Report: Mobile To Drive A Third Of Paid-Search Clicks By Year End

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 the report that mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) will drive a third of US paid clicks by December 2013. The company says that as of December 2012, mobile devices accounted for 23.4 percent of all US paid-search clicks. Mobile also captured 18.4 percent of search budgets in December.

As with past reports, Marin found that paid search campaigns on smartphones and tablets delivered higher click-through rates (CTR) at a lower cost-per-click (CPC). However, overall, conversions were lower on mobile devices. Because there are relatively few e-commerce sales on smartphones, this metric (“conversions”) is a bit of a misnomer.

Source: Marin Software

As mentioned, all of this is being impacted by Google’s Enhanced Campaigns. It will be more challenging for marketers to separate campaigns by device or reap the benefits of lower mobile CPCs in the future (unless Google changes its policies).

Marin found that CPC prices were rising on smartphones and tablets at rates that outpaced PC paid search CPC growth. Perhaps then, Google was premature in trying to boost mobile CPCs with Enhanced Campaigns.

The report goes on to discuss the same metrics in the UK, Eurozone and Rest of World. When it comes to mobile paid search, the UK mobile market is as developed or more developed than the US and quite a bit ahead of Europe. It’s interesting to note, however, that CPCs in Europe are higher than the UK despite lower levels of mobile search activity.