Report: Q2 2016 Google Paid Search Spend Grows 22% YoY

Merkle’s “Digital Marketing Report” for Q2 of 2016 recently found advertiser spend on Google paid search grew 22 percent year over year (YoY).

Further, Google ad click growth increased slightly from Q1 to 34 percent, and CPCs fell 9 percent YoY.

The retail, health, and financial industries saw the highest Google search click growth in Q2 2016. Financial advertisers saw a 45 percent increase YoY in Google search ad clicks.

Among ad formats, Google PLAs saw the largest click growth and CPC declines – clicks on Google PLAs rose 73 percent YoY and CPCs dropped 17 percent YoY in Q2. Researchers note, “PLA CPCs have seen this relative fall as a result of more rapid mobile growth than text ads and a recent jump in traffic from Google search partners.”

Phones and tablets produced 53 percent of all paid search clicks in Q2, up 12 points from last year. Google saw a slight increase in click shares from mobile to 57 percent.

Majority of Digital Marketers Leaning Toward Local Paid Search

A recent infographic from Balihoo showed 77 percent of digital marketers “agree” or “strongly agree” that local paid search marketing is a good value. An additional 87 percent believe that local paid search improves, or would improve, their business.

According to the survey authors, “Local paid search is an important strategy for targeting consumers with micro-relevant, timely, geographically specific ads.”