Via One Degree, Ipsos Reid has released a study on search marketing in Canada that reaffirms the importance of search engine optimization but has some promising numbers for the effectiveness of search advertising. It doesn't include any breakdowns on search engine market share, unfortunately. The most key but unsurprising statistic: "three-quarters of online Canadians indicate they can usually find what they are looking for on the first page of search results". First page placement continues to be highly important; even if you're on the top of the second page, 75% of searchers will never even see you.
In search advertising, 44% reported having clicked on an ad in search results, a higher number than might be expected. 29% reported clicking on an ad even when the regular search term appeared in results. This last statistic is a curious behavior, but will keep companies buying up their own search terms. For general engine satisfaction, 80% agreed that they were getting the best results from their engine of choice, and 66% agreed that the results were objective. Search engines remain a primary web destination for Canadians and they maintain a high level of confidence in them; just don't expect them to dig too deep to find you .
Those stats add some meat to a post i recently did, where one of the points highlighted the strange situation where businesses in Canada are not yet dialed into the potential of search marketing, yet in percentage terms, the most prolific online users are Canadians. And now we can say that the most prolific users are the least likely to go delving beyond page one of the search results. There has to be a message (and an opportunity for SEO specialists) in there somewhere.
