Marin Software has released a report on paid click, CPC and conversion trends across the globe, with a focus on mobile. Called "The State of Mobile Search Advertising in the World," the 2012 data are drawn from search campaigns conducted in 13 geographies including the US, UK, China, Europe and Australia. Some of the findings, however, will effectively be rendered moot by Google's new Enhanced Campaigns, which lump together PC and tablet targeting and create new default pricing intended, in part, to equalize CPC prices across platforms. Source: Marin Software Marin forecasts in th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Web Search | SEM Industry: Stats | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News

Since roughly 2006 Naver has been the leading search site in South Korea. Consistently Google has been unable to break through and -- according to various traffic estimates -- has less than 5 percent of the market there. That's as recently as Q4 of last year according to data I've seen. Mysteriously, however, StatCounter is now showing Google soundly defeating Naver, and having done so since February of last year. I'm not in the habit of checking the status of the Korean search market often so this is the first time I've seen the StatCounter chart. Everything I've seen and read shows [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Outside US | Google: Web Search | Search Engines: Korea Search Engines | Search Engines: Outside USA | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Size

The Search Agency has released its "State of Paid Search Report" for Q4 2012. It follows similar reports from Marin Software, IgnitionOne, RKG and Kenshoo and contains a range of data based on US client campaigns. Overall The Search Agency observed that paid search is experiencing a "healthy growth rate." Impressions, CPCs and paid clicks all grew in Q4. But, consistent with findings in other reports, the share of searches generated by smartphones and tablets grew significantly in Q4. Unlike some other reports The Search Agency says these did not come at the expense of the PC: Desktops [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Web Search | Search Marketing: Mobile | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Size | 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

Chitika published a study today on tablet device usage share and the click through rate (CTR) on ads based on screen size. The study showed that 8 inch tablets such as Vizio and Pantech had the highest level of click through rates but the lowest level of web usage rates. Similarly, the 8.9 inch tablets such as Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and the Archos 9 had the second highest click through rates with the second lowest rate of Web usage rates. Apple's iPad is the leader on click through rate when it comes to measuring a single tablet device despite size. The iPad lead the 9.7" tablet [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size | Top News

The IAB released global mobile ad revenue estimates for 2011, building on its earlier release of US mobile ad revenue data. The IAB says that total mobile ad revenues, on a global basis, were $5.3 billion last year. (See our related Marketing Land coverage.) One of the most striking things about the report is how much paid-search dominates all other ad categories -- even more than on the PC. According to the IAB mobile paid search revenue was just under $3.3 billion in 2011. In North America (mostly US) it was a little over $800 million. If these numbers are accurate we know a great [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Features: Analysis | Google: Mobile | Stats: Size | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News

I had a chance recently to speak to DataPop CEO Jason Lehmbeck. Before DataPop Lehmbeck was at Overture/Yahoo. DataPop is an agency/platform that specializes in "offer driven" search campaigns. I was talking to Lehmbeck about mobile search trends and what kinds of consumer response he was seeing to various campaigns. Lehmbeck gave me some unpublished, internal data that I'm now sharing in this post. He said that mobile paid search "looks like much like search advertising did in 2001." 15 to 25 Percent Mobile Paid Search Traffic Between 15 percent and 25 percent of paid search traffic is n [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Marketing: Mobile | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size

Analyst firm BIA/Kelsey has projected that by 2015 there will be more local searches coming from smartphones than PCs  in the US. It's a bold prediction and one that has logical merit: smartphone search volumes are growing faster than search on the PC. While local search is at least 20 percent of total queries on the PC (per Google) it's at least 40 percent of smartphone queries, also according to Google. Mobile vs. PC Local Search Volumes (BIA/Kelsey Forecast) Source: BIA/Kelsey (2012) In some categories such as restaurants and travel, mobile searches represent 15 - 20 percent [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Stats: comScore | Stats: Size

This may surprise no one: Google is the leading source of traffic for 23 of the top 30 websites. That's according to Citi analyst Mark Mahaney in a document released yesterday to clients. Based on underlying comScore data, the report analyzes visits to the top five websites in several verticals: Media, Retail, Travel, Auto, Finance and Health. It doesn't discuss the impact or relative position of Facebook at all, possibly because Facebook is not yet a public company. Mahaney points out that Google's retention of the position of top traffic referrer is an accomplishment in a marketplace t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Web Search | Stats: comScore | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size | Top News

Bing is reportedly now out of betaphase in Deutschland. According to Microsoft, Bing has 10 million users or 20 percent of active internet users in Germany: Mittlerweile benutzen fast 10 Millionen Nutzer in Deutschland regelmäßig Bing, das sind 20 Prozent der aktiven Internetnutzer hierzulande. According to several third-party sources, Bing's market share is smaller than the 20 percent figure cited above. For example, the following is StatCounter's search engine data for Germany: Source: StatCounter NetMarketshare generally agrees, showing Bing's PC search share at just ove [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: Outside US | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Microsoft: Outside US | Microsoft: Partnerships | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Size | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search Ads

