Brands and agencies said they are challenged with gaining the proper budgets and measuring the return on investments for search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns, The preliminary findings from the 2016 SEMPO State of Search Survey Marketing Report released Tuesday by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) reveal some of the trends marketers and their agency partners experienced this year.
The report, published yearly by SEMPO, will close this year's annual survey on December 9, 2016, and release findings next year. Participants are not required to be SEMPO members.
The annual report measures trends and use in paid search, search engine optimization, digital display, social media, and email marketing for brands and agencies.
Preliminary findings from the report also show that specific trends have a "significant" impact on campaigns. One of the more interesting among these involves Microsoft's purchase of LinkedIn. Some
9% of marketers find the move significant, versus 6% of agency partners.
Another important element is the increased use of mobile devices by consumers. Some 62% of marketers said they see
mobile as a "highly significant" change and trend in the industry, compared with 73% of agency partners.
Half of agencies also view the removal of the right-rail paid-search ad
position by Google as a "highly significant" trend.
And when asked how marketers and their agency partners would describe their ability to measure the return on investment from several types of media, both groups said paid search seemed to be the easiest and email the most difficult.
Marketers can take the survey here.