The Search Agency’s Quarterly State of Paid Search Report Shows Bing Continues to Gain Market Share; Retail Advertising Remains Strong after the Holidays

LOS ANGELES - The Search Agency, a global online marketing firm and the largest independent U.S. search marketing agency, released its quarterly State of Paid Search Report, which found that total search advertising spend across Google and Yahoo!-Bing increased 21.6 percent year-over-year, in addition to other findings. The quarterly report analyzes aggregated client data from various industries to identify paid search marketing trends across search engines and devices on a year-over-year (YoY—Q1 2012 to Q1 2013) and quarter-over-quarter (QoQ—Q4 2012 to Q1 2013) basis.

“2012 was a strong year for search advertising, and mobile and tablets helped drive this growth exponentially. Bing has been ferociously working to grab market share from Google, particularly battling it out on tablet devices”

“2012 was a strong year for search advertising, and mobile and tablets helped drive this growth exponentially. Bing has been ferociously working to grab market share from Google, particularly battling it out on tablet devices,” said Keith Wilson, vice president of agency products at The Search Agency. “The study also showed tablets continue to be a driving force – consumers are hitting the tablets to shop and buy, with tablet performance steadily increasing over the past five quarters. I don’t see this slowing anytime soon.”

Additional findings from The Search Agency’s State of Paid Search Report include:

Paid search spend increased 22 percent YoY

Despite seeing impressions down 4 percent YoY, a 15 percent increase in search click-through rate (CTR) lead to an 11.7 percent increase in overall clicks. Coupled with an 8.8 percent YoY increase in CPC, total advertiser spend across Google and Yahoo!-Bing increased 21.6 percent.

Bing takes more of Google’s overall market share, including tablets

After four consecutive quarters of a relatively consistent market share split between Google and Bing, Bing’s share of advertiser spend grew to 21 percent, up 3.6 percent YoY and 3 percent QoQ. Bing saw strong growth on tablets, increasing its share of spend from 10.6 to 15.3 percent YoY.

Smartphones and tablets remain strong

Consumers increased click volume on smartphones by 86 percent YoY. And despite a 10.4 percent drop in smartphone CPC, total advertiser spend on smartphones was up 68 percent YoY. Total spend on tablets went up 135 percent YoY.

Retail still strong – even after the holiday season

The retail industry saw tremendous growth on mobile and tablets YoY. Smartphone click share for retail increased 78.2 percent YoY and 69.9 percent QoQ. Tablet click share increased 71.8 percent YoY and 13.5 percent QoQ. In particular, tablet share grew consistently over the past five quarters and click traffic from smartphones and tablets for the retail and e-commerce sector was larger than any other vertical in the study – which looks at consumer and business services, media and entertainment, real estate and construction, travel and leisure – with 39.6 percent of clicks.

Product Listing Ads (PLA) gaining ground on smartphones and tablets

Clicks on PLA increased enormously YoY and PLA clicks coming from smartphones and tablets increased 100 percent and 59.7 percent QoQ, respectively. Tablets came in at 9.9 percent of PLA clicks last quarter. For the first time, likely due to improvements to format and visibility on newer models, smartphones made up more than 2 percent of PLA clicks.

To uncover key trends for the Q1 2013 State of Paid Search Report, The Search Agency extracted client data from search engine advertising tools. The research sample included advertisers who had 15 consecutive months of data with The Search Agency, and had an established and stable business model from Q1 2012 to Q1 2013. All results are based on U.S. campaigns only.

To download the report, go to http://www.thesearchagency.com/classroom/research/.

About The Search Agency

The Search Agency is a global online marketing firm that combines high-tech and high-touch strategies to help clients engage their customers online and measure ROI beyond a reasonable doubt. With a deep-rooted history in paid search and SEO, The Search Agency understands how activity on the web intersects at search, and executes smart digital marketing strategies that drive measurable results across multiple platforms. Services include Paid Search, SEO, Landing Page Optimization, Display Media, Social Media and Comparison Shopping Management, which are strategically leveraged to maximize the efficacy of clients’ integrated marketing campaigns. The company is one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing search marketing firms – named the largest independent U.S. search marketing agency by Advertising Age and among Deloitte’s 2011 Technology Fast 500™. Founded in 2002, The Search Agency has grown to more than 180 employees worldwide with headquarters in Los Angeles, CA, and additional offices in San Francisco, East Greenwich, Baltimore, Tampa, London, Sydney, Toronto and Bangalore. For more information, go to http://www.thesearchagency.com.

