U.S. search marketing budgets up in Q4

Posted by Erina Lin on January 9, 2009 at 7:13 PM

U.S. retail marketing spending increased 12 percent year-over-year on search ad campaigns in the last quarter of 2008, according to a report from SearchIgnite, Media Post reported.

According to Roger Barnette, president of SearchIgnite, most retail marketers allocate their budgets more in the first half of the quarter instead of the second, which was unusual. "In previous years, typically we see retail marketers increase budgets in the second half of the fourth quarter," he added.

Also, retailers increased budgets for paid search by 15 percent in October, and 43 percent in November year-over-year, according to Barnette. Budgets were shrunk in December by 14 percent, compared to the same month in 2007, Media Post reported.

Online transactions increased most in October, which rose 11 percent compared to same period in 2007. In spite of heavy promotions around Thanksgiving, clicks that lead to sales or downloads declined 2 percent in November before bouncing back 4 percent in December.

Most marketers are finally adopting technology to measures campaigns. "They use this information to make calculated decisions on how to invest and how channels influence each other," Barnette said.

This study tracked over 28 million clicks on Google, Yahoo! and MSN during the last two quarters of 2007 and 2008 across retail marketers, all of whom are clients of SearchIgnite or its sister company 360i, Media Post reported.