What happened in the UK PPC and SEO market 2009/10

Recent research by the Internet Advertising Bureau in the UK revealed some astonishing figures relating to the Growth, reach and levels of understanding that decision makers have of the Internet and Internet Marketing.

The online questionnaire was completed by 91 of the top 100 Brands in the UK. What they had to say was truly jaw dropping.

As far as the size of the market is concerned It comes as no surprise to see that once again the UK market has grown as it has since 1994 and now generates in excess of £2 Billion of marketing spend as measured at the end of 2009.

One of the questions asked was Do you feel you have enough information about the following?

Surprisingly 80% of respondents felt they had a handle on PPC, 80% felt they were comfortable in their knowledge of SEO.

Yet 50% didn't seem to know enough about Google's content network.

Only 30% said they understood Social search, video search and Universal search.

Efficiency was always going to be high on the priority list given the economic downturn. Here's what they said.

40% thought that click costs were too high and 35% felt that they converted their ads poorly.

35% said that time was a concerning factor in that they didn't have the time to manage it properly.

20% said they simply couldn’t track their results and conversions properly.

On average 39% of the company’s marketing budgets were for Digital marketing.

Of which 20% was spent on SEO and 13% was spent on PPC.

86% employ a marketing agency to look after PPC and SEO for them.

72% don't have a realistic budget for PPC and SEO.

83% of the spend goes to Google, 10% to Yahoo, 5% to Bing and 2% on others.

Over 50% didn't feel that qualifications for SEO staff were important.

58% said they didn't have enough data on what happens with the spend.

61% said there web site was underperforming.


So to sum up most people asked said they knew what they were doing but then revealed that they could do better if they knew how. In the main most of them didn't think they had access to enough data to help them make better decisions on their marketing.
Budgets are expected to remain fairly static during 2010. Efficiency in controlling spend and results would appear to be a big focus point right now.

Adastra Technology will be releasing a new service in September that will allow any individual or business using PPC to see a different side of Internet marketing. The tool is low cost and will help thousands of businesses focus their spend whilst making savings by lowering wastage and improving efficiency.



Recruiting Search Staff and retaining them seemed to be a cause for concern as well with employers not thinking qualifications were that important.