ROI Revolution Reveals the 2019 US Ecommerce Paid Search Report

2018 US Digital Ad Spending recorded around $107 Billion and expected to overtake traditional media spending in 2019

ROI Revolution; the US based digital marketing agency for B2B and B2C Ecommerce and Lead Generation revealed the 2019 Ecommerce Paid Search Report with Industry Insights from Google.

The Report unpacked the current state of paid search and dived into emerging trends, new advertising formats, Google vertical trend data, multichannel marketing tactics, and over 25 unique data visualizations based on $300m in annual client ad spend from over 450+ brands.

Google Advertising Growth in 2018:

While Amazon might be the fastest growing advertising channel out there, Google still absolutely dominates them in overall ad revenue, bringing in over $40 billion in 2018, nearly 10x the amount of Amazon and more than double that of their next closest competition, Facebook.

It’s also essential to note that Google ad revenue is still growing at a tremendous rate, up over 14%, or over $5 billion, in 2018.

Google Shopping Growth Continues:

Throughout 2018, Google Shopping click and conversion volume continues to skyrocket. ROI Revolution said that their clients saw over 27 million clicks in Q4 alone.

Further, Google Shopping clicks now account for roughly 2/3 of all search clicks, and more than 55% of all search advertising spend!

Google Shopping revenue has continued to climb as well, up 30% YoY for all of 2018. While growth was seen in all quarters, a bullish first half of the year with strong seasonal sales led to more than 40% YoY revenue growth in Q1 and Q2 2018.

Shopping vs. Search:

Mobile click share in Google Shopping is now up to 62% in Q4 2018 vs. just 29% on desktop; a stark contrast to 2015 when desktop held a 53-35% advantage. Things aren’t quite as pronounced for search ads, where mobile surpassed desktop in click share early in 2018.

However, while click and conversion volume for Google Shopping continues to skyrocket (both were up more than 15% in 2018), search ad click and conversion volume have actually regressed. In fact, there was a 6% decrease in click volume and a 4% decrease in conversions in 2018 vs. 2017 for our clients.

Mobile revenue is going to continue to grow as more and more people shop on their phones. While the rate of mobile growth may start to slow as the market becomes saturated, the introduction of new ad formats, the blossoming of voice search, along with technological advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence will lead to an even more streamlined customer experience.

This will lead to more conversions and more profitable revenue through shopping ads.

Google Desktop CPCs Losing Profitability:

In Q1 2017, Google texts CPCs on desktop were hovering around $.80 on average. Flash forward to Q4 2018, and that number has climbed to over $1.30 per click, an increase of 62.5% in less than two years!

In this same time span, overall Google click share has gone from roughly a dead heat (46% mobile, 42% desktop, 12% tablet) to a nearly 2:1 advantage for mobile.

The difference is even more pronounced comparing text ads vs. Google Shopping ads, where text ads CPCs have risen over 20% in 2018 alone. Shopping CPCs, on the other hand, have remained fairly consistent at about $.50 per click, almost 80% cheaper than text ads!

That means If you are still putting all (or even the majority) of your marketing budget into desktop traffic, you are paying a premium for every click.

Mobile Mayhem Continues:

In Q4 2018, mobile click share eclipsed 60% for the first time ever, almost doubling up desktop (31%).

Click volume disparity grew as well, from a slight edge in 2017 (+9% more clicks on mobile) to more than a 40% advantage in 2018, culminating in a growth rate of over 450% YoY!

While overall desktop revenue still exceeds mobile by a fair margin, that gap is closing quickly.

And with mobile CPCs nearly 50% lower than desktop, mobile advertising remains a highly profitable channel with incredible growth opportunity.