Social (Facebook) ad spend increased 33% year-on-year (YoY) while click-through rate rose by a staggering 430% in the final quarter of 2014 according to the latest quarterly global data from Kenshoo.
At the same time, spend on paid search advertising increased 15%, with more clicks earned from fewer search impressions, driving click-through rates to an all-time high.
Among the key findings in the research:
• Paid search impressions increased 11% QoQ but decreased 4% YoY
• Paid search clicks increased 14% QoQ and 8% YoY
• Paid search click-through rate increased 2% QoQ and 11% YoY
• Social impressions decreased 32% QoQ and 79% YoY
• Social clicks increased 16% QoQ and 10% YoY
• Social click-through rate increased 70% QoQ and 430% YoY
The Kenshoo data, which is announced today in a press release (see underneath) and infographic, Kenshoo Search and Social Snapshot: Q4 2014, reveals that paid search clicks increased 8% YoY on the back of 4% fewer impressions, driving an 11% rise in click-through rates (CTRs). Social (Facebook) clicks increased 10% YoY while impressions decreased 79% YoY.
The data indicates that marketers are driving improved results from both search and social campaigns through more intelligent management of target audiences between channels and across mobile devices.
Justin Thorne, Kenshoo’s Marketing Director for EMEA, said: “With continued improvement in ad formats and more sophisticated campaign targeting, and bidding, marketers have eliminated wasteful impressions, showing more relevant ads to the customer segments most likely to convert. In social advertising in particular, there has been a steep learning curve as marketers have begun to better understand the nuances of the various Facebook ad formats and targeting capabilities, hence the very significant improvements in their campaign results.
“We’re seeing among our clients that marketers are becoming much more aware of the complementary nature of search and social, as well as the role of mobile in reaching target audiences. For example they are embracing new techniques, such as applying search intent data to social campaigns to generate better overall results.”
Search and social results are based on five quarters of performance data from more than 6,000 Kenshoo advertiser and agency profiles across 17 vertical industries and 51 countries, spanning the Google, Bing, Baidu, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Japan, and Facebook ad networks.
“Thanks to continued improvement in ad formats, targeting, and bidding, marketers using Kenshoo have eliminated wasteful impressions, showing more relevant ads to the customer segments most likely to convert,” said Aaron Goldman, chief marketing officer of Kenshoo.
“Advanced marketers realise the complementary nature of search and social as well as the role of mobile in reaching their target audiences, and they embraced new techniques in Q4, such as applying search intent to social campaigns.”
In conjunction with its global data analysis, Kenshoo published infographics detailing regional insights for paid search in the Americas; Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) regions, with unique data for select countries in each region. Among the findings:
• In the Americas, mobile devices accounted for 34% of search spend and 37% of clicks
• In EMEA, mobile devices accounted for 33% of search spend and 34% of clicks
• In APJ, mobile devices accounted for 38% of search spend and 44% of clicks
View the infographic here:
“Kenshoo has definitively shown the positive influence that paid search and social have on each other, boosting digital marketing efficiencies and increasing sales and ROI,” said Zach Morrison, vice president of Elite SEM. “Kenshoo’s advanced algorithms and intuitive platform ensure that cross-channel campaign management and optimisation is easy and efficient, enabling us to maximise the return on our marketing investments.”
Methodology
Search and social results are based on five quarters of performance data from more than 6,000 Kenshoo advertiser and agency profiles across 17 vertical industries and 51 countries, spanning the Google, Bing, Baidu, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Japan, and Facebook ad networks. Only accounts with five consecutive quarters of stable data from October 2013 through December 2014 were included in the analysis. The resulting sample includes more than 425 billion impressions, 6 billion clicks and $3.75 billion (USD) in advertiser spend.
www.Kenshoo.com