Apple is outperforming Samsung when it comes to paid search advertising, with retailers spending over £8.5m on iPhone related search terms according to new research.
The study, released by Kantar Media company AdGooroo, reveals that tech and home and garden are amongst the top consumer product categories in the UK online retail sector.
The study – which ranked consumer product keywords by Google.co.uk desktop text ad spend from June 2016 to May 2017 – identified “iPhone 7” as the top term. Retailers spent a total of £5,653,549 on the term via paid search, over £3.6m more than the next highest keyword.
Seven of the top 20 keywords in the ranking were mobile phone related, showing this to be amongst the most popular retail product categories in UK paid search advertising. Apple dominated the list, with five iPhone related terms totalling ad spend of almost £8.9 million.
Competitor brand Samsung lagged behind, registering just one keyword in the top 20, its “Samsung Galaxy s6” model, with ad spend totalling little over £383,000. The only non-phone related consumer electronics keyword in the top 20 was “laptops,” which generated £491,351 in spend from 81 different advertisers.
Despite economic uncertainty over the last year, UK consumers are certainly proving that an Englishman’s home is his castle. Six home and garden related keywords featured in the top 20, and the term “fitted wardrobes”, which attracted almost £1m in ad spend from 143 advertisers, was the keyword with the greatest number of advertisers spending on it. Additional terms “beds”, “mirrors”, “rattan garden furniture”, “hot tubs” and “garden furniture” counted for an accumulated £2.6m.
In addition to splashing out on home improvements, UK shoppers are spending on jewellery items; popular jewellery brand “Pandora” was the second highest keyword with £1,958,622 in ad spend, while “engagement rings” attracted a total of £1,355,746 during the period.
Finally, “prom dresses” made it into this year’s top 20, demonstrating the impact the longstanding US tradition has had upon the UK market. A relatively new festivity this side of the pond, proms are now celebrated in over 85% of British schools, and the keyword attracted a total of £350,177 from 104 different advertisers.
“While the UK has faced a tough retail landscape over the past year, paid search remains one of the most effective forms of advertising for retailers because it enables you to connect with in-market consumers who are actively searching for products to purchase,” commented Eric Marcy, president of AdGooroo. “Retailers across all sectors need to have a clear understanding of paid search advertising to navigate the competitive landscape and continue to attract consumer spend.”
Methodology
AdGooroo measures paid search activity on more than 2.5 billion search engine results pages across more than 50 countries and 14 search engines. Our proprietary algorithms and methodologies utilize the search data we collect in conjunction with machine learning and advanced statistical modelling to accurately estimate in-market results at the keyword, ad and advertiser level.