Paid Search, Mobile Spending Increase in Q1 2012 – Search Engine Watch (#SEW)

Paid Search, Mobile Spending Increase in Q1 2012 – Search Engine Watch (#SEW).

Marketers Spending More on Mobile

Adobe’s report has U.S. marketers increasing their mobile ad spend to 8 percent of all search spend, while those in the U.K. allotted 11 percent to mobile in Q1. Tablets alone accounted for 4.25 percent. Adobe predicts mobile and tablet advertising will continue to appeal to advertisers in the short term, given their “disproportionately” low CPCs, compared to desktop PCs.

IgnitionOne put the amount of U.S. paid search spend dedicated to mobile slightly higher, at 12.4 percent. This represents an overall increase in mobile search spend of 221.1 percent over the same quarter last year, though the report warns that this growth rate has slowed since Q4 2011. Clicks on mobile ads increased 246.1 percent YoY.

Yahoo/Bing Increase Market Share, But Kill Their ROI Advantage Over Google

According to IgnitionOne, Yahoo/Bing had their best quarter since Q2 2010, with a 46.4 percent increase in U.S. search advertising spend YoY. For their part, Google saw lower but no less impressive 26.6 percent growth YoY. Compared to Q4 2011 (the holiday season), Bing actually saw total ad spend increase 14.3 percent, while Google’s spend fell 5.4 percent.

Adobe notes that Google’s CPC fell 5 percent over last year, while Yahoo/Bing CPC rates were 18 percent higher YoY.

“As a result, the Bing/Yahoo ROI advantage over Google no longer exists,” says the report. “Note that when Yahoo Japan converted to the Google ad serving platform from Bing/Yahoo, CPC rates dropped significantly. This indicates that Google, on average, charges a lower premium to search advertisers.”

Outlook for Rest of 2012

Marketers are missing out if they’re not targeting mobile, said Roger Barnette, President of IgnitionOne.

“While the growth in mobile ad spend has been an ongoing trend, I am impressed by the level of activity and click-throughs on tablets. This should be a wakeup call for marketers who are not yet leveraging search advertising on these devices,” Barnette said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Adobe predicts U.S. search spend will increase 10 to 15 percent throughout 2012, with tablets and mobile taking up to 20 percent of all search spend by Q4 2012. Marin Software also recently predicted that smart mobile devices will account for a full 25 percent of paid search clicks on Google by the end of 2012.

Adobe also offers a bit of advice to marketers in their report: “In a rational marketplace, the CPC rates on tablets should be identical to desktop CPC rates if the conversion rates are comparable. Furthermore, current trends indicate that tablets may cannibalize smartphone and desktop search spend as investments continue to shift to tablet devices.”

The Future of Paid Search – Google, Bing & Beyond

The Future of Paid Search – Google, Bing & Beyond.

Paid search has cemented itself as a highly viable, cost effective marketing channel. In 2011, paid search spending is expected to reach $34 billion. Worldwide, paid search is a $34 billion industry. In this graphic, we’ll briefly explore paid search—it’s current state, where it’s going, and how the largest paid search venders (Google & Bing) have divvied up the market.

Data courtesy of efrontier.com and magnaglobal.com.

Click on the image below to view an larger version of this infographic:

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Click here to download a .pdf version of this infographic.

Consolidation of Online Ad Market Continues as Google Grabs More Share – eMarketer

Consolidation of Online Ad Market Continues as Google Grabs More Share – eMarketer.

Facebook becomes No. 3 ad-selling company in US

More than two-thirds of US online ad spending will go to just five companies in 2011, eMarketer estimates, up from 63% in 2009 and expected to increase further next year.

The consolidation of the ad market is uneven, though, with Google taking nearly 41% of all ad dollars and Yahoo! and AOL losing share. Facebook, boosted by display advertising, will get 7% of US online ad spending this year, pushing past Microsoft to become the third-largest ad-selling company in the country.