The Search Agency Unveils Fully Automated Solution to Enable Businesses to Run Search Campaigns that are Both Profitable and High Quality

LOS ANGELES - The Search Agency, a global online technology and marketing firm and the largest independent U.S. search marketing agency, announced the release of AdMax Local for the US Market, the first fully automated platform that enables resellers of paid search to price, build, manage, optimize and report on high quality, hyper-local search campaigns for multiple businesses at scale. Available in the European and Asian Pacific markets since 2009 AdMax Local has been deployed with tens of thousands of international clients, driving returns that far exceed the industry average for large-scale local search campaigns.

Designed for marketing agencies, media resellers, franchisors and other businesses looking to add search engine marketing to their service portfolio or improve the performance and profitability of their existing SEM business, AdMax Local frees businesses from being forced to choose quality search campaigns over profitable campaigns. For the first time, US businesses have an alternative to the traditional Agency model of SEM management, and are now able to automate all aspects of an SEM campaign–from sales, deployment and account creation, to bidding and management—while still running high-quality, hyper-local campaigns.

“Until now, it’s been difficult—if not impossible–for businesses to build and run a search marketing program that is both high quality and scalable, let alone drive a profit from the programs,” said Ben Gibson, global managing director of AdMax Local and international agency services, The Search Agency. “Historical models resulted in either ineffective and untargeted campaigns, or quality campaigns that were run at a loss. AdMax Local has proven to solve these issues abroad, and we look forward to providing the same solution for US service providers and resellers of digital media.”

Features of the AdMax Local Platform Include:

• Industry’s first end-to-end SEM solution: AdMax Local enables businesses to automate everything from sales flow, ad placement and targeting to campaign management and optimization.
• No-waste budget management: Pricing and budget management functionality means that advertisers can maximize budget allotments without losing unspent dollars.
• Advanced SEM functionality: Developed based on The Search Agency’s extensive search expertise, AdMax Local delivers quality and hyper-local campaigns that deliver better results for end advertisers.
• Platform agnostic: Platform enables local advertisers to effectively manage inventory from various search engines, including Google and Bing.

“With AdMax Local, The Search Agency is introducing a completely new approach to paid search management. We have been looking for years for a tool like this, and we are finally able to extend our relationships with existing clients to run high quality and highly profitable search campaigns,” said Steve Bridge, president, Elements Local. “And who better to introduce the solution than The Search Agency, an organization that has a history steeped in both search and local, and longstanding relationships with the leading search engines?”

More information on The Search Agency and the AdMax Local product can be found at http://www.thesearchagency.com/admaxlocal/.

About The Search Agency

The Search Agency is a global online marketing firm that combines high-tech and high-touch strategies to help clients engage their customers online and measure ROI beyond a reasonable doubt. With a deep-rooted history in paid search and SEO, The Search Agency understands how activity on the web intersects at search, and executes smart digital marketing strategies that drive measurable results across multiple platforms. Services include Paid Search, SEO, Landing Page Optimization, Display Media, Social Media and Comparison Shopping Management, which are strategically leveraged to maximize the efficacy of clients’ integrated marketing campaigns. The company is one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing search marketing firms – named the largest independent U.S. search marketing agency by Advertising Age and among Deloitte’s 2011 Technology Fast 500™. Founded in 2002, The Search Agency has grown to more than 180 employees worldwide with headquarters in Los Angeles, CA, and additional offices in San Francisco, East Greenwich, Baltimore, Tampa, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto and Bangalore. For more information, go to http://www.thesearchagency.com.

Europe’s leading digital marketing event is packed full of essential content to help digital marketers navigate the changing digital landscape

SES London 2013

LONDON - SES London 2013 kicks off next week at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. Europe’s leading digital marketing event, which will be held from 18-21 February, features three days of must-see conference sessions that cover the latest on everything from Mobile, Big Data, Content Marketing, Real-Time Bidding, and much more.

In addition to being packed full of essential content to help digital marketers navigate the digital landscape, SES London 2013 also features a two-day expo featuring leading vendors in the industry, along with a host of networking opportunities from Meet the Experts Roundtable Forums to a Networking Cocktail Reception on Tuesday evening.

“London has proven its ability to put on big events over the last 12 months, and we look to continue that trend as we host SES London,” said Jon Myers, a member of the SES Advisory Board as well as Vice President and Commercial Director EMEA for Marin Software. “We see a recurring theme amongst sessions this year, which looks at integrating search marketing campaigns into your wider media mix,” he added.

“We’ve also decided to reduce the number of speakers in each panel session to two people, plus a moderator. This means each speaker will have 25 minutes enabling them to share more expert tips and go deeper into more advanced levels of insight on their specialist subject,” Myers concluded.

