Paid Search Ranks As Highest Media Among SMB High Spenders

On average, small and medium-sized businesses that are "Plus Spenders" invest nearly $79,000 annually in advertising and promotions, according to numbers released Wednesday.

In BIA/Kelsey's most recent SMB survey, 60.6% of higher-spending small and medium-sized businesses, which the analyst firm calls "SMB Plus Spenders," ranked paid search engine advertising and marketing as an "extremely high" or "very high" priority for the next 12 months. The media ranked the highest priority among nine digital marketing categories.

Local search revenue should reach $7.2 billion in 2015, up from $7.1 billion in 2014, per BIA/Kelsey's U.S. Local Media Forecast 2015. The forecast suggests local mobile search will account for 51.1% of mobile ad spending in 2015.

Big-box retailers acting like small neighborhood stores will also spend more to support search. Last month, Wal-Mart Stores launched an in-store feature on its mobile application called Search My Store. The feature allows consumers to search for items carried in a Walmart store and identify the item’s availability at that store, its aisle location, ratings and reviews. It's available on Android devices and expands to iPhones by mid-November.

Advertising and marketing priorities during the next 12 months are diverse, reflecting a variety of SMBs by business category, market type, age, and more. Discovery continues to dominate many company's priorities.

SMB Plus Spenders have their hands on a variety of other media too. Some 53.7% said they would invest in email; 53.3%, print advertising; 51.6%, analytics and performance assessment; 45.1%, social media advertising; 44.7%, mobile; 41.1%, broadcast and cable; 40.2%, video; and 38.2%, discount deals and promos.

"Small Businesses" photo from Shutterstock.

 

 

1 comment about "Paid Search Ranks As Highest Media Among SMB High Spenders".
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  1. Steve Gibson from Canvas WorldWide, November 6, 2014 at 11:51 a.m.

    This certainly comes as no surprise to me. Over the course of my career, I have set up search accounts with hundreds of small and medium sized businesses. Paid Search quickly becomes their "go to" marketing tactic. Its easy to understand, they know they can crank it up when needed and they can see the results.

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