Merkle-2018年Q2数字营销报告（英文版）-2018.7-30页-1mb

Digital Marketing Report Summary

Core Content Overview

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of digital marketing trends in Q2 2018, focusing on paid search, organic search, social media, and Amazon Ads. It highlights performance metrics, growth rates, and the evolving landscape of ad spending and click behavior across various platforms and device types.

Key Trends in Paid Search

• Google Search Ad Spending Growth: Increased by 18% Y/Y in Q2 2018, continuing a three-quarter decline in growth rate. CPCs rose 10%, while clicks grew 7%.
• Phone vs. Desktop: Phone ad spending grew 37%, while desktop growth slowed to 12%. Phones and tablets accounted for 60% of all search ad clicks, with 64% of Google clicks coming from mobile.
• Brand Keywords: Average CPC for brand name keywords rose 30% Y/Y, while brand keyword clicks only increased by 3%.
• Google Shopping Ads: Spent grew 31% Y/Y, more than five times the growth of text ads. Shopping ads accounted for 59% of all Google search ad clicks, with 82% of non-brand clicks.
• Non-Brand Search Ads: Click growth was weaker than usual, but revenue per click improved. Mobile Shopping ads saw the largest revenue per click increase (20%), while desktop saw a modest rise (4%).
• Audience Targeting: Used for 37% of Google search ad clicks in Q2 2018, up from 21% in Q2 2017. This includes RLSA, Customer Match, and similar audiences.
• Bing & Yahoo Search: Spending growth decelerated to 11% Y/Y, down from 30% in Q1. CPC growth dropped sharply, with brand CPCs increasing by 9% Y/Y and product ad CPCs declining.
• Bing Product Ads: Accounted for 33% of Bing search ad clicks, up from 20% in Q2 2017. Mobile traffic significantly contributed to this growth, with 53% of clicks from phones.
• Device Trends: Phones accounted for 53% of all search ad clicks across platforms, up from 48% in Q2 2017. Tablets' share fell to 8%.
• CPC Differences: Mobile CPCs remained significantly lower than desktop, with phone CPCs at 41% of desktop levels and tablet CPCs at 69%.

Organic Search & Social Media

• Organic Search Growth: Total site visits increased 2% Y/Y, with mobile contributing 24% of visits and phone visits rising 11%.
• Social Media Impact: Social media accounted for 3.7% of all site visits, up from 2.9% a year earlier. Mobile accounted for 77% of social media-driven visits.
• Google Organic Search Dominance: Google accounted for 93% of all organic search visits in Q2 2018, up from 91% in Q2 2017. On mobile, Google captured 96% of organic search traffic.
• Mobile Share of Organic Search: Reached an all-time high of 55%, up from 42% in Q2 2017. Phones contributed 46% of organic search visits, while tablets contributed more than paid search.
• Bing Organic Search: Organic search visits fell 12% in Q2 2018, but marked a significant improvement from the previous quarter. Bing’s organic search share dropped due to its loss of the Firefox default search provider status.

Paid Social Media

• Facebook & Instagram: Facebook ad spend grew 40% Y/Y despite a 17% drop in impressions. Instagram ad spend surged 177% Y/Y, with impressions tripling.
• Mobile Dominance: Mobile accounted for over 90% of Facebook ad traffic in Q2 2018. Instagram’s mobile traffic share also grew significantly.
• Local Inventory Ads (LIAs): LIAs contributed 16% of Google Shopping phone clicks in Q2 2018, up from 9% in Q2 2017. Desktop LIA share increased from 4% to 11%.
• Showcase Shopping Ads: Grew rapidly in mobile, increasing from 1.6% in Q4 2017 to 4.4% in Q2 2018.

Amazon Ads

• Sponsored Products & Headline Search Ads: Both saw 165% and 162% Y/Y growth, respectively. Sponsored Products dominated 88% of Amazon search ad spend.
• Amazon's Google Shopping Return: Amazon’s Google Shopping ads resumed after a two-week hiatus, with a similar presence as before. It remained focused on familiar product categories like home goods, furniture, and office supplies.
• Category Performance: Amazon's presence in Google Shopping auctions varied by category, with home goods seeing a decline from peak levels but still above early 2017 levels.

Comparison Shopping Engines (CSEs)

• CSE Performance: Continued to struggle with mobile traffic, with 89% of clicks coming from desktop. This share has remained largely unchanged since 2016.
• Ad Spend Impact: Advertisers saw 23% Y/Y sales decline from CSEs, likely due to the shift to more effective platforms like Google Shopping.

Industry-Specific Insights

• Retail & Consumer Goods: Google Shopping ads drove 59% of paid search clicks, with phone click share increasing to 61%.
• Travel & Insurance: Showed the smallest gap between phone and desktop spend share, with 41% of insurance spend and 44% of travel spend coming from phones.
• B2B Search: Mobile had a lesser impact, with phones and tablets accounting for only 27% of Google clicks.
• Health & Pharma: Slightly declined in Google search ad spending, while other industries saw single-digit click growth with rising CPCs.

Conclusion

The digital marketing landscape in Q2 2018 showed a shift toward mobile and shopping-based ad formats, with Google and Amazon leading in growth. While Google search ad spending and clicks increased, CPC growth outpaced click growth in many categories. Bing and Yahoo faced challenges with declining CPCs and a slower rebound in ad spending. Organic search and social media continued to play important roles, with Google maintaining a strong presence across all platforms. Paid social, particularly Instagram, saw significant growth, while CSEs lagged in mobile performance.