Marketers have had a couple weeks to digest their fourth quarter numbers and assess their successes and failures from a period that can be a whirlwind, particularly in the retail sector. Now, with Google's Q4 earnings report and Yahoo's out, we're getting a chance to compare our own performance to data put out by some of the major agencies and technology platforms. Earlier this month, we released the RKG Digital Marketing Report with this in mind. Our goal is that it serves as a credible benchmark for advertisers who don't enjoy the luxury of viewing results across multiple sites with multi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics | Search Marketing | Stats | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size

A couple of Q4 2011 reports released this week from Marin Software and IgnitionOne show, among other things, the dramatic growth of mobile paid search advertising. According to the IgnitionOne document, the "mobile [paid] search ad spend is up 269% YoY and impressions are up 317%." IgnitionOne said that among its retail clients, "Mobile search [  ] accounted for 24% of retailers’ total paid search budgets on Black Friday, compared to 14.2% of the total during all of Q4. This represents enormous growth compared to Q4 2010, when mobile search spend accounted for only 5.2% of total retail p [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Search Marketing: Mobile | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size

Traffic measurement firm comScore released its latest mobile subscriber market share report for November. What it shows is that Android continued to gain (3.1 share points vs. August). But so did the iPhone, likely powered by sales of the iPhone 4S. All other platforms lost ground. Android handsets now represent nearly 47 percent of the US smartphone market, while the iPhone is just under 30 percent. The comScore data doesn't reflect iPod Touch or iPad devices. The firm also said that 39 percent of the US mobile population owned smartphones. This stands in contrast to Nielsen's 44 pe [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Channel: Mobile | Google: Android | Stats: comScore | Stats: Size | Top News

Nielsen has released new smartphone data this morning reflecting overall US smartphone penetration. The number is 43 percent, unchanged from October but up several points from several months ago. (comSore's official smartphone penetration number is 36 percent.). Nielsen says that 43 percent of US smartphone owners have an Android handsets compared to 28 percent who own iPhones. These numbers are almost identical to comScore's. We'll see if holiday sales of the iPhone 4S change that in any way.   What's most interesting about the data from Nielsen is the age-based segmenta [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Stats: comScore | Stats: General | Stats: NetRatings | Stats: Size

Performics is anticipating mobile to be a significant platform in holiday shopping for US consumers. The firm said that "Google search clicks from mobile devices are now 14.2 percent of all search clicks." Performics expects the paid clicks coming from mobile to grow to 17.3 percent this December. For its part, Google has projected that "44 percent of total searches for last minute gifts and store locator terms will be from mobile devices this holiday season." Performics also believes that tablets (iPad) will play a significant role in search and shopping this holiday season: The wi [...]

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

Social search and discovery site StumbleUpon has announced a new milestone: The site recently surpassed 20 million users. The company's announcement is filled with some interesting stats that show its growth since launching as a Firefox add-on back in 2002: StumbleUpon now serves as many "stumbles" in one hour as it did during its first year. At peak activity, there are more than 1,000 stumbles per second. The user base has doubled from 10 million members in May 2010 to today's announcement of 20 million members. There's also a chart showing many of the site's milestones over th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Stats: General | Stats: Size | StumbleUpon

At the iPhone 4S launch last week Apple CEO Tim Cook projected a slide that showed Apple dominating Android in terms of mobile Internet usage. Upon seeing that slide, people tweeted remarks like: "Where is he getting his numbers?" Indeed, they seemed made up given Android's surge over the past six months. Android Has Larger Share Than Apple... The data were credited to comScore, which today released those numbers and a great deal more data on smartphone and tablet usage. The pie chart below reflects comScore's most recent U.S. mobile OS market share data for August 2011, where Android leads [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Channel: Mobile | Features: Analysis | Google: Android | Google: Mobile | Stats: comScore | Stats: Size | Top News

The comScore search market share numbers for August are out. What they show is Google seeming to hit a kind of plateau. Over the past year it seems to be bumping up against a market share ceiling of around 65-66 percent. By contrast Yahoo and Bing gained slightly and now have a combined 31 percent of the US search market. Ask held steady at 3 percent and AOL appears to be continuing its long, slow decline. By the end of the year AOL search should be at or below 1 percent of the overall market. Google query volume and its share are flat; though mobile, which is growing rapidly, is no [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Stats: comScore | Stats: Size | Top News

It's inevitable that in the not too distant future there will be more mobile internet users that those accessing the internet on a PC. And today research firm IDC forecast that day will come in the US in 2015: By 2015, more U.S. Internet users will access the Internet through mobile devices than through PCs or other wireline devices. As smartphones begin to outsell simpler feature phones, and as media tablet sales explode, the number of mobile Internet users will grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.6% between 2010 and 2015. There are a range of other predictions and forecasts [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Stats: General | Stats: Size

It comes as no surprise that social networking is one of the top online activities, exceeded only by email and search according the Pew Internet Project. The most noteworthy finding of a new Pew report on social networking is that its growth is most pronounced among older Americans: The frequency of social networking site usage among young adult internet users under age 30 was stable over the last year – 61% of online Americans in that age cohort now use social networking sites on a typical day, compared with 60% one year ago. However, among the Boomer-aged segment of internet users ages 50 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: General | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Size