Double-digit growth to return in 2011
The recession ended years of double-digit growth in business-to-business (B2B) online advertising spending, but according to strategy consulting firm AMR International the market will recover in 2010 and see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% between 2009 and 2013.
The B2B online marketing report notes that growth in several areas will exceed the average rate. B2B social media marketing spending will enjoy a CAGR of 21% over the period, while lead generation Websites will increase 17%.
Unlike in media as a whole, where the biggest B2B marketing focus is on building awareness, in the online channel lead generation is the top priority. Customer retention is also more important online, with awareness lagging behind when it comes to divvying up digital budgets.
Although they devote a large portion of online dollars to lead generation, B2B marketers have a hard time evaluating the effectiveness of their outlays without formally analyzing their metrics. When queried about the effectiveness of paid search at lead generation, the vast majority of marketers who looked at metrics agreed that it was.
On the flip side, marketers who did not pay attention to formal measurements were mostly neutral on the question, although three in 10 still felt paid search was effectively supporting their lead gen efforts.
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Check out today’s other article, “Mobile Users Want Personalized Services.”