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Market Data / Supplier Selection / Event Presentations / User Experience Benchmarking / Best Practice / Template Files / Trends & Innovation SAMPLE: UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 In association with Latitude Like this sample report? Access over 500 reports with a subscription. The reason subscribers join us - and stay with us Econsultancy’s entire research library is available to our subscribers, providing unlimited and unrivalled access to over 500 reports (and counting). In an environment where market trends are constantly changing, gaining up to the minute insider knowledge and expertise is invaluable. Comprehensive, authoritative and easy to read, our award-winning research offers practical advice to marketers on all aspects of digital marketing and ecommerce. Whatever you need to know, you just found it Just a few of our reports... Best Practice Our definitive ‘how-to’ guides across key topic areas for digital marketing professionals. 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For more details, please visit econsultancy.com/subscribe If you have any questions about membership, get in touch by emailing [email protected] SAMPLE: UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 Published May 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 Econsultancy London 4th Floor, Wells Point 79 Wells Street London W1T 3QN United Kingdom Telephone: +44 207 269 1450 http://econsultancy.com [email protected] Econsultancy New York 350 7th Avenue, Suite 307 New York, NY 10001 United States Telephone: +1 212 971 0630 Contents 1. Executive Summary and highlights ................................. 5 2. Foreword by Latitude ...................................................... 9 2.1. 2.2. About Latitude ........................................................................... 10 About Econsultancy .................................................................. 10 3. Methodology and Sample ............................................... 11 3.1. Respondent profiles ................................................................... 11 4. Findings ......................................................................... 12 4.1. Digital marketing disciplines and resourcing ........................... 12 4.1.1. 4.1.2. 4.1.3. 4.1.4. 4.1.5. 4.1.6. 4.2. Types of digital marketing activity ........................................ 12 Agency focus .......................................................................... 14 How companies are resourcing their marketing activities ... 16 Length of agency contracts .................................................... 19 Types of agency used ............................................................. 21 Multilingual and multi-territory search campaigns .............. 22 Budgets ...................................................................................... 26 4.2.1. Flexibility of marketing budgets ............................................ 26 4.2.2. Percentage of overall budget spent on digital marketing channels ................................................................................. 29 4.2.3. Change in digital marketing budgets.....................................30 4.3. Paid search budget ..................................................................... 31 4.3.1. 4.3.2. 4.3.3. 4.3.4. 4.3.5. 4.3.6. 4.4. Annual paid search budget .................................................... 31 Annual change in paid search budgets .................................. 33 Percentage of paid search budget spent on local search ....... 35 Percentage of paid search budget spent on mobile search ... 35 Percentage of paid search spent on management fees .......... 35 Percentage of Google ad spend on Google Display Network .................................................................................. 36 SEO budget ................................................................................ 37 4.4.1. Annual SEO budgets .............................................................. 37 4.4.2. Annual change in SEO budget ............................................... 39 4.5. Social media marketing budget .................................................41 4.5.1. Annual social media marketing budget ................................. 41 4.5.2. Annual change in social media budgets ................................ 43 4.5.3. Percentage of social media budget spent on paid advertising.............................................................................. 45 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 In association with Latitude Page 3 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.6. Display advertising budget ....................................................... 46 4.6.1. Annual display advertising budget ........................................ 46 4.6.3. Annual change in display advertising budget .......................48 4.6.4. Percentage of display budget spent via real-time bidding .... 50 4.7. Use of bid management technology........................................... 51 4.7.1. Criteria for selecting bid management technology ............... 52 4.8. Effectiveness and ROI ............................................................... 54 4.8.1. Impact on brand .................................................................... 54 4.8.2. Effectiveness of ROI tracking ................................................ 56 4.8.3. Factors affecting search marketing ROI ................................ 59 4.9. Types of search marketing and related activities ......................61 4.9.1. Integrating search and display .............................................. 63 4.9.2. Integration of search engine marketing and content strategy ................................................................................... 66 4.9.3. Use of social media in search engine optimisation ...............68 4.10. Impact of Google on search marketing ..................................... 69 4.10.1. Enhanced Campaigns ............................................................ 69 4.10.2. Effect of Google+ ................................................................... 