This week we were able to access the new State of Search Marketing Report 2012, produced by Econsultancy in collaboration with SEMPO. This report evaluates the current state of online marketing, including search engine rankings, SEM or marketing in social networks, taking a sample of 900 respondents from May to June of this year. Among its main conclusions, we can extract the following:

It has noticed the Panda effect.Changes in the Google algorithm have affected a high percentage of businesses, at least 87% of them recognize that it has undergone significant changes, attributable to this battle that Google has undertaken against spam. Although many brands have been unfairly affected, most of them indicate that the overall effect has been positive.

Rise of mobile technology.Companies are increasingly aware of the importance of being adapted to mobile devices, is a factor of special relevance for 88% of companies. This is the biggest concern of companies today, closely followed by search engine optimization. Other factors to which the companies dedicate great amount of efforts are the reinforcement of the presence in local searches and the study of the behavior of the consumer, in order to be able to offer personalized experiences.

Fluctuations in advertising on Facebook.The report registers a considerable decrease, from 74% to 56%. This result does not necessarily indicate that the companies have abandoned this advertising platform, but reflects the own evolution of the medium, in constant development, so it will be necessary to wait for the news and improvements that Facebook is implementing to know its degree of penetration between the marks.

Significant increase in investment in SEM and Social Media,of up to 86%, compared to 77% registered the previous year. Google is positioned as the undisputed medium where to concentrate the largest percentage of budget, both the search engine itself and its contextual advertising network, in all its variants. The success of the SEM relies on its ease in measuring return on investment; companies can track users thoroughly, know their interactions and behavior patterns online. On the opposite side is the tracking of ROI in Social Media, whose evaluation generates real headaches among professionals.

The trends show an increasing concern to have an adequate online presence. Investment in this medium is increasing, mainly in SEM and Social Media. The latter is consolidating and gaining importance, in fact, 60% of companies already have a department of social marketing. The next step is to unveil the ins and outs of ROI measurement in Social Media.