The news in the search advertising world got some bad news, at least for some outlets. Both AOL and Ask reported that they are seeing a slowdown in revenue from their search advertising programs. AOL even stated that they expected the decline to continue.
On the other hand Google & Yahoo both reported growth during recent months. AdWords & Yahoo Ads both boosted their profits. So which is the real story? I believe that search marketing/advertising is still growing. Yahoo and especially Google have excellent search ad programs, so they’re just getting more business that the weaker ones (AOL & Ask) don’t.
In fact, there is a trend toward more search engine use by consumers during this economic downturn. They’re taking more time and putting more effort into shopping around. If they have less money to play with, they want to be sure it’s going to be spent wisely. That means research on Google, Yahoo, etc.
That means that search marketing and advertising is worth your money if you’re a business. It’s where the consumers and clients are going so you need to be there in front of them. It’s time to stop missing the party. Search marketing is the both the present and the forseeable future.