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Search Engine Usage in Ireland – The Facts & Figures, Statistical Analysis March 2007

Posted in: Search Engine Optimisation,SEM,Statistics by Richard Hearne on March 23, 2007
Internet Marketing Ireland

Undoubtedly the the biggest disadvantage to operating in a small market such as Ireland is the lack of quantitative data on what people are actually doing when they go on-line and, more importantly, how they use Search to assist in discovery.

Thankfully the ‘Facts and Figures’ session at Search Marketing World 2007 included a survey conducted by Amarach Consulting on behalf of the conference organisers.

The survey consisted of:

  • a telephone survey of 1,000 adults aged 18 and over in March 2007, nationally representative sample.
  • online interviews (in March) with 95 marketers on the Research Now panel, split:
    - 54 advertisers (client side) &
    - 41 agencies (mainly above the line/thru the line).

Gerard O’Neill very kindly forwarded his slides to me, some of which are discussed below.

Navigation

  1. Internet Usage in Ireland
  2. Average Hours On-line Per Week
  3. Frequency of Use of Search Engine Websites
  4. Pattern of Usage of Search Results
  5. Frequency of Clicking on ‘Sponsored Links’ or ‘Sponsored Results’
  6. Online Advertising & Marketing: Trend in spending in past 12 Months
  7. Share of Search Engine Marketing in total online spend
  8. Effectiveness of SEM versus Other Online Advertising
  9. Expected Trend in Total Spending on Online Advertising & Marketing
  10. Expected Trend in Share of SEM in Total Online Spending

Internet Usage in Ireland

Ireland Internet usage statistics March 2007

Internet Usage in Ireland – % of each age group using internet from any location
Segment%
18-2474
25-3474
35-4453
45-5444
55-6443
65+16
TOTAL53

Average Hours On-line Per Week

Ireland Internet hours online statistics March 2007

Taking Time: Average Hours Online Per Week
SegmentHours
18-248.4
25-345.8
35-445.5
45-544.2
55-643.8
65+3.4
TOTAL5.8

Frequency of Use of Search Engine Websites

Ireland Internet Search Engine usage statistics March 2007

Frequency of Use of Search Engine Websites
Segment% Use Search Every Day
18-2467
25-3451
35-4437
45-5439
55-6430
65+35

Pattern of Usage of Search Results

Ireland Internet Search Engine results usage statistics March 2007

Pattern of Usage of Search Results
Use%
It depends43
Mainly click on one
or more of the top
5 links presented
by the search site
32
Mainly click on one
or more of the links
down all of the
first page of links
presented by the
search site
15
Mainly click on one
or more links
throughout the first
few pages presented
by the search site
10

Ireland Internet Paid Results usage statistics March 2007

Frequency of Clicking on ‘Sponsored Links’ or ‘Sponsored Results’
Click on sponsored link
every time + quite often
%
Very rarely
when you do a
search
48
Never34
Quite often
when you do a
search
15
Almost every
time you do a
search
3

Online Advertising & Marketing: Trend in spending in past 12 Months

Ireland online marketing stats March 2007

Online Advertising & Marketing: Trend in spending in past 12 Months
Trend% Advertisers% Agencies
Increased5978
Remained the same3012
Decreased67
Remained at zero62

Share of Search Engine Marketing in total online spend

Ireland Online advertising spend statistics March 2007

Share of Search Engine Marketing in total online spend
Trend% Advertisers% Agencies
A growing share4334
A static share1620
A declining share47
Don’t use SEM3739

Effectiveness of SEM versus Other Online Advertising

Ireland SEM effectiveness stats March 2007

Effectiveness of SEM versus Other Online Advertising
Trend% Advertisers
More effective59
As effective34
Less effective6

Expected Trend in Total Spending on Online Advertising & Marketing

Ireland online marketing expected spend stats March 2007

Expected Trend in Total Spending
on Online Advertising & Marketing
Trend% Advertisers% Agencies
Increase5973
Remain the
same
3124
Decrease60
Remain at zero42

Expected Trend in Share of SEM in Total Online Spending

Ireland SEM spend as % of total advertising/marketing spend statistics March 2007

Expected Trend in Share of SEM in Total Online Spending
Trend% Advertisers% Agencies
Increase4860
Remain the
same
4228
Decrease25
Remain at zero88
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7 Comments »

  1. Great info Richard!

    Comment by Thomas Holmes — March 23, 2007 @ 1:41 pm

  2. Hi Thomas

    The only shame was that they forgot to ask which search engine people used. Someone in the audience asked Gerard O’Neill about this and he was very hoenst and replied that it was one of those ‘why didn’t we ask that’ moments.

    But someone from Google made reference to the figures from the UK and Spain being ~80% and ~96% respectively, and that Ireland was more likely to be closer to Spain. Sort reinforces my own belief that Google executes around 90% of Irish search queries.

    Rgds
    Richard

    Comment by Richard Hearne — March 23, 2007 @ 1:57 pm

  3. It is kinda shocking they didn’t ask that. But they did get some good data anyway. Google’s figures are sure to be incredible! Not much real competition from Yahoo or MSN.

    Comment by Thomas Holmes — March 23, 2007 @ 2:30 pm

  4. Thanks for this Richard.

    On the subject of which search engine, I’d have also been interested to know, of the users who search using Google in Ireland, what percentage use Google.ie vs Google.com.

    Comment by frankp — March 29, 2007 @ 10:48 pm

  5. No idea Frank. I have seen some stats for the UK, but cant remember off the top of my head. If I can find them I’ll let you know.

    Rgds
    Richard

    Comment by Richard Hearne — March 29, 2007 @ 11:07 pm

  6. Hi Richard, Great site, 1st time visitor!
    http://www.redcardinal.ie was recommended to be on the Google forum after I raised this question;

    “I was wondering if anyone knew of a resource where one could find out how many people search from the regional pages .i.e. “pages from Ireland” over “the web” in Google”

    Would you have any idea or resources on this topic?
    Thanks in advance
    Ciara

    Comment by Ciara — May 30, 2007 @ 2:14 pm

  7. Hi Ciara

    Thanks for dropping by my tiny piece of the web. I cant offer you any more I’m afraid. I know a couple of SEO’s that ran some stats on this for other countries (if memory porves me correct then UK was far higher than I thought it would be – ~40-50% ‘pages from UK’).

    Nothing in concrete unfortunately. There is a way to mine this from Google Analytics, but it’s quite advanced to set this up.

    Sorry I cant help more,
    Rgds
    Richard

    Comment by Richard Hearne — May 31, 2007 @ 11:29 am

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