A little-known fact among marketers is that spending on search accounts for half of all dollars spent on online marketing. With the search marketing industry expanding nearly 30% globally (even with the slowing economy) – fact, tactics and trends change rapidly. Don’t assume that today’s information is the same as last year’s – it’s not!

MarketingSherpa’s Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2009 is the fifth annual edition, and has been completely re-researched and rewritten to accurately reflect today’s search marketing landscape. This real data can only help companies better plan budgets and forecast results.

New Research Highlights

Nearly 2,000 search marketers were surveyed to provide the top 5 insights for 2009.

Find out:

• The impact of analytical tools on search budgeting strategies
• How search advertising affects brand metrics
• Impact of mobile search, geotargeting, and local search on local
  business markets
• Effect of new analytics tools on the industry
• What analytics are critical to follow to improve campaign performance

MarketingSherpa’s Benchmark Guide has relevant data for small, medium and large B-to-B and B-to-C companies.

• Real-life results based on varying budgets and tests
• How the world searches and shops
• Tactical spending changes for 2009
• Trends of online advertising in relation to traditional marketing
• The relationship between SEO and Public Relations
• Ratings of the top search properties
• The real issues of click fraud
• How search ROI stacks up against other marketing
• The true averages of CPC in the major search engines

The 2009 edition is our biggest ever, with 170 charts, 45 tables, 12 heatmaps and analysis that can help you:

• Evaluate your budgets in relation to current economic conditions
• Justify and defend your PPC and SEO budgets
• Determine economics of outsourcing vs. in-house search operations
• Forecast results – including clicks, conversion and costs – more
  accurately
• Discover practical tips on measurement
• Select result-driven SEM tests
• Determine click fraud
• Train new staff more easily

Your new Benchmark Guide includes two Special Reports:

Special Report 1: The Branding Effect of Search Advertising

Over the last few years, many of the biggest advertisers on the planet have been quietly testing the brand effectiveness of search ads. The scope of these tests makes them difficult to execute, so they’re fairly rare. This special report finally begins to reveal the effectiveness of search ads as a branding vehicle.

Special Report 2: Heatmapping Baidu to Understand
Chinese SERP Viewing

Get detailed explanation on Baidu page layout and what works and doesn’t work in China search marketing. Take a closer look at the dramatic differences in Chinese viewing patterns between Google US, Google China, and Baidu and find out which common rules that you follow may be a big mistake in China.

Hundreds of questions answered in the Search Marketing Benchmark Guide. Here are just 10:

1. Am I budgeting enough or too much for SEM in relation to the rest of my marketing budget?
2. What is the real impact of landing pages on conversions?
3. What’s the first thing consumers do when they land on a retail site?
4. How can a change in my internal search engine improve my site’s conversion rate?
5. How are merchants policing affiliates and search?
6. Why would I want to bring SEM in-house and why would I want to continue to outsource it?
7. If I want to do business in China or India, is click fraud something I should worry about? Also, is it important to translate my site?
8. What should my conversion rate be for PPC vs. SEO listings?
9. What do mobile internet users search for? What response should I expect from a mobile ad?
10. Is the search marketing salary boom slowing?