2015 State of Search Industry Report. SEMPO Research Committee

Transcription

1 2015 State of Search Industry Report SEMPO Research Committee

2 Table of Contents About State of Search Report... 3 Objective Methodology Partners & Sponsors Key Findings... 8 Words of Wisdom Respondent Profiles Type of Organization Business Focus Geography Size of Organization by Employee Number Size of Organization by Revenue Job Title Experience Additional Findings About SEMPO About the Organization About the Research Committee 2

3 About State of Search Report 3

4 Objective SEMPO is proud to present our 10th Annual State of Search Report. For an industry that is constantly evolving, this report remains a touchstone for digital marketers looking to assess where they stand today and where they should be looking to succeed tomorrow. Our unique approach of surveying and segmenting results for both marketers and agencies provides perspectives and insights not easily found in other reports. Every year, we review the contents of the previous survey to evaluate the usefulness and success of questions to determine which will be removed and what new questions will be added. We also include suggested questions from previous survey takers to ensure that the survey remains relevant and on-trend. 4

5 Methodology The State of Search Marketing Report is based on an online survey of over 500 respondents from client-side marketers/advertisers and agency/consultants. The survey was originally fielded in late SEMPO, Search Engine Land and Marketing Land promoted the survey to their respective community, offering a complimentary copy of this report as an incentive for taking part. Detailed respondent breakdowns including type of organization, respondent roles, business focus and business sector are included on slides titled About Your Organization. We would like to thank those who took the time to complete the questionnaire, and also SEMPO members who promoted the survey to their clients and colleagues. 5

6 Thank You Thanks to our partners Marketing Land and Search Engine Land for their hard work in developing and fielding and Acronym for their hard work in analyzing the data for this report. Thanks to our global sponsors Google and Baidu whose continued support in SEMPO makes it possible to complete these initiatives. We also want to acknowledge SEMPO s Research Committee, and Marc Engelsman and Nathan Safran as the Research Committee Co-Chairs specifically, for their leadership in spearheading the changes (and continuity) that make this annual report so valuable. And, finally, thanks to our members and sponsors for their participation and for their continued commitment to advancing search marketing best practices as part of today s integrated digital marketing mix. 6

7 Thank You Research Partners: Global Sponsors: 7

8 Key Findings 8

9 Words of Wisdom As with our past State of Search surveys, this year s report provides some interesting comparisons between Agencies and Marketers. Some of the findings will not be a big surprise and/or will be viewed as confirmation of what we have suspected individually. For example, the continued rise of investment in Google for Paid Search and the growing view of Yahoo as not relevant or the various levels of ROI by marketing channel. Other findings point to more significant differences between Agencies and Marketers in terms of specialization, use of tools, and perhaps more controversially, levels of compensation. We look forward to the discussions that invariably follow release of the report and any feedback on how we can continue to make it valuable for our peers in the industry. 9

10 Search still leads digital marketing efforts; Marketers outpacing agencies in ; Mobile efforts lower than expected Which of the following types of activity does your organization carry out? 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 94% 92% 85% 84% 83% 84% 78% 74% 75% 65% 57% 62% 70% 54% 50% 86% 63% 48% 42% 50% 30% 20% 10% 0% Search Engine Optimization Paid Search Advertising Social Media Marketing Social Media Advertising Digital Display Marketing Marketing Mobile Marketing Agency or Consultant Marketer/Client 2013 Results

11 More investment in paid search. Google domination growing; Yahoo no longer relevant Are you investing more or less in the following search engines than a year ago? 60.2% 60.2% 44.9% 43.4% 31.1% 31.8% 37.1% 36.7% Yahoo! Google Bing 24.6% 15.2% 11.6% 3.1% More The Same Less Not Relevant

12 Agencies relied on for more expertise in specialized segments of paid search If you manage digital advertising, on which of the following media do you pay to advertise? Google AdWords (Google search) 71.6% 79.4% Google AdWords (Search network) 63.5% 70.1% Bing (Microsoft) 46.6% 51.6% Marketers Google content network (keyword targeted) 45.7% 61.8% Agency Google content network (site targeted) 38.0% 54.4% Yahoo! Search 33.2% 29.4% Yahoo! Content network 12.5% 15.7% Other 8.7% 7.4% Yahoo! Local search 6.7% 11.3% Baidu 2.9% 6.3% AOL 1.9% 4.1% Business.com 1.4% 3.6% LookSmart 1.0% 0.8% Ask.com 1.0% 1.6% Kanoodle 0.5% 0.3% MIVA 0.5% 1.1%

