In the UK, adverts shown on mobile devices accounted for more than a third (36%) of all paid search spend in Q2 2014, which is the highest on record. In turn the UK also witnessed the highest proportion of clicks coming through mobile ads – 38% of all paid search clicks during the quarter.
So finds the latest quarterly data from Kenshoo, a global provider in predictive media optimisation technology.
The growth and competition for mobile search ads in the UK has driven up the price (CPC) of mobile paid search. The price of ads on phones has seen a big rise, reaching a CPC of €0.44 (from €0.31 in Q2 2013), while ads on tablets continue to be sold at a premium with a CPC of €0.46 (up from €0.40 in Q2 2013).
“The increased share of spend and clicks taken by mobile could in part be due to the success of Google’s enhanced campaigns, which simplifies the process of creating Google AdWords campaigns,” says Justin Thorne, regional marketing director for EMEA at Kenshoo. “Since migration to enhanced campaigns, search advertisers no longer have to run separate campaigns targeting desktops, tablets and mobiles – all devices can be served with ads within the same campaign, making it much easier to target mobile devices.”
The research reveals the total volume of clicks on search ads rose by 11% YoY in Q2 while total impressions have fallen by 6%. This indicates that advertisers are getting better at targeting their ads and running more efficient campaigns which also means click-through rate (CTR) has risen by 17% YoY to 1.8% in Q2 2014.
“The data shows a healthy paid search market in EMEA, with advertisers enjoying increasing revenue from their advertising through more efficient campaigns,” says Thorne. “Advertisers’ confidence in the paid search channel and strong demand for keywords means the price of search advertising has continued to rise – reaching a cost-per-click (CPC) of €0.43, up from €0.38 in 2013.”
Germany continues to demonstrate efficiency in paid search advertising with high a relative CTR of 2.0% and low relative CPC of €0.31. The CPC for France in Q2 was €0.45 with the CTR of 0.7% reflecting a more discerning French consumer carefully evaluating adverts before clicking. Paid search in France is expected to increase by 5% in 2014 per Zenith Optimedia and will accelerate more quickly in the next 5 years.
The paid search results in the study are based on five quarters of performance data from over 6,000 Kenshoo advertiser and agency profiles across all regions, including 17 vertical industries and 51 countries, spanning the Google, Baidu, Bing, Yahoo!, and Yahoo! Japan ad networks. Only accounts based in EMEA with five consecutive quarters of stable data from April 2013 through June 2014 were included in this analysis.
