SEMPO highlights U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray research that demonstrates the value of search engine marketing.

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) held its inaugural meeting this evening at the Search Engine Strategies 2003 Conference & Expo. One of the highlights of the meeting was U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray's industry research that demonstrates search engine marketing has the lowest cost-per-lead and the highest return on investment (ROI) of any component of the marketing mix.

SEMPO highlights U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray research that demonstrates the value of search engine marketing

San Jose, CA -- August 20, 2003 -- The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) held its inaugural meeting this evening at the Search Engine Strategies 2003 Conference & Expo. One of the highlights of the meeting was U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray's industry research that demonstrates search engine marketing has the lowest cost-per-lead and the highest return on investment (ROI) of any component of the marketing mix.

Safa Rashtchy, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray's Senior Research Analyst, Internet Media and Marketing, said, The search market has become the Holy Grail of Internet advertising and continues to grow faster than our expectations. We believe search is actually gaining some market share from other types of online marketing. Our initial estimates of $7 billion by 2007 is most likely to be too conservative and we believe that we are still at the early stages of an expanding and large market."

In March 2003, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray published an industry report titled The Golden Search - Dynamics of the Online Search Market." Its key findings included the following:
·   Online search industry represents a major growth market, growing at a compounded rate of 35% annually. The key driver of growth is the increased popularity of search as the most efficient way to find products and information, and simultaneously the rise of search as the best way for advertisers to find and acquire customers.
·   There are more than 550 million global searches performed daily on the Web. Internet users in the United States alone perform about 245 million searches per day.
·   Because of potency and high ROI of search, online merchandisers and businesses are likely to use it more, at least in the 20% to 30% range of their marketing budgets, as a customer acquisition vehicle.

The U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray search engine research also found that paid listings of the type offered by Overture and Google have the highest overall satisfaction and ROI of various Internet advertising methods.

Types of advertising   Overall satisfaction   Return on investment
Paid listings (Overture, Google)   41%   29%
Opt-in e-mail   33%   24%
Paid inclusion   31%   23%
CPC banners   21%   16%
CPM banners   19%   12%
Source: Jupiter Media, Harris Interactive

U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray also compared the cost per lead across various direct marketing methods. Using data from Jack Meyers LLC and The DMA, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray estimated that the cost per lead was $0.29 for search, $0.50 for e-mail, $1.18 for the yellow pages, $2.00 for banner ads, and $9.94 for direct mail.

Because of its high conversion ratio of visitors to buyers and its relatively low cost, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray estimated the average acquisition cost using search is about $10 to $15 versus the online average of $38.

Go to www.gotoanalysts.com/piperpublic/goto/features/goldensearch.asp for a copy of the complete report.

SEMPO represents the common interests of more than 300 search engine marketing professionals and provides them with a credible voice in the marketplace. The organizations mission is to increase awareness and promote the value of search engine marketing services. To achieve these objectives, SEMPO will demonstrate how search engine marketing programs have become important components of the marketing mix. The organization will also show marketers why search engine marketing should command a larger percentage of their overall marketing budgets. For more information, or to join the organization, please visit www.sempo.org.

For more information, contact:
Greg Jarboe
SEO-PR
978-549-9537
greg.jarboe@seo-pr.com

search bancorp piper search engine bancorp piper jaffray marketing bancorp search engine marketing engine piper piper jaffray

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