71 4.11. Which social media sites are being used? ................................ 72 4.12. Barriers to search, social media and display activity ............... 74 4.12.1. Barriers to paid search ........................................................... 74 4.12.2. Barriers to SEO ...................................................................... 76 4.12.3. Barriers to social media ......................................................... 78 4.12.4. Barriers to display advertising .............................................. 80 5. Appendix: Respondent Profiles ..................................... 81 5.1. 5.2. 5.3. Business sector ...........................................................................81 Geography.................................................................................. 82 Annual company turnover ........................................................ 83 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 In association with Latitude Page 4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 1. Executive Summary and highlights This is the eighth annual UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, published by Econsultancy in association with Latitude. The research is focused on search engine optimisation (SEO) and paid search marketing, but also incorporates social media marketing, display advertising, analytics and conversion rate optimisation because of the increasing overlap between these disciplines and growing importance of integrated marketing. The survey, which was carried out in the spring of 2014, is based on a survey of more than 700 companies and agencies, making this the most authoritative report on the UK SEM marketplace. The research has identified the following key trends: Increased competition driving paid search budgets The appetite for paid search among UK companies is seemingly insatiable with 58% of companies increasing their budgets in this channel over the coming year, up from 55% in 2013 and now at the highest percentage since 2008. Paid search now accounts for… Impact of Enhanced Campaigns concentrated around mobile In the last year there has been significant coverage of Google’s introduction of Enhanced Campaigns for AdWords, for example how it does not allow marketers to create mobile-only campaigns, to the ire of a number of survey respondents. UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 5 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 2. Foreword by Latitude Latitude have loved being involved in the 2014 SEM Benchmark Report and the team has enjoyed shaping the questions to draw out invaluable perspective on changes in the digital landscape and the industry in general. Now in its eight year, the report wouldn’t exist without the people from both agency and brand-side taking time out of their busy calendars to respond to the survey. We’d therefore like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took part in it this year. As you’d expect, Latitude continue to be excited by the pace of growth in the search market. The market is clearly more competitive for paid search – not an unexpected observation – as it’s a lucrative channel and worthy of increasing investment for many brands. Having a well-informed approach that is consistently benchmarked against industry and search engine ‘best practices’ will iron out any wasted spend and consolidate any niggling performance issues. Using many of the additional tools out there will improve reach and mop up incremental, profitable volume. The challenge is simply to stay on top of your game. ‘Not provided’ is a bigger issue on natural search, as brands are missing vital data and customer intelligence to inform those business-critical decisions. However, this is not unique to one brand; everyone is facing the same challenge, making it a level playing field for all. Creativity, engagement and killer content will inevitably help the cause, as understanding social influence becomes the default mind set for all marketers. Still, the growth of digital marketing was in part due to its measurability so it’s concerning to see how big a challenge this remains. As an industry, it’s important that we aim to solve this as a priority. Brands are now more flexible with budgets and moving spend to align with the overall performance objectives of channels; a positive development in the right direction. And yet, a third of brands still claim to be restricted with budgets, even when faced with a possibility of positive ROI. Whether this is the result of overly cautious forecasting, inability to keep up with lack of confidence or even structural issues, this is one of the key challenges marketing departments will face time and time again in the future. That leaves us with one more intriguing finding from the report. Something that is - as we’ve deliberately done here – disappointingly often left to the last minute and included as an afterthought. Conversion Optimisation and Analytics. It’s gold dust. The fact many brands still struggle to identify conversion as the quick win in every campaign is the eighth wonder of the digital world. To truly optimise campaigns across paid search, natural and every other channel, you need a strategic roadmap of analytics testing and projects to interrogate the data you do have and make the most from it. Any decent agency will put their own necks on the line to deliver a performance-based model where the risk all lies with them. Making the investment in a conversion project after it has worked and has delivered the goods seems like the proverbial gift horse’s mouth waiting to be stared into. And you’d be right. UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 6 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 Those brands who are already focused on conversion are seeing big successes in digital performance, tracking appropriate channel revenues, KPIs and winning at every turn. The simple fact is that you can significantly improve any channel performance by improving conversion. What gets measured, gets done. In an increasingly competitive market, with not provided data and more flexibility in marketing budgets… the