13 Marketers comfortable handling social in-house, but Are marketers managing social media profiles in-house? Are agencies managing social media for clients? 21.2% 42.6% 57.4% 78.8% Yes No Yes No

14 Agencies more likely to be using social advertising on Facebook Which social platforms are marketers and agencies using most? 58.0% Marketers Agency 30.5% 24.4% 19.8% 13.0% 8.6% 14.7% 15.2% 7.4% 2.5% 3.7% 2.2% Facebook Ads Facebook Promoted Posts YouTube Ads LinkedIn Ads Twitter Promoted Tweets Other

15 Agencies managing more second tier image-oriented social channels 16.5% 15.8% 15.7% Which platforms are used most for managing branded social profiles and/or communities? 14.1% 13.6% 13.1% 13.4% 11.7% 10.8% 12.2% 10.4% 8.8% 6.7% 7.5% 6.1% 5.5% Agency Marketer 2.5% 1.9% 1.9% 1.7% 1.2% 1.1% 1.0% 1.3% 1.0% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.6% 0.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.2% 0.6% 0.0%

16 Have we reached comfort level with integrated ROI? Not so much for Display and Social How would you describe your ability to measure ROI from marketing? Good Fair Poor Don't Know 90% Measured ROI 80% 6% 4% 5% 15% 17% 18% 9% 70% 22% 8% 17% 29% 60% 67% 36% 30% 45% 44% 36% 40% 50% 40% 30% 20% 29% 22% 10% 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 M E D I A S O C I A L M E D I A M A R K E T I N G 0% Paid Search SEO Display Media Social

17 Marketers have limited staff and allocate personnel based on average ROI How many people have responsibility for digital marketing? How many people have responsibility for specific initiatives? 22.6% 31.1% 93.6% 91.6% 90.1% 79.5% 79.7% 70.7% 66.1% 10.5% 6.1% 6.1% 12.6% 10.0% 1.1% 6.4% 9.2% 9.9% 20.5% 20.3% 29.3% 33.9% Don't Know Social media marketing Display media Paid search SEO We use an integrated team approach Other marketing efforts

18 SEO Challenges: Marketers ROI, Agencies Budget/Integration/Buy-In What are the greatest challenges in managing search engine optimization efforts? Measuring the ROI of our SEO efforts 14.2% 18.4% Staying abreast of search engines' indexing algorithms and technology 10.3% 13.0% Optimizing destination pages 4.4% 11.5% Getting budget for SEO efforts Integration, attribution, and measurement with other online/offline marketing channels Making the business case for investment 10.7% 10.1% 13.1% 9.1% 11.2% 17.0% Marketer Agency Researching and choosing optimal keyword phrases 3.8% 8.5% Hiring and retaining talent 7.3% 9.9% Obtaining executive buy-in 7.1% 11.5% Determining whether to do SEO in-house or outsource to an outside firm 4.3% 4.7%

19 Paid Search Challenges: Marketers Destination Pages, Agencies Budget and Talent What are the greatest challenges in managing paid search marketing efforts? Getting budget for paid search efforts Determining whether to do SEO in-house or outsource to an outside firm Optimizing destination pages 16.3% 15.4% 16.1% 13.8% 13.1% 20.9% Measuring the ROI of our SEO efforts 8.5% 13.6% Researching and choosing optimal keyword phrases Staying abreast of search engines' indexing algorithms and technologies Obtaining executive buy-in 5.9% 7.5% 4.3% 7.5% 8.0% 10.0% Marketer Agency Hiring and retaining talent 6.3% 11.8% Making the business case for investment 5.4% 7.2% Integration and measurement with other online/offline marketing channels 4.3% 4.3%

20 Social Challenges: ROI and Budget What are the greatest challenges in managing social media marketing efforts? Measuring the ROI from social media efforts 22.1% 26.4% Agreeing upon campaign metrics 15.6% 14.2% Integration and measurement with other online/offline marketing channels 10.1% 14.4% Getting budget for social media efforts 14.4% 19.3% Marketer Agency Obtaining executive buy-in 9.3% 14.9% Hiring and retaining talent 7.8% 9.0% Determining whether to do social media in-house or outsource to an outside firm 6.1% 7.4%

21 Agencies more likely to use tools for SEO Marketers Do you use technology with bid management for digital campaigns? 7.2% 12.1% 29.1% 6.7% 44.8% No, we manage campaigns campaings with tools like Excel Yes, our services provider has a proprietary tool Yes, we have a proprietary (inhouse) solution Yes, we license a tool from a third party vendor for use inhouse Other (Marin, Kenshoo) 28.40% Do you use technology with link analysis for search engine optimization? 22.10% 6.30% 43.30% Yes, we license a tool from a third party vendor for use inhouse Yes, we have a proprietary inhouse solution Yes, our service provider has a proprietary tool No, we manage SEO with tools like Excel Agencies 26.4% 19.2% 54.4% No, we manage campaigns campains with tools like Excel Yes, we have a proprietary tool Yes, we license a tool from a third party vendor for use inhouse 36.5% 14.5% 49.0% 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

