

7.1%

4.3%

14.2%

10.3%

4.4%

17.0%

13.1%

11.2%

3.8%

9.9%

11.5%

4.7%

AgencyMarketer

SEO Challenges: Marketers ROI, Agencies Budget/Integration/Buy-In

How would you describe your ability to measure ROI from marketing?

Have we reached comfort level with integrated ROI? Not so much for Display and Social

2012 2013 20140%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Measured ROI

Paid Search SEO EmailDisplay Media Social

P a i d S e a r c h S E O E m a i l D i s p l a y Me d i a S o c ia l Me d i a Ma r ke t i n g

67%

45% 44%29%

22%

22%

36% 30%

36%40%

5% 15%

8%17% 29%

6% 4%17% 18%

9%

Good Fair Poor Don't Know

44.8%

29.1%

7.2%

12.1%

6.7% No, we manage cam-paings with tools like Excel

Yes, our services provider has a proprietary tool

Yes, we have a proprietary (in-house) solution

Yes, we license a tool from a third party vendor for use in-house

Other (Marin, Kenshoo)

Do you use technology with “bid management” for digital campaigns?

Do you use technology with “link analysis” for search engine

optimization?

Marketers

Agencies

43.30%

6.30%

22.10%

28.40%

Yes, we license a tool from a third party vendor for use in-house

Yes, we have a proprietary in-house solution

Yes, our service provider has a proprietary tool

No, we manage SEO with tools like Excel

54.4%

19.2%

26.4%

No, we manage campains with tools like Excel

Yes, we have a proprietary tool

Yes, we license a tool from a third party vendor for use in-house

14.5%

49.0%

36.5%

No, we manage SEO with tools like Excel

Yes, we have a proprietary solution

Yes, we license a tool from a third party vendor for use

Agencies more likely to use tools for SEO

What is the typical fee structure you use to pay digital service providers?

Marketers Agencies

Email Display Social Media

Paid Social Paid Search SEO

27.6%

10.3%19.0%

8.7% 9.3%18.8%

11.1%

12.2%

12.1%

18.2% 17.2%

9.1%

16.1%

16.0%6.0% 10.9%

22.4%10.0%

14.1%

20.0%

9.3% 10.8%

5.4%17.6%

2.8%15.3%

21.6% 17.6%15.2%

18.5%

13.2% 12.5%19.8% 22.1% 19.2% 13.1%

15.1% 13.7% 12.2% 11.7% 11.3% 12.9%

Time and materials

Flat agency fee

Fee per click

Percentage of media spend

Comission for sales

Comission for other marketing objective

Not Relelvant

Email Display Social Media

Paid Social Paid Search

SEO

28.3%

15.9% 16.2% 13.1%5.6% 3.5%

1.7%

1.5% 1.2%1.6%

2.8% 3.5%

2.8%

2.9% 1.3%2.6%

4.6% 5.4%

4.2% 27.1%

5.6%

24.8% 31.7%

2.4%

1.9%

5.1%

1.2%

4.2%7.0%

1.3%

32.2%

27.1%

40.8%

29.3%27.5%

42.3%

28.9%20.5%

33.6%24.4% 20.9%

41.6%

Marketers lean toward pay-for-performance models; Agencies prefer fees

Less than 3%

3-5% 6-8% 9-11% 12-14% 15-17% 18-20% 21-23% 24-26% More than 26%

15.9%

27.5%

11.6%

23.2%

11.6%

4.3%

0.0%1.4% 1.4%

2.9%

For fees, what is the typical percent you pay on top of ad budget?

Marketers Agencies

Less than 3%

3-5% 6-8% 9-11% 12-14% 15-17% 18-20% 21-23% 24-26% More than 26%

1.9%

6.6% 6.2%

22.7%

12.8%

24.2%

12.3%

3.8%5.7%

3.8%

Agencies claim higher fees.78% of Marketers are saying they spend under 12%72% of Agencies are saying brands spend 9-20%

15

Marketers– Service ProvidersSEO specialist

Web design company

PR firm

Search agency

In-house

Digital marketing agency

Advertising agency

Social media agency

Paid search specialist

73.8%

51.5%

31.3%

28.6%

18.5%

17.1%

12.2%

11.9%

7.0%

10.8%

6.3%

39.7%

15.1%

18.1%

17.1%

4.8%

70.2%

3.1%

9.1%

15.6%

26.4%

33.1%

24.7%

69.0%

12.3%

4.6%

18.2%

6.3%

11.1%

14.1%

29.5%

41.5%

7.1%

7.0%

15.6%

3.2%

19.1%

10.5%

12.2%

3.5%

EmailDisplaySocial mediaPaid searchSEO

What types of service providers do you use for digital marketing?