Over half of agencies now offer full range of digital marketing services: report

Econsultancy has published a report in partnership with Netbooster titled ‘UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2013’ which shows that 52% of agencies offer a ‘full range of digital marketing services’, a 7% increase from 2012 and a 10% increase from 2011. However, only 12% specialise in Search Engine Optimisation, 7% in paid search and 10% on both.

The report, covering search engine optimisation (SEO or natural search), paid search (PPC) and social media marketing, is based on an online survey of more than 500 client-side digital marketers and agencies.

According to a press release, this research gives a thorough insight into how much companies are spending on search marketing and social media, what search engines and social media sites they are focusing on, what metrics they are using to measure success, and this year also looks at the use of Google+ and Enhanced Campaigns.

“To be successful in the new multichannel and digital age businesses have to adopt an integrated approach to marketing,” said the Econsultancy website.

Other findings include:

• A majority of companies (69%) take care of social marketing in-house, while only 7% exclusively use an agency.
• 52% of companies carry out their SEO in-house and 42% employ someone to take care of paid search.
• Paid search is the activity most likely to be outsourced entirely to an agency, with 28% of respondents selecting this option.
• Looking back over six years of data, the percentage of companies carrying out their paid search in-house has remained fairly consistent.
• The lowest proportion was 38% back in 2008 and 2009, while it peaked at 45% in 2012.