Report: Marketing Spend on Paid Search Increases YoY in Q3

As more marketers realize the benefits of paid search, IgnitionOne research indicates that they are investing more in this channel than they were in 2014.

According to the data, there was a 12 percent year-over-year growth in U.S. paid search spend during the third quarter of 2015. This is notably larger than the 2 percent growth recorded in the same period last year.

The overall growth of paid search continues to be fueled by a commitment to mobile advertising, according to the report. In the second quarter, 64 percent of U.S. mobile search spend went toward phones, while 36 percent was invested in tablets. Additionally, phones outperformed tablets in the second quarter. Year-over-year, phones showed a 67 percent increase in click-through rate, compared to 20 percent for tablets.

“This can be attributed to similar consumer behavior regarding the use of tablets and desktops, as well as industry focus on the increasing sophistication of mobile traffic,” wrote the authors of the report.

Marketers Gain Confidence in Using Paid Search

Since the beginning of 2015, research has shown that marketers have been fairly confident in their use of paid search. The “Marketing Budgets 2015 Report” published by Econsultancy and Oracle Marketing Cloud discovered that 52 percent consider themselves to be “good” at measuring ROI from paid search.

This is compared to the 44 percent who said the same about email marketing for acquisition purposes, and 39 percent who responded identically when it came to email marketing for engagement.

Proving ROI has not always been easy for marketers. A report from Webmarketing123 showed that 24 percent of B2B marketers cited proving ROI as their largest challenge.