Search engine marketing survey in France (Zdnet / ImiTiki)

[PR Weaver]

On February 2005 Zdnet (Cnet) France and Imitiki organized a search engine marketing survey. This survey was mainly targeted to people that play any role in promoting their websites in search engines.

540 people have completed this brief survey.

Zdnet and ImiTiki have just posted the results of this survey. As this survey is in French I have decided to translate it in English: View results in English

If you know similar surveys in the US, Europe or anywhere in the world do not hesitate to post it, it will be interesting to compare it.

[andrewgoodman]

Unfortunately these numbers do not surprise me. Even amongst an active, relatively savvy group, the adoption of more advanced tactics is quite low, and the commitment to spend on paid search, tracking tools, etc., is still "behind" where it needs to be.

I recently took a survey of my newsletter readership. A particularly plugged-in group. Nearly all self-identify as "PPC Advertisers."

I asked which ROI/conversion tracking tools people were using.

29% of these were doing "no tracking." Based on my experience talking with people I'd estimate that if you scratched the surface, another 10-15% would doing such a poor job of it that they were essentially not doing it at all.

Of the 15% who claim they're using Google's free conversion tracker, I suspect nearly half are not actually using it at all. Sometimes I'll talk to people who say they're using Google's AdWords tracking tool when they are in fact using just the regular account interface to check on CTR's etc.

On the spending side, where I think of $2,000/mo. as a "low end" PPC spend for a serious smaller business online, a great deal of advertisers are in the "below $1,000/mo." category. What burns me up about this is that many continue to see it as a cost. If it is a cost to your business, it should be $0 that you're spending.

Finally, I've noticed that advertisers are quite eager to jump all over a particular tracking solution if it is FREE. Many won't take 10 minutes to read and understand the difference between a basic log analyzer, basic conversion tracking, and more advanced services. So in too many cases they have no idea really what they are getting for their money (or no money as the case may be). Wilfully failing to address the potential value of a tracking tool means that many will resist shelling out even $30-40 per month on a third-party ROI tracker. Free is nice, but if your online business makes any sense at all, then $30-40 is pocket change. People spend more on their virus software.

So past characterizations by Jupiter Research that many search marketers remain "unsophisticated" are accurate, IMHO. More than that, they are too "cheap." Larger businesses will come in and overspend eventually in this space, like they do everywhere else. The time for the small to midsized business to take advantage of search is sooner rather than later.

For the 50% of marketers who are tracking and spending appropriate amounts, it's a lucky thing, perhaps, that the other 50% are so slow to act.

A related discussion that might be fun to have would be to consider some larger businesses who seem to be throwing lots & lots of money and resources at SEM, but are not seeing great results.

[AussieWebmaster]

Originally Posted by andrewgoodman

A related discussion that might be fun to have would be to consider some larger businesses who seem to be throwing lots & lots of money and resources at SEM, but are not seeing great results.

I can tell you that we are getting close to hitting the wall... and if it were not for foreign traffic I would be looking for banner buys...
This way I can wait and let the users grow a little and also then retest the terms I have worked out of circulation.
Can't wait for MSN to jump in to the fray... give me another 6-12 months of bing really busy and having a new source of search traffic.

We have been seeing great results... it is the wall that has slowed it down... and that scares me as eventually the wall will also be part of the reason pricing etc. starts climbing.

[johnbeau]

I am looking into launching a financial product (share dealing ) in France and wonder if anyone has any great suggestions or experiences that I might find useful. Cheers, John

[AussieWebmaster]

Originally Posted by johnbeau

I am looking into launching a financial product (share dealing ) in France and wonder if anyone has any great suggestions or experiences that I might find useful. Cheers, John

answered this in your other post - well started a dialogue - try and keep questions to one spot