22 Third Party Tools Digital Campaigns Marketers like Marin, Kenshoo Marin AdStage AdWords Editor Salesforce WordStream Kenshoo DataPop Epsilon MediaForge Swiftpage ACT! Adobe Media Optimizer Hootsuite AMO InsideVault Nanigans Doubleclick 22

23 Third Party Tools Digital Campaigns Agencies like Marin, Kenshoo, DoubleClick, Acquisio Marin Kenshoo Google AdWords WSI Paid Search Adobe Media Optimizer WordStream DoubleClick Acquisio HootSuite Raven BrightEdge SearchForce 23

24 Third Party Tools SEO Marketers like Moz, BrightEdge, SEMrush Moz Conductor Searchlight GetSTAT ScreamingFrog BrightEdge AWR SearchMetrics SEO Clarity GWT Raven SEMRush Ahrefs Google Analytics AdWords DeepCrawl SpyFu 24

25 Third Party Tools SEO Agencies like BrightEdge, Moz, Raven, SEMrush BrightEdge Moz WebCEO STAT Raven SEMRush ScreamingFrog Majestic 25

26 Marketers lean toward pay-for-performance models; Agencies prefer fees What is the typical fee structure you use to pay digital service providers? Marketers Agencies 15.1% 13.7% 12.2% 11.7% 11.3% 12.9% 12.5% 13.1% 13.2% 19.8% 19.2% 22.1% Time and materials Flat agency fee 28.9% 20.5% 33.6% 24.4% 20.9% 41.6% 2.8% 15.3% 18.5% 14.1% 15.2% 21.6% 17.6% 5.4% 16.1% 20.0% 17.6% 9.3% 10.8% 22.4% 11.1% 6.0% 16.0% 10.9% 10.0% 12.1% 9.1% 12.2% 18.2% 17.2% 27.6% 19.0% 18.8% 10.3% 8.7% 9.3% Display Social Media Paid Social Paid Search SEO Fee per click Percentage of media spend Commission Comission for sales Commission Comission for other marketing objective Not Relelvant 27.1% 27.5% 29.3% 32.2% 5.1% 7.0% 40.8% 4.2% 1.9% 42.3% 4.2% 27.1% 2.8% 1.7% 24.8% 31.7% 1.2% 5.6% 2.9% 1.3% 1.5% 1.2% 2.6% 1.3% 28.3% 1.6% 2.4% 15.9% 16.2% 4.6% 5.4% 13.1% 2.8% 3.5% 5.6% 3.5% Display Social Media Paid Social Paid Search SEO

27 Agencies claim higher fees. 78% of Marketers are saying they spend under 12% 72% of Agencies are saying brands spend 9-20% For fees, what is the typical percent you pay on top of ad budget? Marketers Agencies 27.5% 23.2% 22.7% 24.2% 15.9% 11.6% 11.6% 12.8% 12.3% 4.3% 0.0% 1.4% 1.4% 2.9% 1.9% 6.6% 6.2% 3.8% 5.7% 3.8% Less than 3% 3-5% 6-8% 9-11% 12-14% 15-17% 18-20% 21-23% 24-26% More than 26% Less than 3% 3-5% 6-8% 9-11% 12-14% 15-17% 18-20% 21-23% 24-26% More than 26%

28 Respondent Profiles 28

29 Type of Organization Which most accurately describes the organization you work for? 2015 Results 2013 Results 36% 64% Agency or consultant Marketer/Client 37% 63% 2014 n= n=402

30 70% Business Focus; Fewer firms in mainly B2C, many focus on both Does your business operate primarily in the B2B or B2C space? 60% 59% 62% 54% 50% 40% 41% 30% 29% 29% 25% 32% 20% 21% 20% 14% 13% 10% 0% B2B and B2C Equally Mainly B2B Mainly B2C Agency 2015 Agency 2013 Marketer 2015 Marketer

31 Geography In which country are you based? Which region generated the majority of revenue? 6% 4% 3% Agency Marketer 9% 73% 11% 67% 72% 18% USA Other UK Canada India Australia 19% 8% 8% N O R T H 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 T H A M E R I C A

32 Size of Company by Number of Employees; Marketers organize in larger firms How many employees are there in your organization? Agency Marketer 29% 11% 31% 41% 39% 15% 16% 14% 2% 3% < >

