Advertiser spending on paid search rose 18% in 2012 according to Covario’s Global Search Advertising Spend Analysis, which tracks paid search spending in more than 45 countries. That growth trend is down just slightly from the 21% annual increase Covario reported for 2011. In Q4 Google commanded 86.5% of global paid search spend and a whopping 93% of impressions.  Advertisers spent 13% more on search spending with Google than they did a year ago.  Spending on the Yahoo Bing Network increased 23% over the past year, however spend fell 6% from Q3. Source: Covario Regional Outloo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: General | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Marketing: General | SEM Industry: General | SEM Industry: Stats | Stats: Spend Projections

Although there's long been a debate over the accuracy of health information online, many U.S. Internet users aren't hesitant to use the Web when they want answers to health-related questions. And rather than dedicated health sites, the vast majority of them begin their research at a search engine. A new study out tonight from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project says that 72 percent of U.S. Internet users have gone online in the past year specifically for health-related information, and 77 percent of that group says their research started at Google, Bing or another [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search & Society: General | Search Engines: Health & Medical Search Engines | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Later today comScore will release its US search market share numbers for December 2012. Based on early release information from Wall Street analysts this is what the numbers will be: Google: 66.7 percent (vs. 67 percent in November) Bing: 16.3 percent (vs. 16.2 percent in November) Yahoo: 12.2 percent (vs. 12.1 percent in November) Ask: 3.0 percent (vs. 3.0 percent in November) AOL: 1.8 percent (vs. 1.7 percent in November) What these data reflect is continued growth for Bing and general stability for Google at between 66 and 67 percent market share. However Yahoo-Bing Search Al [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: comScore | Top News

Two reports out this morning from Marin Software and IgnitionOne capture a range of Q4 paid search ad spending data. For purposes of this article I'm going to focus only on the mobile component of the reports. Both show paid search spending on tablets surpassing smartphones. The IgnitionOne report, focused on the US market, shows that mobile devices now account for 18 percent of total paid-search budgets. However in Q4 tablet metrics grew dramatically faster than those for smartphones. Right now IgnitionOne says CPCs are lower on tablets, while impressions and clicks are much higher for tab [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Search Marketing: Mobile | Stats | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

A new survey from Harris Interactive on behalf of The Search Agency finds, among other things, that large numbers of people in the US don't really understand how Facebook and Google make money. The online survey was conducted in August 2012 with a sample of just over 2,000 adults. The Search Agency (via Harris) asked whether people agreed with the question "I understand how Facebook makes money." A slight majority (54 percent) said that they strongly or somewhat agreed. On the flip side, 46 percent essentially did not understand. However even among the 54 percent who said they understoo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

What was the most viewed article on Wikipedia this year? The one about Facebook. Is Facebook really that popular of a Wikipedia topic? Perhaps, but more likely, confused searchers are getting to the Wikipedia page rather than Facebook itself. Yesterday on Toolserver.org, a service of Wikipedia Germany, lists of  the Top 100 most viewed articles for 2012 were released. The data mining was done by Johan Gunnarsson, a computer science student in Sweden. Rankings for 35 different Wikipedias (by language) are available. You can find all of the lists here. Here's a look at the Top 10 most v [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search Engines: Wikipedia | Stats: Popularity | Top News

For the fourth straight year, "facebook" was the most common search term in the U.S. this year -- part of an increase in navigational searching that saw one-word searches rise 16 percent in 2012. That's according to Experian Marketing Services, which announced its list of 2012's top search terms today. The data covers search activity on more than 60 search engines and website visits between January and November of this year, but doesn't include mobile searches or traffic. Experian says "facebook" accounted for 4.13 percent of all searches, a 33 percent increase over 2011. Other Faceb [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Features: General | Stats: Hitwise | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Yesterday comScore released its November search market share data. The distribution and trends are consistent with what has been happening over the past several months: Google is stable, Bing has gained incrementally, Yahoo lost some share (mostly to partner Bing) and the others have gained or lost a fraction of a point. Stepping back, comScore said that across the web in November "69.4 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google, while 25.4 percent of searches were powered by Bing (up 0.4 percentage points)." Thus there's clearly a "duopoly" in search: Google and Bing. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: comScore | Top News

Don't worry, Google's year in review for 2012 isn't that predictable for the once in a lifetime calendar event. On the official Google 2012 Zeitgeist website, you'll find their biggest list ever published, with a total of 838 lists from 55 countries, covering 1.2 trillion searches done worldwide. Digging in deeper, Google has divided the massive data set into two major buckets: Trending Searches: What was hot in 2012? The "trending" queries are the searches that had the highest amount of traffic over a sustained period in 2012 as compared to 2011. Most Searched: What topped Google’s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Features: Analysis | Google: Trends | Search & Society: General | Stats: General

Google and Bing both hit all-time highs in U.S. search market share in October, while overall desktop search activity was up eight percent from the month before. All of that's according to comScore's October 2012 search activity/rankings report. Google's market share rose two-tenths of a point, from 66.7 percent in September to 66.9 percent in October. Bing gained a tenth of a point and reached 16 percent in October. Both of those numbers represent all-time highs using comScore's estimates. Yahoo was static for the month and Ask's share was down. Desktop search activity was up sig [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: comScore | Stats: Popularity | Top News

