The State of Search Engine Marketing Report 2010, produced by Econsultancy in association with SEMPO, looks in-depth at how companies are using paid search, search engine optimization (natural search) and social media marketing.

The report, which also contains a marketplace valuation, follows a survey of just under 1,500 respondents from both companies (client-side advertisers) and agencies, and is based on data from 68 different countries collected in January and February 2010.

The findings cover spending, current challenges, use of specific search engines and emerging trends across paid search, SEO and social media. The study, SEMPO's sixth annual State of Search Report, also contains year-on-year trends and breakouts of company and agency findings in each section.   

The 112-page report includes the following sections: 

• Paid search, SEO & social media marketing (which types of marketing are companies and agencies engaging in?)
• Budgets
• Search engines (including information specifically about Google, Bing and Yahoo) 
• Objectives and metrics
• Resourcing and outsourcing
• Social media and search marketing trends

Key findings include: 

• Google dominates, with 97% of companies paying to advertise on Google AdWords. 
• On average, companies expect to spend 43% more on SEO in 2010 than they did in 2009.
• Social media marketing budgets are still modest compared to search engine optimization and paid search. 
• The number of companies who engage in search engine optimization (90%) has remained steady since 2007, while the proportion of companies carrying out paid search marketing (now 81%) has increased from 78% in 2009 and 70% in 2008.
• Three quarters of companies are using Facebook (74%) and Twitter (73%) to promote their brands or companies. 

You can download a free sample of this report to learn more, and to see the full contents section.