Marketers 'moving to search ads'

5th September 2008

More online marketers look set to focus on search engine ads over the next year, according to one analyst.

Imran Khan of JPMorgan has cut his forecast for the wider online advertising industry from a 20 per cent increase in spending this year to 14 per cent.

However, the outlook for search was slashed from 32 per cent to 27 per cent, indicating better times for this field.

Mr Khan explained that this is likely to be due to a shift towards search from other forms of internet marketing.

He said: "As advertisers become more conservative with their ad spend, we think that the long-tail advertisers will shift toward performance-based advertising forms."

E-consultancy has also predicted lower spending growth on search engine marketing for UK firms this year compared with previous years, although the sector is still expected to perform relatively strongly amid the slowing economy.