Budgets for SEM in both organic and paid searches are coming not only from online, but they are also coming from other forms of media. Marketers are dealing with the online media silo as well as the media income that is coming from the least performing media out of the remaining budget. These media forms could be newspapers, television, or radio. All these media forms have lost shares to search and interactive. The sector that has lost the greatest share to online and search advertising has been the print media.

There is a considerable job turnover in the industry and which has put out an increased demand for search marketing experts. Lee has noticed these trends in the three surveys SEMPO has conducted. Another recent trend for marketers, has been to have both paid and SEO in-house. Some experts believe there to be a control issue between agencies and in-house, but Lee disagrees. It’s not a control issue, but rather the company wants a balance between their control and their ability to execute the best practices. In other words, companies are not too concerned with who has the power, but they want their businesses to operate in the most productive manner.

Search is a hot topic, and will continue to grow. It has become material. One of the reasons for this is the money that search is bringing in. Another reason is the media coverage that it has received. As a result of all these developments, more and more people are now paying closer attention to search than they did before.