Two in every 100 visits to UK online shopping sites arrive via PPC: study

Two in every 100 visits to UK online shopping sites arrive via pay per click (PPC), a new study suggests.

SimilarWeb’s Global search marketing report 2016 analysed 2.8bn organic and paid searches that took place in 200 different countries in 2016 to discover which traffic channels bring visitors to ecommerce websites. SimilarWeb is a Knowledge Partner for the IRUK Top500, which publishes its latest report, on brand engagement, this week.

The study found that in the UK, 2.33% of visits to online desktop shopping comes via paid search, higher than the global average of 1.97%.

The success of PPC as an engagement channel varies by market and by shopping category. In Brazil, 4.14% of all online visits to shopping sites arrived via PPC, while 3.75% of visits did so in India. At the other end of the scale, 1.84% of visits to US sites come via PPC. Home and garden sites see 3.95% of traffic to their sites come via PPC, followed by sports sites (3.81%), jewellery (3%), clothing (2.67%) and consumer electronics (2.32%).

The report also determined which paid keywords were the most powerful – and expensive, finding that Amazon dominated. Paid clicks on the term drove 51.5m desktop visits around the world in January alone. In the home and garden category, Home Depot drove 5.13m visits, while Groupon drove 3.6m.

“In order to effectively target online shoppers at the moment they are looking to buy, it is essential for shopping websites to discover what paid and organic keywords send traffic to their competitors,” said Joel Zand, digital insights manager at SimilarWeb . “These insights help PPC experts and SEM strategists decide which paid marketing channels need improvement, and enables them to deploy more effective targeting in their paid search and display ad campaigns.”

The report