Interpublic: Search is slowing, Social is growing

Marketers, it seems, are turning away from paid search in favor of social marketing efforts. According to a recent study by Interpublic, search spending is beginning to slow as social marketing takes off.

by Kristina Knight

Interpublic’s Magna Global division has released a forecast that indicates emerging media - online gaming, social networking and online video - will grow at just over 31% in 2009. In the US, online advertising spending is expected to decrease by about 1% in 2008; 2009 spending is not expected to be much better.

Part of this decrease will come because online businesses are expected to decrease their online spending by about 7% in 2008.

Surprisingly, display ads are expected to show the fastest growth rate (12% increase over 2007). That is nearly three times the growth rate of other ad types. Online search, meanwhile, is expected to grow by 24%, a slowdown of 2.5% year over year. Social network marketing is expected to grow by 37%, a decrease of nearly 30% year over year.

Although the forecast indicates that both search and social marketing are beginning to slow, search is slowing at the faster rate. This could be because social marketing is so new and has more opportunities for targeting specific consumer groups.