A new report from the industry's leading search marketing lobby claims that advertisers are eyeing mobile search, but don't want to pay for it.

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization's annual State of Search Engine Marketing Report found that 40 percent of respondents have an interest in mobile search. But a quarter of these marketers said they want to pay less for mobile search than for traditional search advertising.

"To me what's interesting is when we first started tracking this and we talked about new media, we generally had people thinking they would pay a premium,' said Dana Todd, chairman of SEMPO and executive vice president and cofounder of interactive shop SiteLab Interactive, La Jolla, CA. "We have a more mature advertising marketing place now and it's not as simple as just writing a text ad.

"Advertisers are actually unwilling to pay a premium," she said. "They said they are open to paying for demographic and behavioral targeting but not willing to pay for keyword targeting."

About a third of advertiser respondents in the SEMPO report claim they want to pay the same for mobile search as they're currently paying for traditional search.

"There is definitely a market for mobile and it's going to take off, but there are just so many challenges as of now," said Neil Strother, analyst at JupiterResearch, Kirkland, WA.

"Let's start with the fact that not everyone has a data plan for their phone," he said. "Our research shows that 90 percent of people who have data plans browse the mobile Web at least once a month, but these stats are much higher for online search, making it way more appealing to advertisers.

"I feel like consumers don't understand mobile search just yet," he said. "They understand the idea of it -- entering a keyword and getting results back -- but don't understand fully what the capabilities are. There is click-to-call, for example. Also the search results are not very optimized and I am not quite sure how relevant they are either."

Mr. Strother was not involved with the SEMPO study.

The SEMPO report surveyed 867 search engine advertisers and search engine marketing agencies.

The 2007 survey showed direct sales and branding are the top objectives of paid placement programs, whether they be via mobile or online.

Almost identical to the 2006 survey results, advertisers report their primary objectives for search engine marketing spending are direct sales (58 percent) and increased brand awareness (61 percent).

Twenty percent of respondents report they are trying to generate leads for sales they will close and for sales a dealer or distributor will close.

Another two in five advertisers report they are trying to drive traffic to an ad-supported site.

"Besides the fact that the volume of usage is not high yet, not all companies are optimizing their sites for mobile search," Mr. Strother said. "Not all phones have the right capabilities and not all people have GPS - all things that we expect will drive mobile search forward."

Mr. Strother said that 3G, GPS, better-optimized WAP sites and more data plan users will drive mobile search usage and consequently attract advertisers.

"The possibilities are incredible, we are just not there yet," Mr. Strother said. "It will take time and a bigger critical mass, with more smartphone users, speed and an overall better experience."

More than 50 percent of respondents in the SEMPO study tracked the following success metrics for search engine marketing campaigns: site traffic, post-click conversion, click-through rate, ROI, cost-per-click, cost-per-action, cost of sales generation and sales volume.

"It is not pleasant waiting for mobile search results," Mr. Strother said. "It is going to take another leap in volume of people with capable phones for monetization to take off. I think it is going to be a slow process and will take about three to five years and it will be big in the next decade."

The 2007 SEMPO global survey of online marketers was conducted by Radar Research and administered via IntelliSurvey Inc.

"The mobile search industry needs to prove it has a qualified and valuable audience and it needs to be easier for search marketers to participate," SiteLab's Ms. Todd said.