Report: Advertisers Spending More on Search and Amazon, While Social CTRs Drop

Digital marketing software provider Marin Software has released its Q2 Digital Advertising Benchmark Report, and the findings confirm the hype about advertising spend on Amazon: It’s on the rise, while social click-through rates decline and search spend remains a major priority for brands. 

Here are some of the major findings:

Believe the hype about Amazon’s growing advertising allure. Among Marin’s clients using the e-commerce giant, 20% of their advertising budgets are going to Amazon. Nearly four-fifths of that spend goes to Sponsored Product Ads, while the remaining dollars are funneled into Headline Shopping Ads. As Wes MacLaggan, SVP of Marketing at Marin Software, puts it, “Amazon has essentially become a massive search engine for consumers far down the purchase funnel.”

Search spend remains strong. Click volume and CPCs are both on the rise. The average CPC across the globe jumped from $0.80 in Q2 2017 to $0.85 in Q2 2018. Overall YOY search spend grew 13%.

Amid GDPR and brand safety concerns, social CTRs are down. Blame it on GDPR and increased privacy concerns; blame it on the seemingly weekly Facebook scandals of the past couple of months. Whatever the reason, CTRs on social ads are down from Q1 2018 even as CPCs continue to increase.

Marin’s report takes into account the firm’s clients of five quarters or more, establishing continuity over time and excluding outliers.