question is simply, why wouldn’t you? We hope you enjoy the findings of this research and look forward to further evolution in the SEM industry. Richard Gregory Managing Director www.latitudegroup.com UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 7 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 2.1. About Latitude Digital marketing is what we do. Since setting up in 2001, Latitude has worked across various sectors, including retail, gaming, travel and finance with clients such as Fitness First, Snow+Rock, Haven Holidays, Hilton, Yours Clothing and Citibank, using a mix of digital marketing channels to solve various marketing challenges for our clients. However, we’d like to think we’re not just another digital marketing agency. Digital marketing is not just about the technical stuff. It's also about meeting (and going beyond) our clients' expectations in unexpected ways. Our approach to this is simple. Not only do we produce the digital goods, but we understand that it takes more than results to do a good job. We know that reporting, deadlines, account management, knowledge sharing, creativity and interest in your brand/sector/business are all equally important. We start with our clients’ individual requirements and overall marketing objectives and then build a strategy around them. This might include: Coming up with strategies for complex campaigns and for brands that are still in the process of establishing their online presence – and anywhere in between Account management to reflect your department structure and reporting needs – not vice versa Match-making the right digital and sector expertise our end with your team, brand and campaign needs ...all whilst challenging you to make your marketing seriously good. W: www.latitudegroup.com E: [email protected] T: 08450 212 223 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 8 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 2.2. About Econsultancy Econsultancy’s mission is to help its customers achieve excellence in digital business, marketing and ecommerce through research, training and events. Founded in 1999, Econsultancy has offices in New York, London and Singapore. Econsultancy is used by over 600,000 professionals every month. Subscribers get access to research, market data, best practice guides, case studies and elearning. The subscription is supported by digital transformation services including digital capability programmes, training courses, skills assessments and audits. We train and develop thousands of professionals each year as well as running events and networking that bring the Econsultancy community together around the world. Subscribe to Econsultancy today to accelerate your journey to digital excellence. Call us to find out more: New York: +1 212 971 0630 London: +44 207 269 1450 Singapore: +65 6809 2088 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 9 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 3. Methodology and Sample This is the eighth annual UK Search Engine Marketing report published by Econsultancy, in association with Latitude. Many of the questions in the survey have been repeated over this time period, enabling us to compare data and look at trends. There were 712 respondents to our 2014 research, which took the form of an online survey using Clicktools in March and April 2014. Respondents included both client-side (in-house marketers), as well as agencies. The findings are shown for client-side (i.e. ‘companies’) and supply-side (or ‘agencies’) separately. Information about the survey, including the link, was emailed to Econsultancy’s user base and promoted on Twitter and other channels. Latitude also publicised this survey to its own database of marketers. The incentive for taking part was access to a complimentary copy of this report just before its publication on the Econsultancy website. If you have any questions about the research, please email Econsultancy’s Research Director, Linus Gregoriadis ([email protected]). UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 10 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4. Findings 4.1. Digital marketing disciplines and resourcing 4.1.1. Types of digital marketing activity Figure 2 shows the digital marketing disciplines being carried out by responding organisations or their agencies. The most common marketing activity companies are involved in is search engine optimisation (SEO), being carried out by 91% of client-side respondents. It should be noted that this survey has been marketed primarily as a search marketing survey, and therefore is most likely to attract search engine marketers. Figure 1: Which of the following types of marketing is your organisation or agency involved in? 4.1.2. Agency focus Only 39% of agencies are offering a full range of digital marketing services, significantly down on last year’s equivalent figure of 52%. Figure 2: What prevents you from being able to sell a wider range of services to your clients as part of a more integrated approach? Respondents: 91 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 11 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.1.3. How companies are resourcing their marketing activities Companies were asked whether they carry out their marketing activities in-house or via an agency. Figure 7 shows the results of this question for search (paid and natural), social, display analytics and conversion rate optimisation (CRO). Figure 3: Do you carry out the following digital marketing activities in-house or via an agency? 