Whether you're into e-commerce or search arbitrage the holidays often represent a perfect opportunity to launch a PPC advertising campaign. After all, more users are searching more services than any other time of years. Of course, the flip side of that coin is (1) keywords are that much more competitive, so (2) the risks associated with poor PPC campaign management are at their highest. Indeed, this is why it's essential to both plan well in advance and employ seasonal ad copy.

If you're new to PPC, then, you face the tough choice of whether to gamble on either foregoing a potentially lucrative opportunity or squandering your online ad budget on inexperience. For first time advertisers looking to target UK audiences, however, the folks over at Neutralize (an SEM agency) have released a free 64 page report on the current state of the UK search marketing landscape. As the press release explains:

(PRWEB) November 16, 2007 -- Neutralize's (http://www.neutralize.com) UK Search Engine Marketing Report 2007 which was conducted in association with e-consultancy offers readers a comprehensive analysis of the UK Search environment. The 64-page report, covering both Search Engine Optimisation and Paid Search, is based on an online survey of more than 700 respondents this year.

The report findings are divided into the following sections:

Type of Search Activity and Search Services

Search Budget

Objectives and Effectiveness

Search Engines

Search Problems and Issues

With the New Year fast approaching many marketers are looking ahead to their 2008 planning and this report will offer invaluable insight for both companies and agencies' looking to gain a greater understanding of search engine marketing.

This report, of course, is likely to contain terminology that, as a newbie, could be confusing. For this, however, Neutralize offers 3 introductory videos that cover the topics of search engine marketing, search engine optimization, and PPC respectively. For tutorials on these, however, we'd recommend checking out our own clips on What is PPC and What is SEM because, well, they're more entertaining and you always learn more when you're enjoying yourself. In fact, we even have one called Affiliate Marketing in a Nutshell. But hey, you can watch both sets of videos and make your own mind up...