Search marketing booms in Q4
Search marketing has enjoyed a strong fourth quarter of 2007, according to new search market analysis from RBC Capital Markets and SearchIgnite.
Yearly growth in total search marketing spend was found to be as high as 26.6 per cent, while figures for the quarter also revealed companies in the retail sector the quickest on the uptake, with a 43.9 per cent inter-annual growth rate.
Quarter-over-quarter spending increases for the retail sector were even as high as 72 per cent, suggesting that high street retail’s slowdown this winter had not affected the proceeds of paid search to the same extent.
Jordan Rohan, managing director of RBC Capital Markets, said: "The strength in retail category ad spend evident in the SearchIgnite data suggests that search may not be as tied to economic forces, in the near term, as some people had feared."
Roger Barnette, president of SearchIgnite, added: "It was a strong quarter for search marketers across the board. While there was particular strength in retail spend, all industry segments that we monitor showed strong year-over-year growth."
Yahoo!’s market share of media spend was seen to have declined over the quarter, while Google gained one per cent and cemented its place at the top of search marketing.
