U.S. Search Spend Drops for Second Time since 2009, Mobile Search Defies Trends in IgnitionOne Q2 2016 Digital Marketing Report

NEW YORK, July 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — IgnitionOne, a global marketing cloud leader, today released its Q2 2016 Digital Marketing Report, demonstrating both steady trends and an interesting look at changes in digital advertising metrics. Q1 marked a drop in U.S. paid search spend for the second time since 2009, down 1% year over year (YoY). Despite overall search spend trends, mobile continues to dominate the space, with spend up 55% YoY. Google pushed ahead of Facebook this quarter, with spend up 35% while Facebook spend grew 22% YoY.

Topics covered in the report include:

Search spend continues down trend for second quarter
U.S. Google paid search, for the second quarter in a row and only the second time since 2009, decreased year over year (YoY).  Q2 2016 saw a slight decrease of 1% in spend.

Mobile search increases despite overall search spend trends
Budgets again shifted to less expensive mobile ads from desktop and tablets, we see top-level spend decrease but smartphone spend grow. US mobile phone search spend increased 55% YoY while CPCs decreased 8%.

Programmatic Display growth is flat as Google elbows ahead
U.S. programmatic display spend was relatively flat YoY with a growth of 1% in Q2. The quarter also saw Google taking the lead in terms growth, up 35% YoY while spend in Facebook increased 22% YoY. 

European Website and Score trends
Across a wide range of European clients, we saw a YoY decrease in website visitors in Q2 2016, down 21% YoY. However, while overall visitors have dropped, marketers are using solutions to drive improved results by communicating to the most qualified visitors with custom interactions increasing 99% YoY, driving leads up 41% overall. Additional breakdowns by key verticals (automotive, retail and travel) as well as mobile device usage are included in the report.

“Marketers are increasingly sophisticated in their digital strategy as the industry matures,” said Will Margiloff, CEO of IgnitionOne. “Large swings in metrics that used to be the norm are giving way to a game of inches as the focus shifts to optimization and real, tangible results. But make no mistake, every inch counts.” 

Digital marketing figures based on client set are released quarterly by IgnitionOne, which manages more than $1.5 billion in digital spend and tracks over $30 billion in revenue for its customers. This is the longest continuously running quarterly report on digital marketing trends and is the latest in a series from IgnitionOne, reviewing trends across the online advertising landscape. This and previous quarterly reports can be downloaded in full at https://www.ignitionone.com/thought-leadership/.

IgnitionOne simplifies life for marketers, providing deeper insights and robust targeting of individuals through the use of proprietary engagement scoring and integrated marketing and advertising solutions. IgnitionOne offers a full-featured digital marketing hub which significantly improves performance across all devices and paid and owned channels. IgnitionOne allows marketers to better understand their customers and activate personalized 1:1 messaging across search, display, social, mobile, email, and website personalization.

With a global footprint of over 450 employees in 17 offices across 10 countries, IgnitionOne is one of the largest independent marketing technology companies in the world, currently scoring over 300 million users monthly in 75 countries and powering more than $60 billion in revenue each year for leading brands, including General Motors, CenturyLink, Bridgestone, La Quinta and Acer, as well as advertising agencies such as 360i, GroupM and Zenith Optimedia.

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

Contact:
Rachel Peterson
IgnitionOne
646.360.5292
rachel.peterson@ignitionone.com