Though it will come as no surprise to many within the search marketing world, many small business owners will be surprised to hear that in many instances, organic search engine marketing produces a far better return on investment than pay-per-click campaigns.

The study, published this morning by iProspect looks at the return on investment and tracking information provided by companies that outsource both their pay-per-click management and their organic search engine marketing.

"For those new to the search engine marketing space, it would seem logical to conclude that based upon the vast number of marketers participating in pay per click advertising that it would be a more lucrative channel than natural search engine optimization -- which is known to involve a lot more work. But, the numbers speak for themselves" said iProspect President, Robert Murray.

Findings from the study include:

• 35% of organizations that outsource their natural search engine optimization and also participate in pay per click advertising -- and can measure the ROI of each -- recognize a higher return from SEO
• 42% of search marketers who outsource BOTH the management of their SEO and the PPC campaigns, find that search engine optimization produces a higher ROI.

Unfortunately, the study also showed that 45% of marketers who participate in both natural search engine optimization and pay per click advertising cannot determine whether SEO or PPC provides a higher ROI. This tells me that while it's good news that search engine marketing is being embraced by the business world, we've still got a long ways to go when it comes to educating business owners on how to track the return on their search marketing investment. After all, how can you spend your money where it has the most impact if you don't know where it has the most impact?

Read the iProspect Outsourced SEO Metrics & ROI Study.