Anyone involved with online retail should be well aware of just how critical holiday revenues are, not only to a strong fourth quarter, but to our success for the entire year. An RKG analysis of 2011 paid-search results shows that, on average, retailers generated 18% of their annual revenues over the 30 day period starting with Thanksgiving Day, with daily sales volume coming in at nearly triple the rate of the rest of the year. But, revenue volume isn't the only metric that shifts significantly during the holiday season, and as we'll see below, the assumptions and strategies that serve us [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM | Stats: Search Behavior

Earlier today Nielsen, xAd and Telmetrics released the third part of their "mobile path to purchase" study conducted earlier this year. The research focused on three verticals: restaurants, travel and autos. While almost all the mobile and tablet users doing research on these devices are highly qualified purchasers, there are differences in the consumer behavior from vertical to vertical. The data released today pertain to the automotive category. The study uncovered four types of mobile automotive users: Auto researchers Deal hunters Circumstantial or emergency users Gear head [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Google continues to lose marketshare in China after pulling out of China years ago. New market share reports from Marbridge Consulting puts Google in forth place in terms of search market share. Google trails Baidu, Qihoo 360, and Sogou with only 4.72% share in China. Baidu has 72.97%, Qihoo 360 has 9.64% and Sogou has 7.83%. TheNextWeb adds that Google Maps also dropped, now in the 6th position based on China market share. The reason for the drop on the maps side is because of Apple dropping Google Maps in iOS 6 for their own mapping application. Here is the search market share rep [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Outside US | Stats: General | Stats: Popularity | Top News

Only 89.33% of internet searches in the UK were conducted on Google sites last month, according to Experian Hitwise. It's the first time in the last five years that Google search market share in the UK has ever dipped below 90%. While Google's share dropped, other players -- especially Microsoft's Bing -- picked up market share. Bing grew to encompass 4.71% of all searches, which was a 2012 peak for the engine. Experian Hitwise suspects that October's launch of Windows 8 -- which uses Bing as the default search engine -- may have been a factor in Bing's share increase. Yahoo sites an [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Web Search | Channel: Strategy | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Stats: Hitwise | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size | Top News

By the time this election is over more than $2.6 billion will have been spent by the two US presidential candidates on political advertising. I've also seen some estimates that say total political advertising this election cycle will top $6 billion. Yet, remarkably, The Atlantic points to a Google Trends report showing a huge November spike for the query "Who's running for president?" "Who's Running for President?" If you compare "Obama" to "Romney," Google Trends reflects that Obama comes out just ahead of Romney, the same way many believe this election will turn out later this evening. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Features: Analysis | Google: Trends | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Spend Projections

It's almost unanimous: 94 percent of U.S. teachers say their students equate "research" with using Google or other search engines -- more so than Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias. But teachers are less sure that their students are effective searchers, and they're more skeptical than most adults about the accuracy and trustworthiness of information that's found via search engines. The data comes from a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project in conjunction with the College Board and the National Writing Project. Nearly 2,500 middle and high scho [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features: Analysis | Google: Web Search | Search & Society: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Earlier this morning I wrote a post about how most search marketers were failing to utilize mobile paid search and/or not following mobile best practices. Failing to "get your act together" (from a mobile standpoint) could be costly for marketers of all sizes this holiday season. There have already been a dozen or so surveys that basically show consumers anticipate using their smartphones more often or more aggressively as part of their holiday shopping. Google echoed this today with a blog post that argued smartphone-based search will be even more pronounced this year, especially around he [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Stats: Search Behavior

Google has been pumping out research and speaking at industry trade shows trying to educate advertisers and agencies about the growing importance of mobile in the consumer path to purchase. One of the "best practices" advocated by Google, as well as those experienced with mobile paid search, is to separate PC and mobile campaigns. However new data from Wordstream indicate this is only happening in about 5 percent of cases. Wordstream founder and CTO Larry Kim looked at the company's huge trove of data and determined that 55 percent of paid-search campaigns target mobile devices. Given th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Web Search | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

In the third quarter of 2012, click share on the Yahoo Bing Network rose to 21.3%, the fourth quarter in a row the network has posted gains. Google dropped to 78.7% in share, though based on click traffic, Google still outpaced YBN. These are stats from the Search Agency's State of Paid Search report for the third quarter. Here's a look at click share over time: [caption id="attachment_138339" align="aligncenter" width="497"] Data and Image via The Search Agency[/caption] As you can see, YBN's share has consistently grown, while Google's has dropped. But the chart doesn't reflect th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Stats | Top News | Yahoo: Search Ads

Though investors seemed disappointed by Google's third-quarter numbers, its core AdWords business is going like gangbusters, according to a new study by WordStream. The software company found Google earning $100 million a day through AdWords in Q3, serving 5.5 billion impressions per day on search pages and 25.6 billion impressions per day on the Google Display Network. With $10.86 billion in ad revenue last quarter, we know that Google is making $121 million per day from ads. That's simple division and similar to Google's previous two quarters. But WordStream's focus on the $100 million fi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Stats | Top News