Google’s gains are being driven largely by search. Search revenues will be up 23.6% at the site this year, and Microsoft’s revenues will grow even more quickly. Search dollars at Yahoo! and AOL will continue their downward trend.

“Microsoft’s solid growth rates are due to the overall efficiency of the Bing search engine in delivering relevant results to searchers, as well as the company’s marketing of Bing to encourage more usage,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer principal analyst. “But Google’s lesser growth represents a more than $2 billion increase this year, compared to only an estimated $322 million increase for Microsoft.”

This growth will mean Google takes more than three in every four search ad dollars spent in the US this year—a proportion that will rise further next year. Microsoft’s gains put it at only 8% of the market. Overall, the four largest search engines account for nearly 94% of the $14.38 billion search ad market.

“Search has become a duopoly dominated by Google, with Microsoft’s Bing and Bing-powered engines (Yahoo!) in a strong but distant second position,” said Hallerman. “The network effect keeps Google on top—the more users a search engine has, the more advertisers it attracts, which in turn can attract more users, and so on. But Microsoft is gaining both search query and market share.”

“Further, Microsoft’s deal with Yahoo! has not yet helped the latter company,” Hallerman added. “Google has benefited from the delayed fruition of the search alliance, steadily gaining market share as the alliance’s combined share has remained relatively flat.”

Bing: Over 30% Market Share If You Count Yahoo

via Bing: Over 30% Market Share If You Count Yahoo.

Bing now powers 30% of all searches in the U.S., according to March statistics released today by Experian Hitwise.

 

Direct use of Bing was up 6% from February, and Yahoo Search — powered by Bing — was up 5%.

Google searches were down 3% from last month, dipping under 65% for the first time.

The 30% landmark is symbolic because that’s approximately where Yahoo’s search market share was when Microsoft first launched its own search engine in early 2005.

MSN Search — which was powered by Yahoo’s Inktomi before Microsoft built its own search technology — was around 15% at that time.

Since Microsoft entered the market, Google has nearly doubled its share at both companies’ expense, but for the last year or so Bing has gained a few fractions of a point every month — at least in the U.S.

Worldwide, Google still dominates with between 80% and 90% share, depending on who’s measuring.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer boasted about the 30% combined market share last month, but today’s report is the first independent confirmation.

Here’s the Experian chart:

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Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bing-tops-30-in-us-2011-4#ixzz1JHjzAXLI

Could Bing Overtake Google in 2012? [CHART]

Could Bing Overtake Google in 2012? [CHART]

via Could Bing Overtake Google in 2012? [CHART].

Google might still be the leading search engine in the U.S. by a large margin, but over the last six months, searches powered by MicrosoftBing are increasing at an impressive rate. So impressive, in fact, that if the trend line continues, there will be a real contest between Bing and Google next year — and Bing may just come out on top.

According to the latest data from Experian Hitwise, Google was responsible for 64.42% of searches in the U.S. in March, 2011. Bing-powered search — which includes both search.yahoo.com and bing.com — accounted for 30% of U.S. searches.

The fact that Bing has crossed the 30% mark in the U.S. is significant in and of itself. Looking back through Experian Hitwise’s archives underscores the tremendous amount of growth for Bing-powered search. The rate of growth appears to be increasing.

Last October, Experian Hitwise reported that Google controlled 72.15% of the U.S. search market for September, 2010. Bing powered search accounted for 23.64%. In the last six months, Bing’s market share in the U.S. is up to 30%. Moreover, Bing.com, which represented just 10% of searches in September 2010, represented 14.32% of searches in March, 2011.

Google still clearly leads Bing more than 2 to 1. But when you consider that that ratio was 3 to 1 last fall, the gap appears to be closing. Bing is growing by five or six percent each month, whereas Google is losing two to three percent.

So what would happen if that trend continued?

We decided to graph out the answer to that question. In this scenario, Google drops 3% of its market share each month, while Bing gains 5% each month. Of course, this assumes sustained growth and sustained losses on the parts of both search engines. In a volatile market, it is extremely unlikely that we’ll see these exact numbers over the next year.

