Interview on paid-search with Nick Jones of Overture - As Category Services Director, Nick Jones is responsible for developing all vertical categories across Overture in the UK, including Travel, Retail, Automotive, IT & Telecoms, Property, Finance and Recruitment. Nick is also directly responsible for the Travel sector. Nick has spoken at numerous conferences and seminars, including Internet World and travel industry events.

Prior to joining Overture, Nick obtained some early e-commerce experience at Corbis, the stock photography company. He holds a Masters degree in Modern History from Glasgow University.

1. How has search marketing evolved over the past five years?

Paid search now accounts for 40% of online ad spend in the UK - given the fact that the model didn't even exist in Europe five years ago, you can see that search marketing has been a growth phenomenon...

Compared to the start of search marketing five years ago, there are now many different sponsored search products to help advertisers, for example contextual advertising, mobile search and local search.

In addition, tracking tools have become more and more sophisticated by default - advertisers are now wiser to the fact that they need to track their clicks through to conversion if they are to get the most from their sponsored search campaigns.

Increasingly, search marketers are looking at the use of search marketing for branding purposes and to drive purchases offline - marketers now appear to be taking a more holistic view of search.