• ClickZ, Tuesday, January 10, 2006 10:45 AM

A recent survey covering the cost of buying keywords for search engine marketing says that while the average cost rose last year, improvements in return on investment could justify larger marketing spends this year. According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization survey, "The State of Search Engine Marketing 2005," 32 percent of agencies surveyed estimated that prices for keywords they commonly buy rose 20 percent last year. The next most common responses were that prices surged by 10 percent and 30 percent, each voted by 25 percent of the ad agencies surveyed. Despite last year's increases, most said they plan to spend more on search marketing next year--only 21 percent said they couldn't justify spending more on SEM in 2006.

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