The invasion is on and now, it is not only the mobile smartphone user that is getting into the act. Tablet users are also showing what they are made of this year and actually beat smartphones in paid clicks in year over year numbers. Together, these powerhouse moneymakers for ecommerce marketers grabbed a full quarter of all paid clicks over a 365-day period. They are already beginning to dominate in the local search markets. No one except smart PPC marketers really expected this and it just goes to show how unpredictable this amazing growth really is.
The Search Agency releases a quarterly report and lately, many interested heads have been turning their way. Everyone expected some growth from tablets since the recent release of new models with upgraded technology. Not everyone foresaw the tablet overtaking smartphones in Pay Per Click marketing and that is what has many thinking about a possible new strategy. Others foresaw the phenomenon and adjusted their ads.
If this trend continues, someone will come up with a new way to take advantage of it. Meanwhile, everyone will be watching the quarterly report closely and with an eye on what looks like a great battle brewing between mobile phone users and tablets. Here are the surprising numbers behind all the report ogling. In the YOY, or year over year time span, the fourth quarter of 2012 showed that since the fourth quarter of 2011, smart phones and tablets combined to an 89% increase in that single year. They took 23% of total PPC clicks.
Not only did tablets overtake smartphones in the 2011 to 2012 fourth quarters, they increased in paid ad clicks by double what they did the year before and that includes a 16% blast forward in the third quarter to overtake smartphones for the first time ever. For those who run Pay Per Click marketing campaigns it is like a promoter watching his two best prize fighters go at each other. You hope for a clear winner but do not want either to lose.
Marin software, who also release a quarterly trend report announced in January that in 2012 between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, tablets took 8% of the ad spend. Before we go scratching our heads in bewilderment, there is a real good reason for these numbers despite the fact that smartphone users outnumber tablet users 2 to 1. As it turns out, smart Pay Per Click marketers know that in search ads geared towards tablets, there is a lower cost per click than with desktops and the conversion rate is higher than the conversion rate with smartphones. For these reasons, tablets were targeted by the wise, especially in the fourth quarter of 2012. This was a very smart move by PPC gurus who are beginning to realize the finer points of the game. The gambit paid off as tablets performed.
On another note, with retailers investing more and more in search advertising, the numbers were up and in some cases down for the big search engines. In last year’s fourth quarter, Google advertisers enjoyed a year over year increase in click volume of 24%, an increase of 14% in the cost per click, but a surprising decrease in CRT or click through rates by 10%. Yahoo and Bing, on the other hand, saw over the board increases of 25%, 22%, and 13% year over year in click volume, cost per click, and click through rates.