Search Engine Marketing: Good News in a Down Economy

04/12/2002

Despite the reduced revenue estimates for online advertising, one vehicle that bucks the ad-spend trend is search engine marketing (called “keyword search” by the Interactive Advertising Bureau). For example, spending for this format jumped from $123.73 million in 2000 to $301.91 million in 2001 — a 144.0% gain. One reason for this growth: Companies are finding that search engine marketing is today’s best interactive tool for driving carefully targeted audiences to websites.

Looking at the IAB spending figures on a quarterly basis, you can see the nearly steady rise up to $131.2 million in the second quarter of 2002.

The quarterly growth rate figures reveal some large jumps, such as 59.9% in the third quarter of last year. And even in the current recessionary market, keyword search revenues increased by 7.0% and 23.3%, respectively, in Q1 and Q2 2002. (segue)

By David Hallerman