Will Search Marketing Drop in Q1? Some Think So

Citibank’s Mark Mahaney went to a SEM conference and execs gave him a nervous outlook for search marketing’s future in Q1 of ‘09: “We sensed specific nervousness about the Q1 outlook and the possibility that Q1 could actually be the real inflection point quarter–i.e. the first negative sequential growth quarter ever for Search.”
To paraphrase Mark Cuban: “Advertising is always one of the first things to be cut and it’s almost always a mistake.” Especially when it comes to search marketing, which traditionally has the highest ROI.
I see a decline in search marketing from companies who are using it simply for branding purposes, but for performance-based marketing I see search continuing to grow.
Out of all forms of advertising, search draws the straightest path to cost-per-conversion, the holy grail of advertising metrics. If your performance-based search marketing is positive ROI there’s no good reason to cut it.