YNOT – The North American search marketing spend will grow by 16 percent during 2011, to $19.3 billion from 2010’s $16.6 billion, a recent report prepared by Econsultancy and the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization predicts.

According to the 2011 “State of Search Marketing Report,” a significant percentage of the 900 participating companies worldwide now use Facebook. Just under half of respondents said they employ Facebook for pay-per-click campaigns — 47 percent of those in North America and 45 percent outside the U.S. and Canada. The rising popularity of Facebook is even more apparent within agencies. Nearly three quarters of North American agencies (74 percent) and two thirds of those outside the U.S. and Canada (69 percent) indicated their clients use Facebook for paid search campaigns.

The rise of the mobile internet is having the most impact on search marketing, according to the survey. Local search is the next most significant trend, yet primarily from the perspective of agencies. Respondents also indicated the growing importance of behavioral targeting.

The number of companies doing search engine optimization, paid search and social media marketing in-house has decreased, with more marketers seeking help from service providers.

“The healthy growth reported for the industry in 2011 — surpassing the 14 percent growth in 2010 — is gratifying,” SEMPO President Chris Boggs said. “The industry is evolving to encompass much more than the search engines. The increasing role of social media is re-shaping the industry in surprising ways.”

Stefan Tornquist, U.S. research director at Econsultancy, added, “A mature industry maintains a balance between today and tomorrow. Search engine marketers have learned how to roll with algorithm shifts and price increases and are constantly improving their efficiency. At the same time, they’re taking the time to focus on the emerging opportunities where search, social and mobile meet.”

Among the study’s other findings:

• 40 percent of respondents said the growth of the mobile internet was “highly significant,” an increase from 26 percent last year. A further 39 percent said it was “significant.”
• The next most important trend is local search, according to agencies. According to agencies, 34 percent of client search budgets is spent on local PPC advertising (i.e. at a regional, city or sub-market level).
• Client-side advertisers are not yet affected by local search as much as their agency counterparts. Local, on average, represents just under a quarter (23 percent) of client-side search budgets, which is significantly less than the agency average (34 percent of client budget).
• Beyond PPC, the percentage of companies using Facebook more broadly for promoting themselves now stands at 84 percent, up from 73 percent last year.
• Three quarters of companies use Twitter to promote their brands, while 52 percent use business networking site LinkedIn. More than a quarter of North American companies now run PPC campaigns on LinkedIn.
• Only 44 percent of companies now carry out SEO campaigns in-house, compared to 51 percent last year. Only 38 percent of companies are doing paid search marketing in-house compared to 47 percent last year, and only 55 percent are doing social media marketing in-house, compared to 62 percent last year.
• The proportion of companies indicating that behavioral targeting is highly significant or significant now stands at 78 percent, up from 68 percent last year.

The annual study, now in its seventh year, comprises an aggregation of information provided by organizations from 66 different countries, from marketers across a range of business sectors and types of agency. The report was based on an online survey, conducted in February and March 2011, which SEMPO and Econsultancy promoted to their respective members and to search marketing professionals. A copy of the report is available here.