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Table of Contents
The Shift from Traditional to Online................................2

Shopping Domino Effect................................................3

Saying Goodbye to Old Ways........................................4

3 Reasons Companies Make the Shift............................5

Search Marketing ROI Case Study.................................7

Final Thoughts.. .............................................................8

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The Shift from Traditional to Online Search Marketing
If someone gave you $2 for a dollar bill, would you do it?
Probably every time, right? How about $25? If someone told
you they’d give you $25 for just a dollar bill, you wouldn’t believe
them. In the end, that’s why more people are making the shift to
search marketing, because the return on investment is really
that big.
Return on Investment is the judge of every marketing endeavor.
The economic troubles in recent years have forced companies to
closely observe every move, to count every penny, and to make
sure each spent marketing dollar brings more dollars back, or in
other words, delivers a big return on investment (ROI).
As a result, marketers have become more selective in choosing
measurable strategies that prove ROI. Many have forgone
Measuring the ROI (Return On Investment) is the number one challenge marketers are facing this year.
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expensive, traditional advertising methods with ambiguous results
for online marketing, which can be tracked, dissected, measured
and analyzed much more efficiently.
There has been a noticeable shift in marketing strategies and
marketing spend. Online search marketing is becoming the go-to,
primary strategy while traditional advertising is now getting the
leftover crumbs of the marketing budget.
This whitepaper will include third-party statistics from SEMPO,
eMarketer and Forrester, as well as SEO.com’s own observations,
which detail trends and paint a clear picture of this shift in
marketing. At the end, more than 80 of SEO.com clients are used
as a case study for showing the ROI of search marketing.
– SEMPO’s State of Search Engine Marketing, 2010
US Search Engine Marketing Spending (SEO, PPC, etc.)
Shopping Domino Effect
There are 14 billion online searches every month,
$25,000 $23,380 and eMarketer claims more than 74% of U.S.
households will have Internet access in 2010. With
that number rising every year globally, millions
more are shopping from their home through a
Millions

computer screen.
$18,102
$18,000

Shopping online seems commonplace today, but

it’s really just in its infancy. Giant eCommerce sites
$14,110 like Amazon.com are now household brands that
seem to have been around forever.
$12,000
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 For a dose of perspective, Amazon.com first
Source: www.eMarketer.com, February 2009 launched its website in 1995 – only 15 years ago
– and now earns an annual revenue of more than
$24 billion. Marketers are paying attention.
US B2B Media Spending, 2005 - 2010 (Millions, % increase over prior
year and share %) Forrester Research said marketers will spend $26
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 billion in 2010 in search and online marketing,
Total
Spending*
$22,285 $23,688 $25,131 $26,740 $28,358 $30,172 which rivals all spending on cable/satellite TV
Online Ad and radio. And almost half of all marketers plan
Spending
$1,537 $1,951 $2,431 $2,912 $3,410 $3,939
to increase online ad spending by decreasing
Online Ad
Spending 24.9% 26.9% 23.7% 20.7% 17.1% 15.5% spending in other channels.
Growth

Online Ad
Spending % 6.9% 8.2% 9.6% 10.9% 12.0% 13.1% 9%
of Total Companies SEO Spending in 2010*
Note: *includes B2B magazine, trade shows and exhibitions, online advertising and online content & communities. Expect to spend more on SEO

52%
Source: Veronis Suhler Stevenson, PQ Media, AdScope, Agricom, American Business media, BPA International,
Center for Exhibition Research, IMS/TheAuditor, PERQ, SRDS, TNS Media Intelligence/CMR, Tradeshow Week,
Expect to spend about the same
39 %
September 2006; eMarketer calculations, November 2006

Expect to spend less

* Source: State of Search Engine Marketing Report

3 2010 in association with SEMPO
 Companies Saying Goodbye to Old Ways
With so many plugged in and a shopping online for almost every product and service, marketers
have responded by pushing more of their budgets online and away from traditional strategies.
Print advertising has seemed to take the hardest hit, and direct mail being a close second.

% of Companies shifting money from

traditional marketing to SEO*

49% Print Advertising

36% Direct Mail

Conferences
24% & Exhibits

11 % 8% 21%
Yellow
Page Ads

18% TV Ads

20
%
Radio
17% Ads

61 %
Average Company Budget for SEO*

Up to $75,000
$75,000 - $250,000
$250,000 - $3 million
4 Will spend nothing on SEO
* Source: State of Search Engine Marketing Report 2010 in
association with SEMPO
 The 3 Core Reasons Why Companies Make the Shift
The reason more and more companies are investing more and more money into search marketing is because of three main
differentiators over traditional strategies: It’s targeted, it’s measurable, and delivers a high ROI.

Targeted
Every month, there are 14 billion online searches.
Many of those searches are for products and services.
Each industry has keywords that are searched on
thousands of times.

