by Claudia Bruemmer

A new report by online marketing agency Webmarketing123 reports that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the top source of leads for both B2B and B2C marketers − better than PPC and social media marketing. However, more marketers (60 percent) will be increasing social media marketing efforts over SEO and PPC in 2012. Read on to find out why.

The 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report surveyed over 500 U.S. online marketers in August and September. Approximately two-thirds of the respondents were B2B marketers. Both B2B and B2C marketers agreed SEO had the biggest impact on generating leads. In their responses, 57 percent of B2B marketers and 41 percent of B2C marketers said SEO was their primary source for generating leads.

Website Traffic Best Measure of Success

Both B2B and B2C marketers said website traffic is their primary means for measuring online marketing success. Conversely, brand awareness was at the bottom of the list for measuring success by both B2B and B2C respondents.

Marketing Budget Allocations Differ

The digital marketing survey included several budget-related questions. One question asked which marketing tactic gets the majority of their marketing budget. The B2B marketers favored SEO with 33.3 percent indicating SEO gets the majority of their marketing budget. However, the B2C marketers favored PPC, with 42.5 percent indicating PPC gets the majority of their marketing budget. That’s almost double the number of B2C marketers who said SEO is their top budget allocation. No surprise there.

Plans to Increase Social Media Marketing

Overall, 60 percent of respondents said they plan to increase their budget for social media marketing in 2012. For SEO, 53 percent plan to increase their budget, and for PPC, 40 percent will increase budget.

The increases in social media spending can be explained by the statistics below, which came out in the survey.

• 68 percent said they generated leads from either Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn
• 55 percent closed deals from social media leads

Download the Report

You can download the 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report from the webmarketing 123 website by providing your name and contact information. There is a very interesting infographic illustrating a number of the statistics from the survey in Search Engine Land’s article, Infographic: Digital Marketer Views on SEO, PPC & Sopcial Media.