The cost of carrying out search engine marketing has decreased over the past 12 months, new research has revealed.

According to a study by Efficient Frontier, the second quarter of 2009 brought a decrease in cost per clicks (CPCs) of between 20 per cent and 31 per cent, news that may be welcomed by companies carrying out search engine optimisation.

The findings showed CPCs on Google saw the sharpest decline at 31 per cent, followed by Bing and Yahoo, which saw falls of 30 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

And the research also revealed that return on investment for companies increased two per cent over the same time period, enabling advisers to achieve higher click volumes at a reduced cost.

Jonathan Beeston, client services director for Efficient Frontier in Europe, explained that advertisers are making their search marketing budgets "work harder than ever before".

"This is a great time for smart advertisers to take advantage of the opportunity and gain ground on their competitors," he explained.

A survey by Marketing Sherpa recently revealed that the cost of acquiring the services of search engine optimisation specialists has also fallen over the past two years.