Q1 2018 | Marin Software

Key Findings

Search Growth

%

EURO

%

Globally search spend increased by 11%, with Eurozone growth outstripping more mature markets like the UK and the US.

Mobile Share

%

OF SEARCH SPEND

Mobile represents an increasing share of spend and clicks, and still offers a 33% discount versus desktop CPCs globally.

Dynamic Ads Growth

+

%

YEAR OVER YEAR

The highly personalized ad format based on user browsing behavior was up 37% year over year.

Search Trends

Search spend continued to grow in Q1 2018 year over year (YoY), driven more by increases in CPCs than clicks. Globally, spend growth was highest in Healthcare (26%) and Automotive (21%) industries. CTRs are up 25% YoY, showing how mobile and improved ad targeting allow publishers to deliver more relevant ads to people.

Click Volume

Spend

CPC

CTR

Search CPCs

CPCs show some significant regional differences, both in the average CPC as well as across different verticals. CPCs for EMEA clients offer a significant discount at $0.40, when compared with CPCs in the US ($0.88) and UK ($0.85).

Google Shopping

Google Shopping campaigns continue to capture over 30% of ad share spend globally. However, it’s interesting to note that the UK has the highest share of Google Shopping ad spend at 41% versus 30% in the US and 33% in EMEA, showing that the digital retail advertising market in the UK is more established.

Search Creatives

There continues to be a gradual shift away from single creative ad groups, dropping from 30% of spend in Q4 to 27.5% in Q1. As Google is using machine learning to deliver the right ad creative to the right person, we feel that this trend is moving in the right direction.

Social growth by product

The main social ad formats are growing over 35% YoY, with Dynamic Ads coming down significantly from the Q4 holiday spike.

Each quarter, we aggregate advertising performance across our customer base, and share our results with digital marketing professionals to compare against their own initiatives. In addition to global industry trends, we explore the most compelling areas of digital marketing, including the evolution of mobile, the best use of creative for more clicks and market share, and using the right search and social tools to attract the right customers.

Benchmarks are calculated using a “same store sales” approach with only the advertisers who were clients during Q1 2017 to Q1 2018. Performance of a specific segment may be materially influenced by performance of one or two larger advertisers.