Paid search leads the way in online marketing

Paid search is the dominant form of online advertising, according to a Direct Marketing Association report released today. Click here to view all charts on Marketing.

The report, “Digital Marketing Practices & Trends Report,” found 62% of online marketers place ads on search results pages. No other form of online advertising is used by more than half. The next most common form on online advertising is banner ads (45%) and affiliate networks (28%).

The report also found that digital marketing channels, including e-mail, search engine marketing and mobile ads, are consuming a growing share of advertisers’ overall marketing budgets. While direct mail makes up the largest share of spend in dollars at 17%, that percentage is set to fall to 16% in the next year, as the dollars allocated to search engine marketing increase from 12% to 13% and e-mail marketing to customers increases from 9% to 10% of marketing budgets. Mobile advertising is also set to rise from 2% to 3%. 

Social media usage also continues to rise. 88% of business-to-business companies and 82% of direct-to-consumer companies use social media in some fashion, says the report. The two leading channels are social networks, such as Facebook (58%), professional social networks like LinkedIn (55%) and microblogging sites like Twitter (51%).

The Direct Marketing Association report is based on an e-mail survey of 541 online marketers conducted in November and December.