Q3 Shows Steady Trends as Companies Ramp Up for the Holiday Rush

By Kylee Hall October 10th, 2012

Marin Software just released our latest global online advertising trends report for Q3 2012. As with previous quarters, we built this report using the Marin Global Online Advertising Index, which includes over 1,800 advertisers and agencies that invest over $4.0 billion annually in biddable media through the Marin platform.

As noted in our mobile report earlier this year, we are seeing staggering growth around the adoption of smartphones and tablets for search advertising. We are well on our way to hitting our prediction that mobile devices will account for 25% of all paid search clicks on Google by December of this year.

There have also been a number of headlines around Facebook enhancing its advertising offerings, including: new ad formats, view-through metrics, mobile-specific targeting and a number of other features. We continue to see a focus on Facebook as marketers begin to explore this social channel further.

In the US, Google continued its search dominance by garnering 81% of US spend share and 79% of US click share while controlling 66.4% of overall US search volumes (according to Comscore). Despite falling behind in overall click share, Yahoo! and Bing are continuing to show solid growth in aggregate click volume.

At a geographic level, here are some other key findings from the US, UK and Eurozone:

• In the US, paid search click volume rose by 20% accompanied by a 21% increase in impression volumes, while CPCs decreased from $0.95 in Q3 2012 to $0.82 in Q3 2012
• UK advertisers saw paid search click volume and impressions remain relatively flat with both CPC and CTR seeing increases versus Q2 2012
• Both paid search click and impression volume rose by ~20% in the Eurozone; the average CPC rose from €0.27 in Q3 2011 to €0.34 in Q3 2012 while the CTR remained relatively flat

Read the full report with additional data and trends here.

Digital Marketing Depot Evaluates Paid Search Management Solutions

By Kye Mou June 18th, 2012

Last week, Digital Marketing Depot released the second edition of their Market Intelligence Report. This report examines 10 of the industry leading paid search management platforms and highlights what each is doing to integrate Facebook and other social media advertising into their solutions. To prime the discussion, the report provides an overview of several compelling industry trends, including:

• Search revenues increased 27% from $11.7 billion in 2010 to $14.8 billion in 2011
• Search revenues represented 46.5% of the online advertising market in 2011, up from 44.8% in 2010.
• In 2011, online advertising surpassed cable television spending for the first time and was the second most popular advertising medium (to broadcast television)
• 84% of advertisers use Facebook for marketing, up from 73% in 2010
• Between 2010 and 2011, advertising spend on Facebook increased by 68%, from $1.89 billion to $3.15 billion

Less than 49% of companies now manage their paid search program in-house using Excel and free publisher tools, this is down from 57% in 2009. Digital Marketing Depot’s annual report seeks to help online marketers make an informed decision when abandoning in-house tools in favor of third-party paid search management platforms. Some interesting trends and highlights of the profiled vendors include:

• Profiled vendors range from the largest, Marin Software, with more than $4.0 billion in annual ad spend under management, to one of the smallest, SearchForce, with $500 million in annual ad spend under management
• DoubleClick Search is the only profiled vendor that does not support Facebook campaign management and optimization, or automated campaign management based on an inventory feed
• Every profiled vendor features algorithmic bid optimization, keyword-level attribution and multi-channel attribution capabilities
• Clickable is the only profiled vendor that does not have display buying capabilities

To round out the discussion, the report highlights 15 questions online marketers should ask potential vendors, stressing that the functionality of each toolset within a solution should be considered closely beyond simple campaign and bid management.

Facebook Sees ROI with Social Ad Adoption

By Kye Mou May 8th, 2012

Marin Software released data this week highlighting the recent gains in social ad adoption by Facebook advertisers. New ad formats, such as Sponsored Stories, leverage word-of-mouth recommendations to bring social context to traditional ad creative. These highly relevant social ads are becoming a more effective way for Facebook advertisers to reach and engage their target audience. Some of the key data include:

• A 50% increase in click-through-rate (CTR) for social ads year-over-year
• An increase from 5% to 23% in Facebook ad budgets allocated towards social ads
• An 86% increase in cost-per-click (CPC) for social ads year-over-year

These year-over-year increases point towards a strong advertiser adoption rate. The relevant nature of social ads, coupled with strong CTRs, has caused a shift in advertising budgets from traditional ads to social ads. With the increasing adoption rate, competition amongst advertisers has resulted in increasing CPCs. Given current trends, Marin predicts that Facebook advertisers will allocate 50% of their budget towards social ad formats by the end of 2012. This would mark a significant jump from the current 23%.

For advance tips and best practices on implementing and managing Facebook ads, click here.