Online Advertisers Are Bullish on Behavioral Targeting, SEMPO 2007 State of the Market Survey Data Reveals

Some 80% of Advertisers Polled Are Willing to Pay More for Behavioral Targeting, a Strong Indication of a Major Online Ad Spend Trend

Wakefield, MA, May 15, 2008 – Four out of five advertisers are willing to increase their online advertising budget in order to add behavioral targeting to their pay-per-click campaigns, according to SEMPO, (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization), www.sempo.org, which conducted a 2007 state of the market survey of 867 search engine advertisers and search engine marketing agencies.

The survey also found that 57% of online advertisers polled were willing to spend more on demographic targeting, such as age and gender. Advertisers, on average, would pay 11% more for both behavioral and demographic targeting. While advertiser interest in behavioral targeting is very strong, actual investment is still low, according to the survey respondents. Some 40% of the respondents said they are not currently targeting or retargeting searchers but they plan to in the next 12 months.
Behavioral targeting is the practice of delivering ads to consumers based on their past search behavior. These ads can help advertisers reach consumers as they approach a buying decision, thus potentially leading to more conversions. Behaviors tracked and targeted include consumer visits to topic specific websites and subscriptions to these sites; registration and user-generated profiles for chosen subjects, content or shopping categories, and request for automatic updates.

Retargeting reaches “in-market” consumers who, for example, have just searched for a specific product. Advertisers can send targeted display ads to these in-market consumers, who may have visited the advertiser’s site – or a partner site – but not converted.

Dayparting showed considerable less interest: only 30% indicated they would bid more for clicks based on dayparting, and on average, said an additional 9% budget spend was their comfort level.
Dayparting is the practice of scheduling ads to run at certain times of the day and/or days of the week. Its objective is to more effectively target users at optimum times and give advertisers better bid management and campaign budget control.

“The next best thing to an impression or click from a search result is the ability to serve a highly relevant and targeted graphical or textual ad to a consumer while they are still very interested in their search,” says Kevin Lee, a member of SEMPO’s board of directors and its research committee. Lee is chairman and CEO of Didit.

“Online advertisers are always faced with the challenge that there is a finite number of searches occurring daily. Behavioral targeting gives advertisers an opportunity to expand the search marketing universe,” says Lee. Many analysts believe that, when combined with demographic targeting, behavioral targeting of searchers provides a significant growth opportunity for the media industry, Lee notes.

The 2007 SEMPO global survey of online marketers was conducted by Radar Research and was administered via IntelliSurvey, Inc.

Survey and research findings released earlier showed:

• The North American SEM industry grew from $9.4 billion in 2006 to $12.2 billion in 2007, exceeding earlier projections of $11.5 billion for 2007.
• North American SEM spending is now projected to grow to $25.2 billion in 2011, up significantly from the $18.6 billion forecast a year ago.
• Marketers are finding more search dollars by poaching budget from print magazine spending, website development, direct mail and other marketing programs.

About the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)
SEMPO is a global non-profit organization serving the search engine marketing industry and marketing professionals engaged in it. Its purpose is to provide a foundation for industry growth through building stronger relationships, fostering awareness, providing education, promoting the industry, generating research, and creating a better understanding of search and its role in marketing. Representing thousands in over 30 countries, SEMPO has over 720 members. It represents the common interests of companies and consultants worldwide and provides them with a voice in the marketplace. SEMPO’s education and outreach initiatives are sponsored in part by Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Superpages.com, SMX and Search Engine Strategies. For more information or to join the organization, please visit http://www.SEMPO.org.

About Radar Research

Radar Research is a Los Angeles-based research and consulting firm aimed at the nexus of media, technology, culture and commerce. It was founded by two former Jupiter Research analysts, Marissa Gluck and Aram Sinnreich. Radar conducts research on behalf of both corporate clients and non-profit organizations, such as DoubleClick, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Nielsen//Netratings, the Online Publishers Association and The Norman Lear Center. For more information, please visit www.radarresearch.com

For more information, contact:
Greg Jarboe
978 549-9537                         
pr@sempo.org