Among the must-see sessions at the SES London 2013 are:

• Link Building in a Post-Penguin World – Developing and executing a link-building strategy, even after the Penguin update, does not have to be a daunting task if you separate it into internal and external strategies.
• The Age of Big Data & the Modern Marketer – The shift of marketing pounds online and the increasing role of social media have ushered in the era of Big Data, in which marketers must effectively mine and analyse massive amounts of data and respond to changing business needs instantly.
• Next-Generation Site Architecture – We all know how to develop sites to be search-engine friendly, but how do we architect sites for the rapidly evolving cross-media challenges of social-media, real-time, and user-generated content?
• Enterprise Level SEO – As SEO has elevated itself into a position where it impacts the entire way a company works, practitioners of SEO in large organisations have to battle with the challenges of education, budgeting and implementation.
• Living in a ‘Smart’ World – How Mobile and Tablets are Shifting User Behaviour – Whilst over half of Facebook and Twitter users are now coming from smart devices, what are the opportunities for brands around Social, Mobile and Location?
• SEO Tools Deep Dive – Both paid and natural search in the modern-day require technology to automate manual processes and give deeper insight into search data.
• Using RTB to Drive Customer Acquisition & Revenue – As digital marketing becomes increasingly multichannel, data-driven, and real-time, smart brands need to realise the power of data and programmatic buying as part of a multichannel digital strategy to drive customer acquisition and revenue.

About SES London 2013

With its “best ever programme,” places will be in high demand and close to capacity. To book last-minute tickets now, go to SES London rates and registration details. For group discounts for 4 or more delegates, call +44 (0)870 240 8859 or email Sophie.Eke@incisivemedia.com.

About Incisive Media

Incisive Media’s SES Conference & Expo is a leading global education conference and training series focused on the digital marketing industry. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include ClickZ for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch, which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness. For more information, visit http://www.incisivemedia.com/.

Mike Proulx, Senior VP and Director of Social Media at Hill Holliday and author of Social TV, to keynote at SES New York 2013

SES New York 2013

NEW YORK - SES Conference & Expo series announced that Mike Proulx, Senior VP and Director of Social Media at Hill Holiday and author of Social TV, will be the opening keynote speaker at SES New York 2013. The leading event for experienced marketing and advertising professionals will take place March 25-28, 2013, at the New York Marriott Marquis.

“SES is produced and presented by a team dedicated to ensuring you get the best information, education, and value for money,” said Mike Grehan, publisher of Search Engine Watch and ClickZ and producer of the SES international conference series. “At SES New York, we’ve made some big changes to create a blockbuster agenda featuring Mike Proulx and other top industry experts.”

The opening keynote is entitled, “Social TV: How Marketers Can Reach and Engage Audiences by Connecting Television to the Web, Social Media, and Mobile.” Proulx will examine the changing television landscape and illustrate how brands must approach the medium once labeled “traditional” as new media.

According to Proulx, the convergence of television with the web, social media, and mobile has put our long-standing beliefs about TV at a crossroads with our modern behaviors around the medium. Social media has created a new and powerful “backchannel”, fueling the renaissance of live broadcasts. Mobile devices allow us to watch and interact with television whenever and wherever we want. And “connected TVs” blend web and television content into a unified big screen experience bringing us back into our living rooms.

Proulx is a Senior Vice President and the Director of Social Media at Hill Holliday, a renowned advertising agency based in Boston, where he leads a team with a focus on cross-channel integration, emerging and social media. He has spent the last 17 years working at various interactive, high-tech, and new media companies on the agency-side, client-side, and as an entrepreneur. He has spoken at dozens of events and has been widely featured in the press including The New York Times, Fast Company, TV Guide, Forbes, BusinessWeek,Mashable, and NPR.

Proulx conceived, produced, directed, and co-host the TVnext summit, which took place in early 2011 and 2012. He is the co-author of Social TV, a best-selling book from Wiley publishing that launched in February of 2012. He is also the host of the social TV web series, The Pulse on Lost Remote. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Bentley University and in 2012 was named the Ad Club’s Media All Star.

SES New York 2013 offers an Early Bird discount of up to $600 for those who register for a conference pass by Feb. 21, 2013. Group discounts for 4 or more pass holders from the same company are also available by contacting german.chavez@incisivemedia.com and are the best value for the lowest price possible.

About SES New York

The SES New York conference includes informative presentations and panels, intensive training workshops, and a large exhibit hall. Each day is choreographed to leave plenty of time for networking opportunities with industry associates. Its real-time case studies provide attendees with best-practice knowledge that can be immediately applied to their marketing programs, and its classroom-style learning offers a high degree of interactivity.

SES New York stands out from other events because it carefully hand selects a committee of industry experts, who listen to what the attendees want to learn about. The result: customized and comprehensive content that you can’t get at any other conference. For more information, visit http://sesconference.com/newyork/.

