Mel Carson, Microsoft adCenter Community Manager

The recent report from the IAB/PWC shows that internet advertising spend will top £2.7 billion in 2007. If this isn’t exciting enough, then the 44% growth in the paid search sector must go a long way to show that search engine marketing is working, and working beautifully for advertisers.

The last 18 months has seen some great developments in the industry, helping marketers realise the web’s potential for targeting their wares to consumers through search in a myriad of ways. Whether it’s Yahoo!’s new Panama platform, Google Analytics or Microsoft adCenter’s demographic targeting capabilities, it is these innovative tools that are helping advertisers create better, more meaningful connections with consumers.

We see the future of search as being all about the data – not just where are my customers searching and what are they searching for? But who are my customers? Where are they coming from? Where are they going? How can I target them better? But it’s not just us! Marketers are, quite rightly, looking for more insight and a better return on investment and the search engines are responding!

This section of the IAB website gathers the thoughts of people in the industry passionate about search who are willing to empower you with information to help you get the most out of your campaigns - and give you some tips about other areas you may not have thought about.

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