4.1.4. Length of agency contracts Respondents were asked about the length of their agency contracts for their marketing activities. As shown in Figure 11, companies are most likely to have shorter agency contracts for SEO and paid search. Companies Figure 4: How long are your agency contracts in the following areas? Respondents: 135 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 12 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.1.5. Types of agency used In a new question for this year’s survey, companies were asked to state what type of agency they are using for their various digital marketing activities. Companies are more likely to use a specialist agency for PPC and SEO than for any other 4.1.6. Multilingual and multi-territory search campaigns Among the companies participating in this year’s survey, 14% stated their use of an agency in running multilingual paid search campaigns and an additional 12% of companies are planning on doing this. Trend data shows that these numbers have been flat since 2009. Nearly three quarters (74%) of companies had no plans to use multilingual services in both 2009 and 2013, with only a negligible change this year. 4.2. Budgets 4.2.1. Flexibility of marketing budgets According to the results displayed in Figure 19, most companies are not taking a rigid approach to the budgets for their digital marketing channels. Only 13% of companies say their budgets are rigidly split by channel. For most companies, there is either no separate budget on a channel basis or there is at least to ability to shift budget across channels based on ROI. It is encouraging to see the vast majority of companies being able to employ flexibility with marketing budgets, though worrying for those 13% of companies who are very rigid in their approach. UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 13 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.2.2. Percentage of overall budget spent on digital marketing channels Companies Table 1: Of your total marketing budget, what percentage is typically spent on the following channels? Channel 2014 2013 Paid search XX% XX% SEO XX% XX% Social media XX% XX% Display advertising XX% XX% Respondents (2014): 299 Agencies Table 2: Of your clients’ total marketing budget, what percentage is typically spent on the following channels? Channel 2014 2013 Paid search XX% XX% SEO XX% XX% Social media XX% XX% Display advertising XX% XX% Respondents (2014): 179 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 14 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.2.3. Change in digital marketing budgets Of all the digital marketing disciplines listed in this survey, companies will be the most likely to increase their budget for conversion rate optimisation. Companies Figure 5: Do you expect your budgets to increase or decrease in the next 12 months? Company trends Table 3: Percentage of companies increasing budgets over the next 12 months (since 2009) UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 15 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.3. SEO budget 4.3.1. Annual SEO budgets Close to half of responding companies (44%) are spending £10,000 or less per year on SEO. Companies Figure 6: How much do you spend on SEO per year? 4.3.2. Annual change in SEO budget Of the companies that responded to this question, nearly half (45%) expect their SEO budget to rise by up to 20%. Companies Figure 7: How much do you expect your SEO budget to increase over the next 12 months? UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 16 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.4. Social media marketing budget 4.4.1. Annual social media marketing budget More than three in five companies (62%) are spending no more than £10,000 on their social media marketing activities this year. Figure 8: How much do you spend on social media marketing per year? 4.4.2. Annual change in social media budgets Based on the results from the chart below, 46% of companies will be expecting a budget increase of up to 20% for their social media marketing. Companies Figure 9: How much do you expect your social media budget to increase over the next 12 months? 4.4.3. Percentage of social media budget spent on paid advertising As shown in Table 8, companies and agencies report near identical percentages of social budget spent on paid-for advertising on social web properties. Table 4: What percentage of your social media marketing budget is spent on paid-for advertising on social channels? 2014 Companies XX% Agencies XX% UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 17 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.5. Display advertising budget 4.5.1. Annual display advertising budget Our research has identified that 67% of respondents are spending over £10,000 a year and 9% are spending £1 million plus on display advertising. 4.5.2. Annual change in display advertising budget Companies Figure 10: How much do you expect your display advertising budget to increase over the next 12 months? 4.5.3. Percentage of display budget spent via real-time bidding Table 5: What percentage of your display advertising budget is spent via real-time bidding? 2014 Companies XX% Agencies XX% UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 18 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.6. Use of bid management technology Company and agency respondents were asked about the bid management technology they use for their paid search activities. Figure 11: What bid management technology do you, your agency or your clients use primarily for paid search? 4.6.1. Criteria for selecting bid management technology It is important to understand what factors influence decisions behind bid management technology selection. Figure 49 shows the criteria most important to companies and agencies when it comes to selecting a paid search bid management platform. Figure 12: What factors are most important to you / your client when selecting a paid search bid management technology platform? UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 19 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.7. Effectiveness and ROI 4.7.1. Impact on brand Companies were asked which digital marketing channel had the most impact on their brand. Nearly a third of responding companies (32%) selected SEO as the most important, while 22% stated that SEO, paid search, social media marketing and display advertising are of equal importance. Companies Figure 13: What is most important in terms of the impact on your brand? 4.7.2. Effectiveness of ROI tracking As marketing channels become more integrated, being able to track accurately across different activities with a consistent measuring system is becoming increasingly important for companies wanting to understand ROI properly. It is therefore worrying to see that only 36% of companies have a ‘definitive tracking solution to measure consistently across different digital channels’. 