Every marketer who stays current with marketing tactics knows that SEM (search engine marketing) has very quickly become a critical part of the marketing mix. According to a MarketingSherpa survey of over 3,000 marketers, SEM accounts for 15 percent of total budgeted marketing expenditures, a percentage that has increased from virtually nothing a few years ago. Market dynamics ensure that SEM will continue to expand in coming years. Nearly 60 percent of consumers believe advertising has little relevance to them {Yankelovich, 2004), and a new report from the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society reported that Internet users spend 50 percent more time online than they do watching television- SEM enables marketers to reach advertising-resistant online shoppers by targeting marketing messages to only those customers who have expressed interest in a keyword phrase of mutual significance. Marketers have embraced SEM because it represents one of the best mechanisms for reaching a targeted audience in a manner that is easily measurable, efficient and low in cost.
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