The metrics-centricity of search marketing is an advantage that search marketers tend to have over traditional ad agencies: Since SEMs have had to prove the value they deliver, they "have had to evolve into 'metrics marketers,' and use them to justify their existence," ClickZ quotes Danny Sullivan as saying at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York. SEMs can leverage those "metrics marketer" skills on behalf of clients as the emphasis on delivering results extends into other marketing disciplines, according to senior execs on the "Search Advertising: Now & Future" panel at the conference.

Those disciplines have begun to focus on using data to target consumer intent and deliver relevant messages, according to Gerry Campbell, VP and GM of search and navigation at AOL.

"The big thing about search is the ability to target consistently, and second is the ability to track them," said Tim Cadogan, VP of search at Yahoo Search Marketing. "There's a lot of potential in harnessing consumer intent."

According to Tim Armstrong, VP of ad sales at Google, "Most agencies competitively aren't set up to manage their business from a spreadsheet the way search marketers do. They shouldn't be nervous, but they should be putting energy into understanding metrics."