Global Search Advertising Trends!

Kenshoo published its latest edition of the Kenshoo Global Search Advertising Trends report, updated through the 1st quarter of 2013. 

The report examines performance of paid search marketing by analyzing campaign data associated with several billion dollars of ad spend managed through Kenshoo across global search engines.

The report found that, globally, search spending for Q1 2013 is up 15 percent year-over-year, while click-through-rates (CTRs) are up a very positive 62 percent. Total search spending in 2012 was up 32 percent from 2011.

On the other hand, the global average CPC dropped. At $0.39 in Q1 2013, it was at a five-quarter nadir, although it's not that far below the $0.41 CPC of Q1 of 2012.

For full report, please visit: http://www.kenshoo.com/searchglobaltrends

Google gained Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for Active View!

Google gained Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for its viewability measurement solution, Active View, which it introduced last year.

With Active View, advertisers will be charged only for impressions that meet the IAB’s proposed viewability standard of at least 50% on screen for one second or longer.

Google says it will be building the viewability standard into products for both advertisers and publishers. Active View reporting will be available on the Google Display Network (GDN) and in DoubleClick for Advertisers and DoubleClick for Publishers this year.

Marketers intuitively believe that consumers will more likely click on a viewable ad, but Google now has the data to back up the assertion by comparing ads by the number of seconds they appeared on screen and found on the Google Display Network (GDN).

Google Analytics introduced “Customer Journey to Online Purchase!”

Google Analytics has launched a new tool, the Customer Journey to Online Purchase.

The analytics is assumed to be a new benchmarking tool that will provide marketers insight into different elements that impact a single campaign. 

According to Google’s announcement, the benchmark report identifies how the purchase path differs between industries. Google encourages analytics users to compare their data with relevant industry benchmark data to determine how different channels influence conversions and to see what their industry’s average path to purchase looks like.

Google introduced new tools for display ads!

Display planner is a tool in your account that provides targeting ideas and estimates to help you plan a Display campaign that you can later add to your AdWords account.

Display Planner is part of AdWords, so with one click you can add your plan directly to your account, or download to share it. Display Planner will be available in the Tools & Analysis menu, and will be rolling out to the US over the course of this week, and globally in the next few weeks.  

Google Play revenue growing much faster than Apple Inc!

Google's app store revenues are growing much faster than those of Apple Inc.

App Annie, an analytics firm, showed Google's app store revenues were 38.5 percent of Apple's, a big gain from a year ago when it was worth just a tenth of Apple's, as its free Android mobile operating system helped it win nearly 70 percent of the global mobile market.

Fuelled by roaring growth of Android mobile devices, largely manufactured by Samsung Electronics and up-and-coming rivals, Google Play revenues jumped 90 percent in the first quarter from the fourth quarter, according to App Annie.

Google site speed study: Is the web getting faster?

Google has always given importance to speed. In 2011, they launched the Page Speed reports and tools to help site owner’s speed up their pages load time.

The latest Google site speed study has revealed that the web is getting faster.  Google has determined that the web is getting fasters because of the improving technology and more powerful servers. The continuous deployment of 4G/LET towers has also contributed to the increased speed. Speed and processing powers of mobile devices are also some other factors.

The study also disclosed that average size of web pages has increased 56 percent since 2012. 

Google has published an entire set of webmaster help documentation centered around site speed. From how Google measures site speed to practical advice on what it means for you as a site owner.

Google announced their Q1 2013 earnings!

Google has just announced their Q1 2013 earnings. The company beat market expectations as it was able to pull in about $14 billion in revenue, up 31% year-on-year. Of that, the company was able to pocket about $3.39 billion, a 16% increase year-on-year, which adds to the total of $50.1 billion cash and liquid assets Google has. 

Here are some highlights from Google’s earnings report:

• Consolidated Revenue nearly $14 billion; That’s a 31% increase over Q1 2012 consolidated revenue
• Their GAAP operating income was $3.48 billion
• Motorola brought in $1.02 billion in revenue
• Finally, Google has around $50 billion in cash on hand
• Paid clicks for network members rose about 20% from the year-earlier quarter and increased about 3% from Q4 2012. 
• Average cost-per-click fell approximately 4% from the first quarter of 2012 and was down 4% from the fourth quarter of 2012
• Traffic acquisition costs rose to about $2.96 billion in the first quarter of the year, in comparison it fell about 4% from Q4 2012

For the full report: http://investor.google.com/earnings/2013/Q1_google_earnings.html

                            

Google has 67.1 % of search queries, comScore March 2013 U.S. Search Engine Rankings!

comScore monthly Search Engine Rankings analysis of the U.S. search marketplace, shows that Google continues to dominate the core search market in March with 67.1 percent of search queries conducted in the US.

According to the report, “20.4 billion explicit core searches were conducted in March (up 11 percent), with Google Sites ranking first with 13.7 billion (up 11 percent). Microsoft Sites ranked second with 3.4 billion searches (up 13 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.4 billion (up 14 percent), Ask Network with 540 million (up 14 percent) and AOL, Inc. with 321 million (up 5 percent).”

Google Inactive account Manager: your digital will!

Google is now making it easier to lets the user choose what to do with their data if their account is not used for a long period of time.

The company has announced its Inactive Account Manager. The Inactivity Account Manager allows users to have their data deleted following lengthy periods of inactivity. Using the manager also lets users send their Google data to designated third-parties.

Users can set their inactivity preferences from their Google Account settings.

Coming to AdWords Ahead of Enhanced Campaigns: Keyword Planner & Flexible Bid Strategies!

Paul Feng from Google AdWords made a few key announcements during Hero conference this week in Austin, Texas.

Keyword Planner: This new tool is a combination of the keyword research tool and traffic estimator. It features a new integrated workflow, so users can find new keywords and get traffic estimates at the same time.

Flexible bid strategies:  Advertisers can set bid adjustments at campaign, ad group, or keyword level.