Consumers’ attitudes towards search engine marketing

This study presents a phenomenon called search engine marketing (SEM), and an empirical study on how Finnish consumers perceive it and what role do search engines play in consumers’ online buying processes. SEM is most usually divided into search engine optimization, which focuses on achieving high rankings in search results, and paid placement, which is basically an advertisement space sold by search engines. Empirical data with 314 responses was gathered from several Finnish online communities in order to gain understanding about the following issues: 1) How do consumers use search engines to gain knowledge about the products they desire? 2) What are their attitudes towards search engine marketing? 3) What is the search engine’s role in the purchase process?