Paid Search Costs Soar, Natural Still Key

Expect paid search to get more expensive while natural searches gain importance in the media mix.

Oneupweb, an integrated online marketing company, believes that natural and search work better together than separately. That’s because a paid ad can lead to great product awareness but it’s the overall brand awareness gained by natural search that can be what gives consumers confidence to click through.

Costs are rising for paid search, catching some buyers by surprise. As more advertisers jump into the paid search waters, the costs go higher, writes MediaPost. Improving natural results can also be expensive, and a bit more troublesome because it’s not as measurable. Paid search is immediately trackable while natural search is more like PR - it can take time for its successes to show themselves.

Despite rising costs for paid search, it’s often still a good value compared to other media as it can provide a reasonable entry cost for companies introducing new products or entering new markets.

The popularity of paid search will likely not abate any time soon. According to comScore, Americans searched 9.6 billion times in December - up 15 percent from the previous year. There were 113 billion searches during 2007 and mobile devices such as the iPhone will almost certainly drive those numbers higher.

Search advertising accounts for 48 percent with category killer Google owning 66 percent of the global search market.