Palo Alto, CA ? February 28, 2005 ? he Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), a non-profit professional association working to increase awareness and promote the value of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) worldwide, sees a need to address several critical industry issues, trends and challenges. Several areas covered in SEMPO?s comprehensive research study ?The State of Search Engine Marketing 2004? have gained in importance since the study was released in December.

nThe following study results are of particular importance for 2005:

1) 83% of respondents planned to increase their spending on paid placement campaigns in 2005. 
2) At the time of the SEMPO study, research by Overture and Doubleclick which supports an even greater value to SEM had not yet been released.  Given the additional data supporting the value of search, this estimate may be low.
3) Trademarks are an important keyword type and while some litigation has been settled or ruled upon, there are still pending trademark related lawsuits. Trademark-related issues with respect to search behavior will continue to be a hot topic. The majority of (but not all) advertisers bid on their own trademarks as keywords; misspellings, less so. Larger firms in general appeared to be more focused on trademarks.

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