Marin Software Research Reveals Rapid Growth of eCommerce Ad Spend

Marketers Also Embracing New Social Ad Formats to Grow Customer Base

Marin Software, a leading provider of digital marketing software for performance-driven advertisers and agencies, today released research findings from its global Q2 2019 Digital Advertising Benchmark Report. These findings underscore the continuing growth of eCommerce advertising, while Instagram Stories are ripe for new customer acquisition opportunities.

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The full research and takeaways are presented in an interactive format that allows viewers to analyze trends by region, industry, and publisher. Key findings include:

• eCommerce Continues to Thrive: 40 percent ad spend increase recorded in eCommerce advertising as Amazon maintains its healthy lead. Shopping ads represented 37 percent 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: 45 percent of all Instagram spend occurred on Stories as advertisers and consumers embrace the ad format. Features like Instagram Story Links and Highlights are keeping social audiences engaged as Instagram becomes more of a direct selling tool.
• Search Click Volume Rises: With 13 percent YoY growth, paid search click volume has shown solid growth globally. Specific industries have seen more dramatic YoY click growth, led by Healthcare rising 30 percent, Technology up 25 percent, and Retail growing 24 percent.
• Search CPCs Dropping Across All Industries: Retail at $0.38 and travel at $0.44 recorded the lowest CPCs this quarter. Notably, healthcare saw a sharp drop, with the lowest CPCs in five quarters at $1.08. As the healthcare industry becomes more customer-centric, marketers can find good value for clicks by boosting their paid search budgets accordingly.

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“Marketers are embracing newer features of well-known social media platforms, like Instagram Stories, to reach new 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 Q2 breakout star was Amazon’s Sponsored Brands, which allow brands to promote multiple products and drive customers directly to a product detail page. With 13 percent QoQ growth in sales and impressions, marketers are finding new value in the Sponsored Brands ad format. 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 Q2 2019 Digital Advertising Benchmark Report, Marin Software aggregated data from customers who invest billions of dollars in combined annualized 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.

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