Online Advertising Hits The Big-Time In UK

Very roughly, online advertising accounts for about half the UK national advertising spend. Of the online total of £2bn, paid search is roughly 60%. Historically, paid search has been the ‘tail’ of advertising spend, but with online overtaking national press and showing continued strong growth as other media falters, the tail is now wagging the dog.

Or, it should be. By that I mean it is not a practical strategy to simply leave PPC (pay-per-click) advertising to the procurement department.

The difference between a ‘great’ PPC campaign and a ‘good enough’ PPC campaign can be an order of magnitude in ROI. With paid search grabbing an increasing share of spend, it is even more important to ensure that a paid search campaign

1. is carried out by professionals with proven expertise, preferably able to guarantee ROI, and
2. is carried out in a manner that closely integrates online with offline advertising and other events that stimulate search activity.