Search Engine Marketing Blog: piloSEO

At least according to the latest MarketingPilgrim ad:tech Survey. In the latest survey they asked the biggest Internet marketers which tactics worked for them and what they planned to spend the most on in the coming year. In terms of greatest Return on Investment SEO scored the highest for 2007 and had the largest jump from the previous year. In 2006 45% of marketers claimed SEO was their best ROI vehicle and that number jumped 12% in 2007 with 57% of marketers rating it the highest. The previous leader was Paid Search with 49% claiming it their best ROI performer in 2006 but that number dropped to 34% in 2007. Email marketing finished second for 2006 and 2007. Here is a visual representation of the survey results.

Courtesy of MarketingSherpa

Why did SEO jump and Paid Search Drop so much?

The reasons are varied. Paid search has become more competitive so the prices continue to rise. This means margins are smaller and the return on investment is shrinking. Paid Search is an incremental marketing method which means that no matter how well a campaign performs the marketer has to pay for every click. SEO is a long term investment with a hefty cost up front but as the efforts mature and propogate across the search landscape the returns grow while the costs decrease exponentially. As quality SEO efforts begin to take hold the marketer will spend less and less thus increasing the ROI more and more each month.

SEO is well worth the initial investment

Many marketers and business owners are shocked when the see what they consider a high price for SEO. Quality SEO carries a heft up-front expense. It is well worth the cost though. Once that work is done the cost is minimal to nonexistent and the traffic keeps coming (and in many cases continues to grow). Unlike Paid Search, which requires the marketer to keep paying and if they stop the traffic does too. Investing in SEO is a long term strategy that continues to pay dividends long after the initial investment has been recouped. And that is not me saying it. The professionals who are paying for SEO services are increasingly telling us the same thing and the MarketingSherpa survey bears that out.

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