Companies spending more on paid search and SEO, according to report

Graeme Parton +

A new study has revealed the strong emphasis businesses are now putting on paid search, SEO and social media as part of their marketing campaigns.

According to the UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2013, which was conducted by Econsultancy, the average business currently allocates 24% of its marketing budget to paid search. This is closely followed by search engine optimisation (SEO) at 18% and social media, which takes an 11% share. It’s worth bearing in mind, however, that social media is, by some way, the cheapest of the methods listed.

Researchers also suggested that paid search could become even more important to companies within the next year, with 55% of respondents saying their PPC budget is likely to grow further in 2014. In comparison, 51% of those asked are expecting spending on SEO and social media to increase in the next 12 months.

To obtain the report’s results, researchers from Econsultancy questioned over 500 digital agencies and marketers.

It’s perhaps unsurprising to see companies spending bigger chunks of their marketing budgets on digital techniques. The importance of an online presence is something which cannot be ignored by modern businesses. Here at Pressroom, we were interested to learn that more than half of the survey’s respondents are anticipating extra spending on social media and SEO.

While paid search has obviously captured the minds of many marketers, a healthy and intelligent combination of SEO and social can work wonders for any business, especially those with limited budgets. After putting a business’s name on the first page of Google’s search rankings, it makes sense to maintain interest. This can be achieved with the regular publishing of sharable, engaging content – a process to which sites like Facebook and Twitter lend themselves perfectly.