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New Kenshoo Research: Mobile Ads are Bellwethers for Q1 Social and Paid Search Growth

Instagram Stories and video ads become branding staples in social; investment in Apple Search Ads accelerates

San Francisco (April 24, 2019) – Kenshoo (https://skai.io/), a global leader in marketing technology, today released The Kenshoo Q1 2019 Quarterly Trends Report, and accompanying infographic, detailing Q1 spending growth in social (27%), paid search (11%) and Ecommerce Channel Ads (ECA) (83%) on a year-over-year (YoY) basis. As Kenshoo continues to expand its support for myriad ad types within key publishers, more trends emerge that highlight the value of each stage in the consumer journey, including:

  • On a same-advertiser basis, ECA grew faster than both search and social
  • Across all Kenshoo advertisers, Pinterest clicks and spending increased 2x or more compared to last year
  • Since launching on Kenshoo Apps in Q3 2018, spending on Apple Search Ads across all Kenshoo advertisers on the platform increased 89%
  • As both volume and share of video ads has increased in social, click-through rate has declined over the past five quarters
  • Mobile ads comprised 84% of social and 50% of search spending in Q1

Detailed findings on social and paid search performance include:

  • Social spending increased 27% YoY and decreased 11% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ)
  • Social impressions increased 20% YoY and 13% QoQ
  • Social clicks decreased 23% YoY and 6% QoQ
  • Social cost-per-thousand (CPM) impressions increased 6% YoY and decreased 21%   QoQ
  • Paid search spending increased 11% YoY and decreased 16% QoQ
  • Paid search impressions increased 36% YoY and decreased 18% QoQ
  • Paid search clicks increased 25% YoY and decreased 11% QoQ
  • Paid search CPC decreased 11% YoY and 6% QoQ

“Instagram, video and mobile ads are key segments of the social advertising spectrum and continue to outpace social overall in terms of spending growth. At the same time, as video ads and Instagram Stories offer a more subtle, brand-focused ad experience, they may very well play a role in the overall decline in click-through rate,” said Chris Costello, senior director of marketing research for Kenshoo. “Paid search continues to be a stable bedrock for advertisers; even as the seasonal spending boost receded, the growth of mobile search ads propelled spend to grow over Q1 of last year, and to exceed pre-holiday levels, highlighting the importance of the channel to marketers and consumers alike.”

Kenshoo provides best-of-breed, full-funnel marketing intelligence and activation on the channels with highest customer engagement, including search, social and ecommerce, enabling success by maximizing channel impact and customer lifetime value. As the industry’s leading and award-winning digital marketing platform, Kenshoo delivers opportunities to re-engage and grow customers across the world’s leading publishers and all devices.

Visit Kenshoo.com/reports-and-whitepapers/quarterly-trends-report-q119/ to download the full report or Kenshoo.com/Digital-Marketing-Snapshot to view the infographic.

Methodology
Except where noted, analysis is based on Kenshoo advertisers with 15 consecutive months of performance data taken from a population of over 3,000 advertiser and agency accounts across 20 vertical industries and over 60 countries, spanning Google, Bing, Baidu, Yandex, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Japan, Pinterest, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and the Facebook Audience Network. Some outliers have been excluded. The resulting sample includes more than 600 billion impressions, 14 billion clicks and $6 billion (USD) in advertiser spending.

Ad spending and CPC are measured using Ex-FX or “Constant Currency” adjustments, where results are based on native currency, and only translated to common currency after aggregation.

About Kenshoo
Kenshoo is the leading technology platform for brands looking to plan, activate and amplify effective marketing across the most-engaging digital channels. Kenshoo offers the only marketing solution that provides data-driven insights and optimization technology to help make informed decisions and scale performance across Google, Facebook, Bing, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram, Amazon, Apple Search Ads, Yahoo, Yandex, Yahoo Japan, and Baidu. Kenshoo’s machine-learning algorithms and cutting-edge AI enable companies to predict and keep in-step with the ever-changing consumer journey. With 27 international locations and backed by Sequoia Capital, Arts Alliance, Tenaya Capital, and Bain Capital Ventures, Kenshoo generates over $350 billion in annualized revenue for the world’s top brands. Please visit Kenshoo.com for more information.

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