What the Numbers Say About the Importance of Search Engine Marketing
Here’s a number for you: 100 billion. What’s it stand for? That’s the number of online searches being conducted each month across the globe. Let’s hear it again: 100 billion online searches are conducted globally each and every month. Whoa.
Yeah, that’s a lot of quality search engine time. For businesses it can mean even more, i.e. potential leads, revenue, and “you must be crazy not to do this” marketing opportunities.
According to a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), $9.1 billion in revenue was garnered from search engine advertising in the first half of 2014 alone. This doesn’t even include revenue from mobile searches, which accounted for an additional $2.7 billion. That’s a whopping $11.8 billion earned in just six months. How do you get a piece of that pie? Easy, through better search engine marketing.
Since we can tell you aren’t convinced yet (and everyone loves data, right?) let’s break the benefits of search engine marketing down by the numbers:
- 93%: The percentage of online experiences which will begin with a search engine.
If that whopping 100 billion monthly searching number wasn’t big enough for you, maybe thinking about the fact that nearly all – – as in, more than nine in 10 – – consumers who shop online will begin their journey with a search engine. The simple fact is we love and (Heaven help us) trust Google to point us in the right direction. So if you’re company isn’t coming up in those search results, you’re missing out on major sales opportunities. - 75%: The percentage of search engine users who will never even scroll past the first page.
Your firm does show up in the search results? That’s great! Unless it comes in as number 11, then not so great. Beneath all those paid ads, users typically see 10 search results before being bumped to page two. If you aren’t on that first page, three-fourths of the time, your consumer won’t even see you. All because they’re too lazy to click “Next.” Bummer. - 33%: The percentage of total clicks received by the first result on a given search.
It pays to be number one, especially when ranking in search engine results. In this case, the top dog gets one-third of the bones, according to a study by Chitika, an online ad network. What about the second dog? She gets a less impressive 18%. As one might expect, the number of bones just diminish from there. Getting on the first page is good, but being at the top of the list is even better. - 39%: The percentage of all internet advertising revenue attributed to search engine ads.
Need we say any more about this one? Oh yes, we do. While 39% of internet advertising revenue can be attributed to search engine ads, search engine ads are not the only (or necessarily the best) means of snagging that revenue. Just read the next bullet below. - 70-80%: The percentage of users who will ignore paid ads entirely.
Yep, you read that right. Around three-quarters (or more) of searchers completely skip over the paid ads, even though Google puts them right at the top of their results now. Where do they turn instead? To organic results. Because something that wasn’t paid for must be more trustworthy, right? - 70%: The percentage of clicks that are on organic results.
Are we beating a dead horse with this one, yet? Well, one more swat, then, because this is an important point. It’s not about buying your way to the top (though paid ads can still be a good idea – – remember that giant number from the beginning of this article? No, not 100 billion, though that’s a good number to remember, too. $11.8 billion, the revenue generated by search engine advertising in the first half of 2014.). The vast majority of clicks from search results are given to the organic links.
Moral of the Story
So what does this all boil down to, then? The importance of having an SEO marketing strategy. If you want to increase revenue and lead generation, you need to rank in search results. SEO leads offer a whopping 14.6% close rate as opposed to outbound leads which provide a sad 1.7% close rate. Where would you rather concentrate your efforts?
