According to the new eMarketer Search Engine Marketing report, US paid search ad spending growth peaked in 2003, but it will exceed one-third of all online ad spending next year.
Online search’s exceptional targeting capability is why eMarketer expects advertising via paid search to surpass $2.5 billion in 2004 and reach nearly $3 billion by the end of next year.
At that point, nearly 35% of the total online ad spend will go to search. eMarketer feels that spending growth has peaked, but will continue to grow slowly and soundly with additions to the Search Engine Marketing world such as local search and possibly social networking search advertising.
Other analysts point to similar, or even greater, upswings for search spending.
* Forrester Research’s Charlene Li sees spending on paid search at about $1.7 billion in 2003, growing about 40% to $2.4 billion this year, and predicts growth will taper off into the middle or low teens in 2007 and 2008.
* US Bancorp Piper Jaffray’s Safa Rashtchy — who covers the search market closely — forecasts online search becoming a “$7 billion industry worldwide by 2007.”
* Yahoo!’s Jeff Weiner, senior vice president for search, said at the November 2003 Ad:Tech conference in New York that paid search spending will reach “four to five billion in the US alone” in a few years.
More on the eMarketer report
