WebProNews

Nearly half  (47%) of all marketing budgets are now spent online according to a joint survey by Hearst Electronics Group and Goldstein Group Communications (GGC).

"The sense of urgency to move to online marketing has been felt by leading marketing organizations for some time now, but the extent to which budgets have been re- defined is dramatic," said GGC President Joel Goldstein.

"While traditional media still play a role in building a balanced program, clearly online spending for webcasts, search engine marketing and generating online content are now seen as the primary drivers of branding and lead generation for most companies."

Goldstein noted that it's likely the increased pressure for program measurability and accountability in 2009 budgets is also a factor in pushing campaigns to more online spending.

Part of the reason marketers are shifting their budgets online may be tied to lead quality. Marketers say the single best source for leads is their Web site, at 24 percent, followed closely by search engines at 19 percent.

"When web development, search engine marketing and webcasts are combined, marketers today are spending 47 percent of total budgets on online tactics," said Goldstein. "This includes online video and social media, which are very small portions of the budget today but are expected to grow rapidly during the next few years."

Search engine marketing currently accounts for 11 percent of budgets, when including organic as well as pay-per-click campaigns.

"The value of strong brand recognition can be found typically in your company's own server logs, the database that identifies what words or phrases people have typed in to Google or Yahoo! in order to find your site," said Hearst VP Publishing Director William Barron.

"The dominant phrase is likely to be your company's own name or product names. While ideally you're building search engine visibility to reach new people who don't know you, the approach still must be centered around balanced brand-building so the market knows your name and you carry some level of visibility in your space."