Paid Search: The Digital Ad Dominator

A new study shows paid search is still the top digital ad channel as far as advertisers’ budgets are concerned.

Paid search accounted for 39% of advertisers’ total budgets, according to Marin Software’s State of Digital Advertising 2019 report,

Data in the report was collected from over 450 B2B and B2C digital marketing professionals in the US and the UK.

While paid search is by far the dominant ad channel, advertisers are spending more on other channels than they were last year.

Ad Spend on Paid Social is Up

Paid social accounted for the second-highest share of advertisers’ budgets (18%), followed by display advertising (16%).

Ad spends on Instagram, in particular, is going up. But the study finds the increase in spending on Instagram ads is not a result of advertisers spending less on other social media ads.

Rather, the greater spending on Instagram ads will come from an incremental budget increase instead of transferring ad dollars from elsewhere.

Advertisers Plan to Spend More on Amazon

According to the study, 60% of respondents plan to increase spending on Amazon ads over the next year.

In addition, 55% of respondents say they started using Amazon ads because they see it as a significant growth opportunity.

When asked what their goals are with Amazon ads, one in four respondents said they are looking to increase purchases at the lower end of the funnel.

Other Insights

Here are some additional highlights from the report:

• Google is the most trusted publisher among advertisers — 98% rated Google a 4 or 5 (out of 5) on the trust index.

• 84% of respondents who use paid search are currently using or planning to use Google’s new responsive search ads.

• 65% say their company’s use of shoppable images within search will increase in 2019.

• 32% say, video is the most effective social ad format, followed by image ads (26%), Instagram Stories (23%), and carousel ads (19%).