An exclusive pre-launch party for the fourth annual SEM Benchmark Report revealed that spend on digital marketing and paid search are set to increase in the coming year.

The event, which took place on Thursday 3 June at The Groucho Club, London, welcomed key Marketing and Digital Managers to quaff guava cocktails, rub shoulders with celebrities and gain an exclusive first look at the findings of the report, the largest annual UK survey of search marketers.

Compiled by Econsultancy in association with Guava, the SEM Benchmark Report is published annually to detail trends in digital marketing, allowing year-on-year comparisons from the perspective of both client-side advertisers and agencies.

Key findings from this years report include:

• The proportion of companies saying they plan to increase spending on search engine optimisation (SEO or natural search) over the next year has increased to 60% from 55% last year.
• While the majority of companies are increasing their search budgets, only 14% said they are planning to decrease their paid search spending and only 4% plan to spend less on SEO.
• More than half of companies (56%) are planning to boost social media budgets by more than 20%, while 15% are planning to increase their social media spending by more than 100%.

Guava Sales Director Martin Dinham said: “We are pleased to see that the SEM Market is holding up as, even in a difficult economic climate, businesses recognise that SEO and PPC continue to deliver return on investment.

“There are also some interesting sub trends identified, notably the rise of social media and the high proportion of paid search users who continue to rely on manual management of their campaigns. We hope that the market place finds this fourth year of the report useful.”

The 73-page report, covering Search Engine Optimisation, Paid Search and Social Media is based on an online survey of nearly 500 respondents in February and March 2010, and offers an insight into online spend and strategies for the coming year.

Order the 2010 Report - to receive a free copy please email uk@guava.com stating 'News:SEM Report 2010' with your name, company name and contact details.

Notes to Editors:

For further information please contact
Eve Hyland | Guava | 08700 630707 | eve.hyland@guava.com  | www.guava.co.uk

About Guava
Guava is a fresh thinking, digital marketing agency specialising in Search Marketing, Web Development , SEO , and PPC in the UK.  Part of the pan-European Guava group with over 200 employees, the UK division is headed up by UK COO, Lucy Cokes with offices in Berkshire, Cornwall and London. Current Guava clients include Confused.com, Argos and The Royal Mail.
http://www.guava.co.uk

About UK SEM Benchmark Report 2010
This is the fourth annual UK SEM Benchmark Report published by Econsultancy in association with Guava.

About Econsultancy
Econsultancy is a digital publishing and training group that is used by more than 200,000 internet professionals every month.
http://econsultancy.com