Mobile brand CPCs on Google are climbing, finds Merkle

The average mobile cost per click (CPC) for brand keywords started to shoot higher starting in the last week of June.

In a blog post Friday, Merkle’s Senior Research Analyst, Andy Taylor, wrote that the median Merkle advertiser has seen mobile CPCs rise 25 to 30 percent above where they were in early May.

Tablet and desktop costs, meanwhile, continued to fluctuate within normal ranges. Mobile traffic share has also remained steady through this period, on average, for Merkle advertisers.

Last year, Merkle saw a jump in brand CPCs across all devices, beginning in the first quarter of 2015. By the end of the second quarter, brand CPCs for the median advertiser were 22 percent higher than the historical average of the previous four years.

If you’re seeing similar increases in your own accounts, you may want to gradually lower mobile brand bids, as Merkle says many advertisers did last year in response to the CPC increases.

Update: On July 25, Merkle reported that brand CPCs across its client base began falling back down to levels below those seen in early May around the week of July 15.