WebProNews

U.S. search marketing spend showed healthy growth in the third quarter of 2008, up almost 27 percent compared with the third quarter of 2007 according to a new study from SearchIgnite.

Spend from existing search marketing advertisers is up year-over-year in Q3 across all engines by 26.9 percent in the U.S., a small increase from the year-over-year growth seen in Q3 2007 over Q3 2006. Quarter-over-quarter spend growth was also strong and consistent with Q2 vs. Q3 2007.

Retailers increased their search spend over Q3 2007, up 1.5 percent year-over-year, but intra-quarter figures revealed that retail search spend is dipping. Q3 also saw a slight rise in conversion rates, although average order value is falling.

Google continued to increase its dominance in the search market capturing over 72 percent of search ad dollars. Yahoo! lost slight market share in Q3, but is up several points from Q3 2007.

"Paid search spend continued to hold strong in Q3, despite the economic climate," said Roger Barnette, President of SearchIgnite.

"The strength of this ad market in today's economy suggests that paid search continues to be a highly profitable and efficient digital marketing channel for brands."