Does Search Marketing Deliver High Quantity or High Quality Leads… Or Both?
By Anna Johnson on July 2nd, 2009Which are the most popular search marketing tactics used by marketers… and do they generate the highest quantity or quality leads? Well, according to research by MarketingSherpa, 95 percent of the 1,147 marketers it surveyed used paid search engine marketing, while 71 percent used search engine optimization (SEO), with the majority using both forms of search marketing.
Of the 95 percent of marketers using paid search marketing on Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Ask.com and vertical search engines, 15 percent said paid search generated high quantity and high quality leads, while 35 percent said it generated high quantity but low quality leads, 16 percent said it generated low quantity, high quality and 35 percent said paid search generated low quantity, low quality leads. (Percentages don’t add up to 100 percent due to rounding).
Of those using SEO, 18 percent of marketers said SEO generated high quantity and high quality leads, while 34 percent said SEO generated high quantity but low quality leads. 24 percent said SEO resulted in low quantity and high quality leads, and another 24 percent said SEO delivered low quantity, low quality leads.
What this survey doesn’t tell us is the skill involved in utilizing SEO or paid search. In other words, it’s impossible to discern the effectiveness of one form or search over another without understanding the skill level of the marketers involved…
