Marketing Sherpa – 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report: PPC Edition

Are You Ready for a More Competitive, Rapidly-Evolving Search Landscape?

Over the past year the search landscape has become extremely competitive and is drastically changing. The growth of social media – and the impact of mobile search, local search and search partnerships – means remaining competitive in the PPC arena will be an ongoing challenge for marketers in 2011.

Make no mistake – what your competitors are doing in search will impact your PPC performance. You need a comprehensive study based solely on PPC research to help you make informed campaign decisions, face new challenges with real-research and insight, and help you understand what is and isn’t working in search engine marketing.

2011 Search Marketing – Benchmark Report (PPC)

All-New Research and Insight: A study based solely on PPC research to support their campaign decisions

In MarketingSherpa’s 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – PPC Edition you’ll find data on the latest PPC innovations, from keywords to conversions, as well as insights from PPC marketers and agencies on their strategies, challenges and successes.

Due to the complexity and evolution of PPC search marketing, this is the first year that we have publishing a standalone Search Marketing Benchmark Report – PPC Edition. This 190-page report provides you with:

• Primary research survey results, providing the collective wisdom of 2,194 search marketers
• Benchmarks on PPC budgets, objectives, tactics and metrics
• The current and expected future impact of mobile and local search
• Search agencies’ unique perspective on client PPC campaigns
• An overview of the search engine market from industry-leading sources

Special 70-Page Section on PPC Metrics and PPC Tactics

This new edition also takes a deeper look into PPC metrics and tactics with sections on target keywords, best tactics, average PPC clicks, defining a conversion and quality of leads generated by PPC. Learn how to optimize at every stage of the game for paramount returns. This special section also includes:

• Best tactics for improving quality score
• Most commonly-used keyword match types
• Charts showing the effectiveness of PPC tactics
• Marketers insights on PPC successes and challenges

You also receive more than 50 charts of important PPC metrics, based on each search activity from keywords, then clickthrough and ultimately conversion. The PPC Edition gives you the benchmark data you need to formalize a successful PPC process from start to finish.

New Innovations in Paid Search, Including Mobile and Local Search

There are two areas where search engines are releasing innovative improvements on the paid side – mobile and local search. What will be the impact of these new changes and how will they impact organizations in the future? These questions, and more, are answered within the report, where you’ll find:

• New benchmark data on future impact of mobile and local search
• Demographic breakdown by age, gender, industry and organization
• Local search marketing tactics

Top 10 Questions Answered in the PPC Edition:

1. What are the most effective PPC objectives for marketers?
2. When preparing your 2011 budget, what are the new benchmarks to use?
3. What are the best practices for improving your quality score?
4. What is the current state of the search market?
5. What are the expected changes in client PPC budgets?
6. What insights do Web analytics programs provide?
7. Which online marketing tactics are being conducted in-house?
8. What are the latest strategies on keywords, clicks and conversion?
9. How does the effectiveness of PPC vary from organization?
10. What are the greatest successes and challenges in PPC?

What Others Have Said about MarketingSherpa’s Search Marketing Benchmark Report?

“Once again, MarketingSherpa delivers THE definitive benchmark to all things search. But this time they’ve taken it to a completely new level by creating two guides in one; One for SEO and one for PPC. Both provide tactical insights, analysis and commentary from industry insiders that allow you to take the actions needed to remain competitive.”

-Jim Kukral, author of Attention! This Book Will Make You Money

“This is the fifth annual Search Marketing Benchmark Guide that Marketing Sherpa has produced, but it’s unlike any of the others I’ve seen. It’s far more comprehensive and detailed, pulling together stats compiled by Marketing Sherpa as well as “best of” research from more than 50 respected research partners. The result is nearly 300 pages of no-fluff data, with 215 charts, tables and eyetracking heatmaps covering just about all aspects of search marketing.”

–Chris Sherman, Managing Editor, SearchEngineLand

2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – PPC Edition Summary Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: PPC Benchmarks (p. 12-122)

• Budgeting for PPC
• Online marketing budgets
• Perceptions of PPC at budget time
• Increasing PPC budgets
• Clicks are the greatest PPC expense
• Google dominates PPC budgets
• Investing in PPC
• PPC target objectives
• Perceptions on the most effective PPC objectives
• Marketing insights: PPC strategy development
• PPC metrics
• Step 1: Keywords
• Marketer insights: Best tactics in improving quality score
• Step 2 : Clicks
• Step 3 : Conversion
• PPC tactics-Optimizing every stage of the game for paramount returns
• The effectiveness of PPC tactics
• Marketer insights: PPC successes and challenges

Chapter 2: PPC Resources (p. 123-131)

• Majority of online marketers practicing tactics in-house
• Web analytics programs provide premium insights for PPC

Chapter 3: Mobile Search (p. 132-143)

• The current impact of mobile search
• The expected future impact of mobile search

Chapter 4: Local Search (p. 144-159)

• Local search currently having a significant impact
• Local search has reached maturity as a marketing tactic
• Local search tactics

Chapter 5: The Search Engine Market (p. 160-167)

• Google holds their place at the top of the search market
• Bing and Yahoo! alliance aims to even the playing field
• Search and social partnerships

Chapter 6: Agency Perspective (p. 168-173)

• Increasing client budgets
• Agencies rank the effectiveness of PPC tactics
• Agencies’ clients performance in quality score
• Agency insights: PPC successes and challenges