With more businesses placing greater emphasis on their websites for attracting and converting leads, the competition has never been fiercer in online marketing. Some businesses are more costly and challenging to market online than others – and a digital marketing agency has crunched the numbers to find out exactly who these are.

 

SEO Shark (seoshark.com.au) has researched and compiled the average cost of an ad to appear at the top of Google (called ‘top of page’ bids) for popular, relevant keyword searches across 21 business categories, from home loans and travel to medical centres and real estate agencies. SEO Shark compiled around 15 popular terms for each business category and then averaged the top-of-page bid across each group of terms. SEO Shark then ranked the 21 business categories – from the highest cost to lowest cost – according to their average top of page bid.

 

The findings reveal that IT services are the most costly business to market. While searches for IT services are relatively low – at 7,780 searches per month – the average cost of a top-of-page bid across its most popular keyword search terms – such as ‘IT support’, ‘IT consulting firms’ and ‘managed IT services’ – is $107.60.

 

Insurance products are the second most costly business category to market online – at $88.15 per top-of-page bid across this category’s most popular keyword search terms, such as ‘health insurance’, ‘compare car insurance’ and ‘home insurance quotes’. This category also attracts a high volume of daily searches, at an average of 389,920.

 

Legal services came in as the third most costly business category to market, with an average top-of-page bid cost of $84.90. This category attracts an average of 45,080 monthly searches from its most popular keyword search terms, which include ‘family law’, ‘Sydney criminal lawyer’ and ‘estate lawyers’.

 

On the other hand, retail is the cheapest business category to market – even though this category attracts a relatively modest online demand, at 54,180 searches per month. Retail averages $1.90 per top-of-page bid across its most popular keyword search terms, such as ‘online shopping’, ‘clothes online’ and ‘cheap online shopping’.

 

Fitness is the second cheapest business category to market online – at $7.45 per top-of-page bid across this category’s most popular keyword search terms, such as ‘gym’, ‘personal trainer’ and ‘cheap gyms near me’. This category also attracts a high volume of daily searches, at an average of 128,390.

 

Gifts and flowers came in at the third cheapest business category to market, with an average top-of-page bid cost of $8. This category attracts an average of 190,350 monthly searches from its most popular keyword search terms, such as ‘florist’, ‘flower delivery’ and ‘anniversary gifts’.

 

Lucas Bikowski, Managing Director and Senior SEO Strategist at SEO Shark says: “With more consumers relying on search engines to find what they need, the online landscape now makes up the majority of marketing and sales budgets for many businesses. The cost of an ad is an indicator of how challenging it will be to market that product or service. Many businesses are investing in creating a website that ticks all the SEO boxes, including keyword strategy to make sure their site appears at the top of a user’s search page.

 

“High search volumes don’t guarantee a lower top of page bid. At the end of the day, it's all to do with return on investment on any particular keyword. For example, an IT company that is bidding on the keyphrase ‘managed IT services’ knows that an IT service contract will last for about year or so. If you compare this to someone searching for ‘travel insurance’, which people often purchase at a one-off basis, you can begin to understand why there is a fluctuation in the numbers and why some industries are harder to market.”

 

Industries and its average top page of bid and monthly search volumes
*keywords available upon request

 

Industry		Average top of page bid		Average monthly search volumes
IT		107.60		7,780
Insurance		88.15		389,920
Legal		84.90		45,080
Marketing		66.90		20,070
Real Estate		63.80		26,140
Trades		50.90		68,290
Wellness & Allied Health		40.75		274,180
Home Loan		34.60		59,110
Telecommunications		29.15		120,610
Accounting & Advisory		27.70		36,520
Education		21.50		68,140
Fashion		17.90		382,270
Food & Dining		17.50		1,241,870
Beauty		16.50		307,710
Aged care		15.30		33,250
Recruitment		12.90		19,830
Travel		11.75		1,053,400
Medical centre		9.45		120,540
Gifts & Flowers		8.00		190,350
Fitness		7.45		128,390
Retail		1.90		54,180

About SEO Shark

Established in 2007, SEO Shark is a highly reputable digital marketing agency which has achieved SEO results across its portfolio of multinational clients, ASX-listed companies, and SMEs. It boasts a 4.9/5 Google rating, a 4.9/5 Facebook rating, and an 8.8/10 Trustpilot rating. For more information, visit www.seoshark.com.au.