Expectations for Search Spending Set To Improve As Economy Recovers
Expectations for Search Spending Set To Improve As Economy Recovers
Q2 paid search spending down, but expectations are for 5-10% growth in second half of 2009
SAN DIEGO — July 08, 2009 —Covario, Inc., the leader in interactive marketing analytics, today announced the release of the Q2 2009 edition of its Global Search Spending Analysis series. Paid search spending in the high tech and consumer electronics markets contracted, -8.8%, from Q1 2009, and is down from the same period last year when paid search advertising spending grew 1.1% from Q1’08 to Q2’08. This analysis is based on paid search spending from US-based high tech and consumer electronics customers, and spans Q1 2007 (Q1 ’07) to Q2 2009 (Q2 ’09). The combined paid search advertising spending of the analyzed brands represents more than $250 million annually. “We expect increases in 2H’09 of ~5-10% from first half of the year levels based on conversations with our advertiser clients and the slight pick up in spending seen in the later portion of this quarter,” said Craig Macdonald, CMO and senior vice president of products at Covario.
Report highlights include:
* Covario has added a new Cost per Acquisition (CPA) analysis to the quarterly report. This analysis shows that Yahoo and Baidu have the lowest cost per acquisition in the market, while Ask has the highest.
* Growth in paid search spending for the high tech sector continued to contract in Q2, -8.8%, compared to Q1. This is due largely to a cut back in the Americas of 17.8% — while spending in EMEA and APAC increased significantly.
* Google spend was cut by 8.2% in Q2, from Q1. This is the second straight quarter we have seen decreases in spending on Google globally. However, spending on Yahoo was cut by nearly 30% from Q1 while spending on MSN increased for the 5th consecutive quarter — largely due to the launch of Bing!
* CPC rates were stable from Q1, and CTR rates are up significantly.
“With 80% market share in spending, Google continues to be such a huge player in the high tech market that when there is a slow-down in spending Google gets impacted the most” noted Macdonald. “The other notable development in Q2 was that Microsoft’s launch of Bing increased their market share in search spending to above 5% for the first time in our analysis of high tech companies. We are watching to see if this spike is sustainable.”
Covario’s Global Search Spend Analysis series leverages the advanced analytics of Covario™ Paid
Search Insight, which gathers and analyzes paid search advertising data for more than two dozen of the world’s largest advertisers to determine global spending trends and performance.
To download a copy of this analysis or register for the July 9th Covario webinar covering this analysis, go to http://www.covario.com/podcasts_webinars/07092009-Q209_spend_analysis-PR.shtml.
About Covario, Inc.
Covario, Inc. is the leader in Interactive Marketing Analytics (IMA) software. The Covario portfolio provides global organizations with robust interactive and search marketing analytics solutions for display advertising, paid search advertising and organic search engine optimization across the enterprise and throughout the channel. Covario enables complex and distributed organizations to control brand integrity, ensure budget transparency and deliver quantifiable results across business units, distribution channels and languages. Headquartered in San Diego, Covario’s growing customer list include some of the world’s best known brands in high tech manufacturing, financial services, electronics, media and publishing and consumer packaged goods.