33 Size of Company by Revenue Approximately how much revenue did your company generate in the last fiscal year? 60% % 30% 30% 50% 14% 40% 18% 25% 20% 23% 21% 30% 32% 20% 10% 0% 43% Less than $1M 17% 29% 15% 10% $1M-$10M $11M-$100M $101M-$1B Agency Marketer 19% 4% Don't Know 15% 10% 5% 0% 12% Less than $1 million 13% $1m - $10m $10m - $100m $100m - $1 billion More than $1 billion

34 Job Titles Titles by Agency vs. Marketer Titles by Total Audience* 31.3% 46.0% 21.9% 12.2% 13.6% 15.0% 6.1% 25.9% 25.9% 18.7% 19.4% 18.2% 17.2% Analyst Manager Director VP C Level Other 12.1% 10.6% 6.1% Director Manager C Level Other Analyst Agency or Consultant Marketer/Client Percentages represent number of relevant responses divided by total number of respondents for each category, marketers and agencies. *Hard numbers above titles indicate total number of respondents for each category. 34

35 Specific Job Titles Web Designer/Developer Website Administrator Content Creator Content/Marketing Strategist Internet/Digital Media Consultant President/VP Media Executive Account Executive/Lead SEO/AdWords Specialist Digital Marketing Specialist CMO Penalty Recovery Specialist Marketing Coordinator Head of Digital Marketing Principal/Owner 35

36 Analyst C Level Director Manager VP Other Experience by Organization/Title Years of experience by organization Job title by years of experience and organization Marketer/Client 27% Agency or consultant 35% Marketer/Client Agency or consultant 19% Marketer/Client % 11+ Agency or consultant % 17% Marketer/Client Agency or consultant Marketer/Client % Agency or consultant 17% Marketer/Client Agency or consultant 15% 18% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 36 Agency or consultant Marketer/Client

37 Additional Findings 37

38 Social Advertising investment by marketers this year vs. last; more firms targeting Facebook Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Pinterest 10% 18% 6% 24% 67% 28% 9% 29% 26% 6% 39% 28% 31% 8% 38% 47% 26% 11% 34% 17% 38 M O R E T H E S A M E L E S S N O T R E L E V A N T

39 Challenges Marketing Metrics, Talent and Funding What are the greatest challenges in managing marketing efforts? Agreeing upon campaign metrics 14.2% 22.9% Determining whether to do social media in-house or outsource to an outside firm 17.1% 21.8% Optimizing destination pages 12.8% 17.1% Getting budget for media efforts 9.9% 19.0% Marketer Measuring the ROI from display efforts 9.1% 10.3% Agency Hiring and retaining talent 5.9% 8.8% Integration and measurement with other online/offline marketing channels 6.9% 11.2% Obtaining executive buy-in 3.3% 9.6% 39

40 Conversion traffic and lead scoring; Marketers avoid third party licenses Do you use technology with "conversion traffic" for reporting and analysis? Do you use technology with "lead scoring" to integrate digital activities with offline marketing? 19.7% No, we manage reporting and metrics tools available for free from the properties themselves 22.8% No, we manage reporting and metrics tools available for free from the properties themselves Yes, our services provider has tools they let us use 49.2% Yes, our services provider has tools they let us use 56.3% 24.0% Yes, we license a tool from a third party vendor 28.1% Yes, we license a tool from a third party vendor for user inhouse Marketers 40

41 Third Party Tools Conversion Traffic: Google Analytics is the heavy favorite for marketers Google Analytics Act-on Adobe Analytics Daddy Analytics Salesforce IBM Analytics/CoreMetrics Travelclicks Solutions Site Catalyst Omniture Mediaplex GA Premium Visual IQ Silverpop Domo 41

42 Third Party Tools Conversion Traffic Google Analytics pervasive for Agencies Google Analytics Acquisio Kenshoo Marin AWR HubSpot visualiq Adobe Media Optimizer Moz Raven 42

43 Third Party Tools Lead Scoring Marketo favorite for marketers Marketo LeadLander Journey Builder Act-ON Hubspot SearchForce Eloqua Epsilon Adobe Campaigns Microsoft Dynamics/CRM SalesForce Pardot 43

44 Third Party Tools Lead Scoring HubSpot, Pardot, Marketo favorites for agencies Marketo HubSpot SalesForce Act-On AdWords Pardot Eloqua SharpSpring SilverPop LeadSquared 44

45 Digital Advertising Are marketers managing digital media in-house? 25.50% Are agencies managing digital media for clients? 19.0% 74.50% Yes No 81.0% Yes No 45

