Positive Quarter for Digital Ads Ahead of Holiday Season

Q3 2013 Digital Marketing Report by IgnitionOne highlights growth and trends in digital marketing

NEW YORK – Research by IgnitionOne, a global leader in cloud-based digital marketing technology, released Q3 data showing US paid search spend up 13%, continuing an upswing from the second quarter. In addition, mobile search spend in the US continued to grow at an impressive rate, but dipping below triple digit year-over-year growth numbers for the first time this year.

The report, which highlights trends across digital advertising, also revealed that US programmatic display spend increased 90% for travel advertising YoY in Q3, out-performing retail.

These figures are released quarterly by IgnitionOne, which powers more than $30 billion in revenue each year for leading brands through digital marketing solutions.

Key findings in the report:

  • US search spend grows Year over Year (YoY) – Search spend in Q3 was up 13% when compared to Q3 2012. This is a continued acceleration over the YoY growth rate of last quarter. Total search spend saw a decrease quarter over quarter (QoQ), which is expected due to seasonality.
  • Product Listing Ads and search – PLAs spending grew quickly among those clients who have adopted this advertising product. We saw growth in PLA spend outpace paid-search over Q3 with growth rates of near 40%
  • Increases in mobile advertising continue – US Mobile devices increased at a rate that drove the overall growth of search, but for the first time in 2013 the YoY percentage growth increase dipped just below triple-digits with smartphones and tablets increasing 99.7% and 97.2%, respectively.
  • Google Enhanced Campaigns – Google Enhanced Campaigns had a noticeable effect on CPC (cost-per-click) for search advertising on tablets which were up 32% — more than double the increase for PCs. Enhanced Campaigns also are suspected to be responsible for the drop in click-through rates (CTR) for tablets compared to last year at this time, which were down 20%. This is due to desktop campaigns running on tablets, resulting in less targeted advertising.
  • Travel Invests in programmatic display – US programmatic display for the travel vertical had strong increases in Q3 across metrics and out-performed retail. Travel increased YoY spend by 90% with impressions and clicks up 79% and 105%, respectively.

“Paid Search continues to grow at a healthy pace, with the growth in mobile continuing to drive the market.” said Roger Barnette, President of IgnitionOne. “PLAs and Enhanced campaigns on Google have helped to drive spending growth, the former on desktop and that latter on mobile. I do not see the trend of dramatic mobile spend growth stopping anytime soon.”

This report is the latest in a series of reports from IgnitionOne, reviewing trends across the online advertising landscape. This and previous quarterly reports can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/ignitiononeresearch

About IgnitionOne

IgnitionOne® is a global leader in cloud-based digital marketing technology providing a world-class proprietary platform and expert services to improve digital marketing performance. IgnitionOne’s integrated Digital Marketing SuiteSM (DMS) empowers marketers to centralize, manage and optimize digital media across Search, Display, Social and Mobile, and understand cross-channel attribution, while helping to optimize conversions on a marketer’s website through Marketing Automation. At the core of the DMS is the proprietary Engagement Scoring Algorithm which determines the value of a user in order to automate the delivery of the right message, at the right time, at the right cost, to a marketer’s users on and off their website.

IgnitionOne currently scores over 300 million users monthly in 55 countries and powers more than $30 billion in revenue each year for leading brands, including General Motors, DIRECTV, Ann Taylor, La Quinta, and Fiat, as well as advertising agencies such as 360i, GroupM and iProspect.

For more information, please visit http://www.ignitionone.com, follow the company on Twitter @ignitionone or visit the blog at http://www.digitalmarketingsuite.com.