prabhuMarin Software, which provides digital marketing software for performance-driven advertisers and agencies, said e-commerce spending continues to rise with marketers increasingly embracing paid social.
The findings were delivered in the firm’s Q2 2019 Digital Advertising Benchmark Report, which it said underscores the continuing growth of eCommerce advertising, while Instagram Stories are ripe for customer acquisition opportunities.
The full research and takeaways are presented in an interactive format that allows viewers to analyse trends by region, industry and publisher.
Among the key points in the report, Marin noted that a 40% ad spend increase was recorded in eCommerce advertising as Amazon maintained its healthy lead.
Shopping ads represented 37% of total search spend share, as Google Shopping continues to be a key source of traffic and online orders for many retailers.
Engaging stories format pays off
The firm also noted that 45% of all Instagram spend occurred on Stories as advertisers and consumers embraced the ad format.
Features like Instagram Story Links and Highlights are keeping social audiences more engaged as Instagram slowly becomes more of a direct selling tool.
Search click volume rises
With 13 percent YoY growth, paid search click volume showed solid growth globally, Marin said.
Specific industries have seen more dramatic growth, led by Healthcare (+30%), Technology (+25%), and Retail (+24%).
Search CPCs dropping
Marin said that costs per click were dropping across all industries. Retail at £0.31 and travel at £0.36 recorded the lowest CPCs this quarter.
Notably, healthcare saw a sharp drop, with the lowest CPCs in five quarters at £0.88. As the healthcare industry becomes more customer-centric, marketers can find good value for clicks by boosting their paid search budgets accordingly, the firm said.
“Marketers are embracing newer features of well-known social media platforms, like Instagram Stories, to reach new potential customers and the effort is paying off,” said Wesley MacLaggan, SVP of Marketing at Marin Software.
“It will also come as no surprise that eCommerce continues to grow, and the breakout star this quarter was Amazon’s Sponsored Brand Ads, which allows brands to promote multiple products and drive customers directly to a product detail page on the Amazon Store.
“With a 13% QoQ growth in sales and impressions, marketers continue to find new value in the platform.
“As the lines between search, social, and eCommerce continue to blur, marketers embrace the freedom to try new ad formats, while also relying on tried-and-true platforms.”
To create its Digital Advertising Benchmark Report, Marin Software said it aggregated data from customers who invest billions of dollars in combined annualised ad spend on paid search, social, mobile, and eCommerce.
Marin Software only includes those advertisers active on its platform for the past five quarters, measuring key performance indicators on a year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter basis, and removing any outliers with significant YoY or QoQ changes.