46 Marketers Service Providers Do you use more than one service provider? 39.9% If yes, how many different providers do you use? Yes 37.3% 60.1% No 30.1% 22.9% 9.6%

47 Marketers Service Providers SEO specialist What types of service providers do you use for digital marketing? 10.8% 3.1% 4.6% 73.8% Web design company 9.1% 18.2% 51.5% PR firm Search agency In-house 6.3% 6.3% 3.2% 15.6% 15.6% 11.1% 18.5% 15.1% 14.1% 19.1% 31.3% 28.6% 26.4% 33.1% 39.7% SEO Paid search Social media Display Digital marketing agency Advertising agency 10.5% 12.2% 12.2% 17.1% 18.1% 17.1% 24.7% 29.5% 41.5% Social media agency 4.8% 7.1% 11.9% 69.0% Paid search specialist 3.5% 7.0% 7.0% 12.3% 70.2% 47

48 Agencies Client Billings Flat fees/time and materials popular What is the typical fee structure used to charge clients for digital marketing services? 3.5% 5.6% 3.5% 2.8% 5.4% 4.6% 2.4% 1.3% 13.1% 1.6% 2.6% 16.2% 15.9% 1.2% 1.5% 1.3% 2.9% 5.6% 1.2% 28.3% Not relevant 42.3% 31.7% 24.8% 27.1% 1.7% 2.8% 4.2% 1.9% Commission for other marketing objective 7.0% 4.2% 40.8% 5.1% 32.2% Commission for sales Percentage of media spend 27.5% 29.3% 27.1% Fee per click Flat agency fee 41.6% 20.9% 24.4% 33.6% 20.5% 28.9% Time and materials SEO Paid search Paid social Social media Display 48

49 Agencies and marketers both utilize post scheduling free from properties Do you use technology with post scheduling for social properties? 26.8% No, we manage social media with tools available for free from the properties themselves Marketers Yes, our services provider has a tool they let us use 56.9% 16.3% Yes, we license a tool from a third party vendor for use inhouse 31.6% No, we manage social media with tools available for free from the properties themselves Yes, we have a proprietary solution Agencies 13.5% 54.9% Yes, we license a tool from a third party vendor for use in-house

50 Third Party Tools Social Properties: HootSuite heavily utilized by marketers HootSuite Facebook Scheduler Sprout BufferApp BuzzSumo Sysomos Simply Measured Act-On Tweetdeck Mention Revinate Spreadfast 50

51 Third Party Tools Social Properties HootSuite heavy favorite for Agencies HootSuite Sprout Social Raven Falcon Buffer Kenshoo HubSpot Radian6 Sysmos Heartbeat 51

52 Challenges in Display Marketing What are the greatest challenges in managing display marketing efforts? Measuring the ROI from display media efforts 21.0% 25.0% Getting budget for social media efforts 16.2% 18.7% Integration and measurement with other online/offline marketing channels 14.3% 13.7% Optimizing destination pages 8.1% 11.5% Marketer Agreeing upon campaign metrics 11.0% 11.8% Agency Obtaining executive buy-in 9.6% 10.9% Hiring and retaining talent 6.3% 9.8% Determining whether to do social media in-house or outsource to an outside firm 6.0% 6.1% 52

53 Social Advertising Are agencies managing advertising on social properties for clients? Are marketers managing social media properties in-house? 33.80% 35.10% 66.20% 64.90% Yes No Yes No Percentages represent number of relevant responses divided by total number of respondents for each category, marketers and agencies. 53

54 About SEMPO 54

55 About SEMPO SEMPO is a global non-profit organization serving the search engine marketing industry and marketing professionals engaged in it. Our 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. SEMPO was built to serve the needs of modern digital marketers. Our focus since inception has been on the core tenets of search: SEO, SEM and CRO. But just as the industry has expanded, so too has our focus. SEMPO now covers social, local, mobile, content marketing, analytics, and more. SEMPO produces industry research, live events including Member Forum and SEMPO Cities, online events including monthly Google Hangouts with industry leaders and regular webinars, career resources, member blog, member-directed and so much more. 55

56 About SEMPO Research Committee The SEMPO Research Committee is tasked with conducting primary research on the impact and importance of search as part of an integrated marketing toolbox, as well as with engaging in research regarding related issues. SEMPO's annual State of Search Marketing Report is unique in the way it comparatively tracks agency and marketer opinions on the evolving strategic role of search in today s digital marketing mix and the issues impacting its tactical implementation. Industry members benefit and learn from this data and use it to spur dialogue between consultants, clients, and vendors involved with growing digital marketing initiatives. Together with other industry surveys and case studies, we learn from where we have been and plot our collective direction. 56