4.7.3. Factors affecting search marketing ROI Company and agency respondents were asked what they believed were the most significant factors affecting ROI on search engine marketing. Analysis of responses from companies revealed themes pertaining to competition, Google Analytics ‘not provided’ keywords and conversion. Company respondents What is the main factor or factors affecting your return on investment from search engine marketing? “Low conversion resulting in high CPA.” “Management scepticism and lack of internal skills.” Agency respondents also spoke of conversion rates and competition, also specifically mentioning the impact of mobile and lack of integration with other marketing channels. UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 20 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.8. Types of search marketing and related activities Companies were asked about the level of involvement they have with a variety of search channels and related activities, with the results illustrated in the chart below. 4.8.1. Integrating search and display Figure 61 compares the extent to which companies and agency clients are integrating their paid search and display advertising. Figure 14: To what extent are you / your clients integrating paid search and display advertising? 4.8.2. Integration of search engine marketing and content strategy Content marketing has been a key area of focus for marketers thus far in 2014, with many organisations attempting to incorporate it into their stream of activities. Figure 66 shows how organisations are integrating SEO efforts with their content marketing strategy. Figure 15: To what extent is your / your clients’ content strategy tied in with your search engine optimisation activity? 4.8.3. Use of social media in search engine optimisation Both companies and agencies are more likely be working in contexts where social media and search engine optimisation are treated separately. Marketers have typically struggled to measure the effect of social media marketing. However, tying together social media and search engine optimisation activities can have a quantifiable effect on organic search ranking1. Figure 16: What best describes your / your clients’ use of social media in the context of your search engine optimisation activity? 1 https://econsultancy.com/blog/64752-us-vs-th3m-shareable-content-beats-traditional-seo UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 21 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.9. Impact of Google on search marketing 4.9.1. Enhanced Campaigns In last year’s survey, Enhanced Campaigns were still in their infancy and so many marketers were still unsure with regards to their net effect on search engine marketing. However, based on the results shown in Figure 70, sentiment towards Enhanced Campaigns is far from positive. Figure 17: What impact has Google’s introduction of Enhanced Campaigns had on your / your clients’ paid search marketing? Company respondents Why do you think Enhanced Campaigns have had a positive/negative impact? “Enabled us to reduce spend on mobile search campaigns that didn’t work as well.” “More control over campaigns and more targeted mobile campaigns.” 4.9.2. Effect of Google+ With Google attempting to integrate their social platform into as many of their products as possible, it appears as though there is no getting away from Google+. However, despite the ubiquitous nature of the search giant, it appears most organisations are not taking full advantage of its social product. 4.10. Which social media sites are being used? Figure 72 illustrates on which social platforms companies are engaging in paid advertising activities. Facebook is being used as a paid-for advertising platform by… Companies Figure 18: Which of the following social media sites are you paying to advertise on as part of your marketing activity? UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 22 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 4.11. Barriers to search, social media and display activity 4.11.1. Barriers to paid search Survey respondents were also asked to indicate which barriers they (or their clients) are facing in terms of paid search, SEO, social media marketing and display advertising. Figure 19: Which of the following are the biggest problems preventing you / your clients from being as successful at paid search as you would like? 4.11.2. Barriers to SEO Lack of internal resources is a barrier for the largest proportion of companies, in terms of their SEO activities, according to Figure 77. Figure 20: Which of the following are the biggest problems preventing you / your clients from being as successful at SEO as you would like? 4.11.3. Barriers to social media For nearly half of the responding companies… Figure 21: Which of the following are the biggest problems preventing you / your clients from being as successful at social media as you would like? 4.11.4. Barriers to display advertising Measuring success was selected by 46% of companies as a key barrier that is a deterrent to display advertising success. Two in five companies cited… Figure 22: Which of the following are the biggest problems preventing you from being as successful at display advertising as you would like? UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 23 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 5. Appendix: Respondent Profiles 5.1. Business sector Figure 23: In which business sector is your organisation? Respondents: 299 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 24 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 5.2. Geography Figure 24: In which country/region are you (personally) based? Respondents: 487 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 25 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014 5.3. Annual company turnover Figure 25: What is your annual company turnover? Respondents: 249 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2014 in association with Latitude Page 26 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2014