About Incisive Media

Incisive Media’s SES Conference & Expo is a leading global education conference and training series focused on the digital marketing industry. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include Click for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch, which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness. For more information, visit http://www.incisivemedia.com/.

Two ‘Meet the Experts Roundtable Forums’ give attendees a unique opportunity to learn, network and share information with their peers and leading industry specialists

SES New York 2013

NEW YORK - The SES Conference & Expo series today announced that experienced marketing and advertising professionals who attend this year’s SES New York, which takes place March 25-28, 2013, at the New York Marriott Marquis, will be able to “Meet the Experts” at the leading search and social marketing event in the industry. This includes hearing from the industry’s thought leaders and leading practitioners who will speak at three morning keynotes, 53 conference sessions, 15 theater presentations in the Expo Hall, and 7 onsite training workshops. It also includes the opportunity to “Meet the Experts” during two roundtable forums.

“As many thousands of past attendees are aware, getting to meet the expert speakers for some one-on-one time is one of the most valuable elements of the conference,” said Mike Grehan, Group Publishing Director at Incisive Media. “So, we’ve made it even easier.”

He added, “Our ‘Meet the Experts Roundtable Forums’ give attendees a unique opportunity to learn, network and share information with their peers and leading industry specialists. With a choice of several roundtable discussions, each focusing on different key topics and featuring 2 experts, these opportunities should not be missed. Simply choose the roundtable most pertinent to you and join the discussion!”

Grehan concluded, “Attendees can also move freely between different roundtables to make sure they get the most out of this session. After Tuesday’s Meet the Experts Roundtable Forum, they can take their conversation and new contacts to our networking cocktail reception where they can continue the discussion over a few drinks. Or, after Wednesday’s Meet the Experts Roundtable Forum, attendees can take their conversation and new contacts straight into our networking luncheon where you can continue the discussion!”

An Early Bird discount of up to $600 is available for those who register for a conference pass by Feb. 21, 2013. Group discounts for groups of 4 our more pass holders who are from the same company and register at the same time are also available.

About SES New York

The SES New York conference includes informative presentations and panels, intensive training workshops, and a large exhibit hall. Each day is choreographed to leave plenty of time for networking opportunities with industry associates. Its real-time case studies provide attendees with best-practice knowledge that can be immediately applied to their marketing programs, and its classroom-style learning offers a high degree of interactivity.

The SES New York agenda, programmed by the SES Advisory Board, is designed to help online professionals with better strategies and best practices. This year, specific consideration has been given to mobile marketing, Big Data, Web analytics, Email marketing, Display advertising, content marketing, and e-Commerce. Visit http://sesconference.com/newyork/ for more information.

About Incisive Media

Incisive Media’s SES Conference & Expo is a leading global education conference and training series focused on the digital marketing industry. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include ClickZ for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch, which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness. For more information, visit http://www.incisivemedia.com/.

SES London 2013

LONDON –  SES London is Europe’s leading digital marketing event, covering the latest trends and challenges facing the online marketing industry. The three day event is packed full of essential content to help you navigate the digital landscape with guidance from leading experts on Search, Social Media, Display, Mobile, Email and more.

Keynote presentations from Europe’s most prodigious digital advocates include Dave Coplin, Microsoft UK’s Chief Envisioning Officer, who will take us on an intriguing journey through the changes in technology explaining how they are linked to changes in society. Dara Nasr, Twitter’s Head of Agency Sales, will explain how people connect through shared interests and how brands are using Twitter to push their campaigns even further.

The keynote presentations will be followed by a daily programme of compelling sessions and panel debates, delivered by a stellar line up of speakers from leading vendors and UK brands, including; Argos and Moneysupermarket.

Some of the key sessions introduced this year include:

The Age Of Big Data and The Modern Marketer
Understand how Big Data will impact your business and how to leverage the latest advancements in technology,

Remarketing And Retargeting – The Right And Wrong Way
Discover what to do—and what not to do—when executing remarketing campaigns. Whether you’re interested in search retargeting or site retargeting this session will have it covered.

Using RTB to Drive Customer Acquisition And Revenue
Andy Mihalop from Moneysupermarket will show how the financial giant is using RTB is to drive prospecting, retargeting, and cross-selling to increase revenue.

SES London attracts thousands of people at every level of experience who come to learn the very latest tools and techniques for today’s digital marketers. The event is centered around a thriving community spirit, where attendees and speakers are encouraged to network and share their knowledge across the entire digital marketing spectrum.

At SES London 2013 leading practitioners will show how to execute winning strategies for your business, while recognising and avoiding the pitfalls in your digital marketing campaigns. Delegates will leave with new expertise and tactics they can implement right away.

For the full programme of events at SES London go to http://sesconferencelondon.com/london
For more information or to register, go to http://sesconference.com/london/registration-details.html