Marketers spent 13% more in the second quarter of 2018, driven by click volumes and higher cost per clicks (CPCs). When broken down into regions, the U.S. came in at 12%, followed by the UK at 14%, and Europe at 19%, according to recent data.
Digital marketing company Marin Software’s research from its global Q2 2018 Digital Advertising Benchmark Report found that the uptick in the amount spent was driven almost equally by increased click volume and rising CPCs, with the average global CPC increasing from $0.80 in the second quarter of 2017 to $0.85 in the second quarter of 2018.
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CPCs varied by region and industry. For example, the average CPC in the U.S. and the UK was $0.92, but it was much lower in Europe at $0.42.
Amazon captured 24% of digital budgets for Marin clients that were active on that channel for total budgets.
Sponsored Product Ads represented 79% of that spend, with Headline Shopping Ads representing the remaining 21%.
Shopping Ads from Google represented 32% of the ad spend by retailers. Shopping took the biggest share in the UK at 48%, followed by 37% in European countries and 27% in the U.S.
Instagram proved popular with Marin’s advertisers, taking 20% of their total Facebook ad budgets. While the cost per click (CPC) rose 3% since the first quarter of 2017, averaging $0.184, the CPMs at $3.07 and click-through rates (CTR) at 1.67% dropped slightly from the first quarter of the year.
“This difference may relate to recently enacted privacy regulations and increased consumer awareness of highly publicized data breaches — each potentially reducing overall consumer ad engagement on social channels,” according to the report.
Overall, among Marin’s clients, Education spent the most in the quarter, followed by Technology, Healthcare, B2B, Healthcare, Finance, Manufacturing, Automotive, retail, and travel.
Mobile search ads took 40% share in the quarter. Europe took the highest share 46.4%, whereas the U.S. at 38.4% took the lowest.