According to the report Google paid search spending growth decelerated to 18% Y/Y in Q3, down from 34% in Q2.
Google paid click growth was 21%, including the traffic infusion from the Google Shopping transition.
CPCs were 3% lower Y/Y in Q3, while ROI rose 12% for competitive queries.
Overall, Google held a 77% share of organic search visits among RKG SEO clients.Bing and Yahoo each held a share of 10%.
Paid search spending on Bing and Yahoo combined grew 26% Y/Y in Q3, up from 19% growth in Q2.
Click growth accelerated to 14% Y/Y, while CPCs increased 10%.
In paid search Google AdWords generated 82% of clicks in Q3, down from 84% in Q2.
Facebook’s share of referral traffic remained at 6%, while Pinterest continued to provide a larger share of traffic. Along with Twitter, these social sites accounted for a little under 1% of all site visits in Q3.
Nearly 21% of organic search visits occurred on mobile devices in Q3, up from 18% in Q2.
For paid search, 16% of clicks and 11% of ad spend were mobile.
Tablet share of paid clicks nearly tripled to 9% and the gap between tablet and desktop CPCs fell to 5%.
Smartphone CPCs remained 54% lower than desktop.
Figures are derived from samples of RKG clients who have worked with RKG for each respective marketing channel. Where applicable, these samples are restricted to those clients who 1) have maintained active programs with RKG for at least 19 months, 2) have not significantly changed their strategic objectives or product offerings, and 3) meet a minimum ad spend threshold. All trended figures presented in this report represent the average same-site change over the given time period.
RKG is a full-service digital marketing agency that combines superior marketing talent with leading edge technology to create the industry’s most effective data-driven online marketing solutions. Founded in 2003, RKG specializes in working with clients in retail, travel, financial and B2B organizations ranging in size from small startups to Fortune 500 companies. RKG is a privately held company headquartered in Charlottesville, VA with offices in Bend, OR and Boston, MA.
