The Neutralize (*\*) / E-consultancy UK Search Marketing Benchmark Report is now available, and you can buy a copy from e-consultancy or download it for free if you are a member – as they have so much great research available I suggest becoming a member is the best option.

The report contains a comprehensive analysis of the UK Search environment following a survey which more than 700 internet marketers responded to, carried out in March 2007.

Linus the head of research at e-consultancy drew some key points from the survey:

• Six out of 10 companies are planning to increase their search engine marketing budgets in the next 12 months.
• A quarter of UK respondents (25%) reported spending of more than £100,000 annually on search engine marketing.
• Overall, respondents believe that SEO is more important than PPC in terms of impact on brand.

• According to company respondents, lack of internal resource is the biggest problem preventing success for both paid search and SEO.

Some other interesting facts that I have picked up:

• Click fraud was the seen as the second least influential factor in the success of a Paid search campaign from both the agency and client side, and click fraud audits the service clients were least likely to use.
• In the appendix there are some useful charts organised by industry sectors Finance, Publishing, Travel & Retail showing the different ways people measure the success of their search engine marketing and how much their budgets might increase.
• 41% of companies had no plans to use Pay Per Call .
• 77.41% said Mobile Search was not on the radar or they had no plans to use it.

Download a copy of the UK Search Marketing Benchmark Report from here.