Category: Online Advertising

The Search Engine Strategies Toronto conference was held in Toronto, Canada on June 12-13, 2007 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. As always, it was a tightly-run event that was jam-packed with valuable information.

Here are some of the highlights from sessions I attended on Day 1:

Session: The Canadian Search Landscape

• Canadians conducted 12 billion search engine queries in 2006.
• Canadians are now conducting an average of 1.4 billion search engine queries per month.
• 80% of Canadian search queries are for Website content, 18% for images, and the balance are for video content, which is growing fast
• Depending on whose numbers you want to believe, Google currently has approximately 75-80% of the Canadian search engine query share, with Yahoo! and Microsoft evenly split over the remaining 20-25%. Expect Microsoft’s share to increase as they continue to invest heavily in search.
• MSN adCenter’s a ‘bargain’ deal for Canadian paid search advertisers because it is still relatively new and there’s less competition.
• Only a small percentage of advertisers are taking advantage of the Quebec search engine advertising market; lots of great opportunities to get cheap traffic this way.
• 50% of Canadian search queries are related to finding a product or service.
• 78% of Canadians will turn to search engines to research a product or service.
• Martin Byrne from Yahoo! Search Marketing made the interesting observation that companies who have top ranking organic search results convey a "perception of [brand] leadership."
• Canadian searchers are knowledge seekers not bargain hunters.
• Canadian searchers are engaged: they are very active, will look at more brands, explore more choices, and like to build and share their expertise.
• 82% of Canadian businesses with Websites engage in online advertising, but only 36% of them use search engine advertising or search engine optimization.
• When asked why they weren’t using search engine advertising, the number one reason Canadian businesses cited was "too expensive" … which, of course, is ridiculous.
• Search engine advertising in Canada is now as large as the entire online advertising market was in 2004.
• In general, Canada is a less competitive search engine advertising market, which means there is still a great opportunity for advertisers.