Top rankings in the search results will capture a

massive demographic that is looking to buy specific
products. 90% of people click on the first page of the
rankings, especially the top 3 results.

A big difference between traditional marketing/

advertising and digital, is search marketing directly
hones in on a demographic of customers who are
looking to buy a specific product.

While traditional reaches a vast, ambiguous audience,

4%
search marketing reaches the right customers at the
exact moment they want to buy. Traditional marketing 10%
is like blindly casting a wide net.

13%

56%
of users click the
1st search result

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* Source: Cornell University Eye-Tracking Analysis
 3 Reasons Why Companies Make the Shift

Measurable
Tracking the effectiveness of marketing dollars has always The top measurable results companies use
been the bane of advertising and marketing departments. to gauge the success of SEO*
It’s difficult to track how billboards, print ads and TV
commercials bring in customers, and if sales are a direct
result of traditional marketing campaigns. 49% Site Traffic

That’s why marketers are singing praises to the online

marketing, and particularly analytics. Whether it’s PPC, 42% Conversion Rate
SEO, Social Media, or Conversion Optimization, through
analytics, you can track how a particular campaign directly
influences website traffic, leads, and sales. Everyone
involved can see the statistics and can change plans to 37% Number of Sales/Leads
improve performance. It’s something never dreamed of in
traditional marketing.

SEMPO’s survey revealed what companies measure to

32% Position

gauge the success of their marketing campaigns. On the

right is just a snapshot. The top two were site traffic and
Click
the conversion rate. This information gives marketers an 49% Through
extra weapon to tweak their campaigns if needed, and to
prove their success – something traditional marketing is
* Source: State of Search Engine Marketing
not able to accurately provide. Report 2010 in association with SEMPO

Digital marketing offers compelling benefits, especially for cash-conscious companies.

Marketers can more readily measure the results of Internet advertising than with most
traditional media. This produces more-efficient advertising and higher ROI, which in turn
pushes traditional media to compete with lower pricing.
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– eMarketer
 3 Reasons Why Companies Make the Shift
Return on Investment (ROI)
Return on Investment might be the biggest reason
marketers are turning their attention to search marketing.
In its brief time of existence, search is quickly proving to
deliver the largest ROI when compared to traditional.
Good search marketing campaigns achieve a balance
between SEO, PPC, Social Media, and conversion
strategies that drive website traffic and turn that traffic
into sales. When each of those strategies blend together
perfectly, website revenue increases dramatically.
Hubspot, an inbound online marketing platform also
agrees, especially when it comes to lead genereation.
Its “2010 State of Inbound Marketing” report stated
that spending on lead generation is 60% less among
$332
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companies that devote at least on-half of their budget
to online inbound marketing, compared with companies
spending at least one-half of lead generation dollars
on outbound tactics. The average cost per lead from
inbound marketing was also significantly less.
But the questions really are, “What is the entire ROI
of search marketing? When I invest a dollar into good
online search marketing strategies, how many more
dollars will I get back?”
Average cost per lead in North America
Outbound Marketing
i.e. advertising, trade shows, seminars, email marketing,
cold calling, telemarketing
Inbound Marketing
$134 i.e. SEO, PPC, Social Media, Landing Pages, Blogging,
Conversion Optimization
Source: HubSpot, “2010 State of Inbound Marketing.” February 16, 20
ROI – SEO.com Case Study
To determine search marketing’s ROI, SEO.com dove deep into its past clients’ successes and
failures. Eighty-four clients that had been with SEO.com for 6 months or more agreed to share
information. Results varied by industry, size of company and time with SEO.com. Generally,
those that stay with SEO.com longer had better results. The top two clients were left out to avoid
skewing the average.

While this only includes the ROI of SEO.com’s clients, it should also reflect results for any
company that uses good search marketing strategies. As of April, 2010, SEO.com has obtained
first-page rankings for 773,971 keywords that continue to drive traffic and revenue. The clients
were each given a custom strategy using SEO, PPC, Social Media and Conversion Optimization,
which resulted in a return of about $25 for every $1 spent.

SEO.com’s Clients Results for Search Engine Optimization

Average Increase in Traffic 60%

Average ROI 2,479%

Average Increase in Monthly Conversions 113%

Average Increase in Keyword Referral Traffic 161%

On average, every dollar spent on

SEO.com’s services yields $25.
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Final Thoughts
With an average ROI of almost 2,500%, and a strategy that can
be tracked and analyzed to help a company evolve strategies
and improve, it’s no wonder there is a prominent shift in the
marketing world.
If you are interested in a proposal to see how your site is doing
and what we could do to improve you search engine rankings,
website traffic and revenue, contact us today.

Of course, these types of numbers are only achieved if you

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