But if you do assume a constant trajectory, Bing will overtake Google in less than a year — January 2012, to be precise.

What isn’t hypothetical is that Bing has real momentum. After years of referring to Google as “the search giant”, it looks as if there is a serious contender for that title — and we could be heading towards an era dominated by two search superpowers.

What do you think of Bing’s growth over the last six months? Do you still use Google for everything? Let us know in the comments.

USA : Bing débute 2011 avec sa plus forte hausse

via USA : Bing débute 2011 avec sa plus forte hausse.

Selon comScore, le moteur de recherche Bing a débuté 2011 avec une part de marché de plus de 13 % aux États-Unis.

D’après comScore, Bing a connu en janvier dernier sa plus forte progression mensuelle aux États-Unis depuis son lancement en juin 2009 où il a débuté sur les cendres à 8 % de Live Search. Une progression de 1,1 point pour atteindre une part de marché supérieure à 13 % ( 13,1 % ) et une marque Bing qui semble réussir à mieux s’imposer que Live Search.

Dans le même temps, Google a perdu un point. À 65,6 % de part de marché, la domination de Google ne se conteste toutefois pas. Il est néanmoins intéressant de noter que ces chiffres datent d’avant la rixe qui a opposé Bing et Google. Le second a accusé le premier de le copier.

Avant cette affaire, Bing a donc commencé à prendre des parts de marché à Google. Il sera intéressant de voir ce qu’il en sera pour le mois de février. Outre le fait que Bing y soit en version finale, le marché US est aussi intéressant à observer puisque le portail Yahoo! y est motorisé par Bing depuis août 2010. Yahoo! affiche une part de marché de 16,1 %, soit une toute petite hausse de 0,1 point en un mois.

Les forces en présence sont donc de 65,6 % pour Google et 29,2 % pour Bing-Yahoo!. Derrière, Ask se montre plus discret avec 3,4 %.

Source : GNT

So, Bing’s Copying Off Google: What Now, Google?

via So, Bing\’s Copying Off Google: What Now, Google?.

If you’ve missed it, there’s practically been a spy novel written over the past couple of days about Bing copying Google’s search results. The whole thing started with a novella by Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan, which related the tale of Google’s honeypot trap to catch Bing in the act of copying its search results. Ever since, the two companies have been battling it out in public, accusing and denying, in blog posts, tweetsand more blog posts, but one question still remains – what now?

Even if the move wasn’t intentional on Microsoft’s end, the end result is the same – Bing search results that more closely mirror Google’s search results. One ex-Googler has some thoughts on how this can change how Google approaches search, which he shared earlier today on Q&A site Quora.

The Short Version

First, if you’re in the mood for a great but long read, take a look at Danny Sullivan’s story that broke open the whole debacle. There’s mystery, there’s intrigue and there are diagrams. The long and short of it is that Google started making up “words” that no one would actually search for – “hiybbprqag” for example – and then linking them to unrelated results. The gotcha moment came when Google engineers searched Bing for those “words” (after weeks of using Internet Explorer, searching for those “words”) and came up with those same results.

In other words, Bing was coming up with search results for something that only Googlers were searching for using Google on Internet Explorer. (If you’ve seen The Departed, it’s very much like the envelope that outs the rat.) Internet Explorer and the Bing toolbar had been collecting anonymous click data and, according to Bing, this data was one of more than “1,000 different signals and features in [its] ranking algorithm.” So, it wasn’t that Bing was directly copying results, said Microsoft, but that it was taking click data into account. Ever since Sullivan’s post, the two companies have been going at it – and that’s the very short version of it all.

Why Innovate?

Edmond Lau, formerly a part of the search team at Google, says that “the result of this discovery will be to diminish Google’s incentive to innovate in vanilla search quality ranking and to increase its efforts on other differentiating search features.”

Lau points out that, unless Google has a legal argument against Bing’s usage of click data, Microsoft will likely continue with the practice. Over time, he posits, Bings search results will likely move closer to Google’s, taking away a key incentive on Google’s end to innovate its search product.

