While most of the attention these days is given to the growth of social media and mobile applications as ways for business to capitalize online, one thing doesn’t seem to change much. That one thing is that search marketing delivers. Sure it fluctuates and there are changes happening all the time but a study conducted by Internet Retailer and brought to us by MediaPost shows that it performs. In the end, that’s what matters, right?

There are several other interesting points that the survey found not the least of which is that 43% of those checking in will be shifting some marketing dollars to search efforts with bing. Where will the money come from?

While talk is cheap (certainly cheaper than clicks) it will be interesting to see if bing really is making some progress in its quest to become a viable option for searchers and advertisers alike.

Budget allocation to search varies

In the end though it’s always about conversions and there is more indication that those are staying the same or going up rather than declining.

There are more charts and information here.

So what is your experience with search and where are you heading for the next year? Is it up? Is it down? Is it good? Is it bad? Surveys are fun but we want to get the scoop from some folks that may not qualify as an Internet Retailer “big boy”.