“Any new innovations in ranking by Google could in theory quickly become assimilated into Bing’s search results, reducing Google’s incentive to innovate in the ranking space,” writes Lau. “Therefore, in order to maintain its competitive edge, Google will need to both try to reduce Bing’s ability to copy its results, and it will need to significantly increase its efforts on other important areas in the search experience outside of ranking.”

What’s Google’s Next Move?

Lau suggests that Google has two possible moves at this point. First, it can give Bing toolbar users worse results by “[dropping] a misspelling here or an optimization there,” thereby giving undermining Bing’s efforts and giving it only “medium-quality” results to copy. The second option, he says, is for Google to “focus more on non-ranking related improvements,” such as snippet quality, metadata extraction like IMDB data at the top of search results, query refinements such as localized results and search suggestions, more relevant ads and a better integration of universal search. In other words, Google can focus on all the neat information and context that surrounds mere search results.

“Not all is lost for Google even though Bing may be hijacking its results,” writes Lau. “Months after the summer of 2010, when Google figured that Bing had copied some of its results for the misspelled query [torsoraphy], it’s clear that Google still understands the web much better than Bing does. [...]Bing’s top result doesn’t have the spell-corrected query highlighted because Bing still isn’t able to connect the dots between the misspelled and corrected query. I’m not too worried for Google web search.”

What do you think? Would Google lower the quality on some search results just to keep Bing from copying it? From what we’ve read, information is not collected by the Bing toolbar alone, but by Internet Explorer use, as well, which makes up a majority of Web browsers worldwide. It seems like lowering the quality of your search results to a majority of users worldwide simply to stop someone from copying your answers would be counterproductive. Instead, we’re willing to bet that Google continues, as it has, to focus on enhancing all of these “non-ranking related improvements.” Google is continually pushing to make search results more customized to the individual user, according to previous search results, social context, location, and more. Is this the type of thing that could be simply copied by click data? We’re not so sure.

Facebook video-traffic is Yahoo en Bing voorbij

via Facebook video-traffic is Yahoo en Bing voorbij.

Ma 27 december 2010 08:15, Redactie, 1739

Volgens laatste cijfers gepubliceerd door Brightcove (download hier de .pdf) lijkt Facebookook met het sturen van traffic naar video gerelateerde sites zeer snel te groeien.. Daarmee is het Yahoo voorbij maar ligt het nog wel op straatlengte achter traffic-generator #1 Google. Facebook wist haar aandeel het afgelopen kwartaal te verdubbelen en heeft nu een marktaandeel van 9.6%. Google, Yahoo en Bing verloren allemaal bezoek.

Er is wel wat uitleg bij nodig want de onderzoekers hebben YouTube niet opgenomen in hun onderzoek hetgeen alles te maken heeft met het embedden van videos. Brightcove Inbound Marketing Content Manager Sara Watson “The report is based on Brightcove customer data, and by default that means non-YouTube player data, so YouTube traffic or referrals is not at all represented in this sample“. De volledige uitleg vindt je hier. Het neemt in ieder niet weg dat Facebook in vergelijking met Google, Yahoo en Bing, alledrie zoekmachines, ook hier fors terrein aan het winnen is.

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100 millions de check-ins pour Foursquare

Tandis que Facebook passait le cap des 500 millions de membres, Foursquare a franchi pour sa part la semaine dernière la barre des 100 millions de check-ins. Un bond en avant majeur pour le service de géolocalisation dont on vous annonçait la croissance exponentielle de 75% par jour et qui ne comptait encore que 40 millions de check-ins il y a seulement deux mois. Fort de ce succès, la plateforme serait à présent convoitée par les principaux moteurs de recherche (Google, Yahoo! et Bing). Et du “what is trending” initié par Twitter, l’avenir serait à présent au “where is trending” comme l’a déclaré Dennis Crowley, le co-fondateur de Foursquare.

How Social sustain SEO (Cycle)