Kenshoo: Ad Spend Rose 16%, Revenue Climbed 24% YoY Across the Americas in Q4 2014

Marketers based in the Americas who want to increase their investment in paid search would be glad to know that the region as a whole is performing well. Brand advertisers in the Americas saw a significant increase in paid search ad revenue in Q4 2014, Kenshoo (@Kenshoo) reports, with revenue growing faster than spend.

The results, which were taken from Kenshoo’s 2014 Americas Search Advertising Trends report, was “based on five quarters of performance data from over 6,000 Kenshoo advertiser and agency profiles across all regions, including 17 vertical industries and 51 countries, spanning the Google, Baidu, Bing, Yahoo!, and Yahoo! Japan ad networks,” stated the report.

Ad spend jumped 16% year-over-year (YoY), while advertiser revenue increased by as much as 24% year-over-year. [See Figure 1]

Figure 1 (Source: Kenshoo’s “2014 Americas Search Advertising Trends” report)

Customers also engaged with ads greatly during Q4 2014. The results show that compared to Q4 2013, clicks rose by 10%, and grew 23% compared to Q3 2014. Impressions remained almost as is, growing slightly by 2%. “Impressions grew at a slower rate, indicating a continuing increase in engagement with paid search ads,” Kenshoo suggests. [See Figure 2]

Figure 2 (Source: Kenshoo’s “2014 Americas Search Advertising Trends” report)

In the Americas, cost-per-click rose by 6% YoY and by just 1% compared to the previous quarter. The average CPC fell between $0.60 to $0.70. On the other hand, click-through-rate displayed a fairly notable increase—rising by 5% from Q3 2014 and by 7% from the year-ago quarter. [See Figure 3]

Figure 3 (Source: Kenshoo’s “2014 Americas Search Advertising Trends” report)

The comparison between the share of spend and clicks from mobile devices in the Americas also told a success story for paid search advertising. Mobile devices represented 34% of the total search spend and 37% of the aggregate number of clicks. CPCs across all devices saw an increase; however, the average CPC for phones and tablets, which are $0.61 and $0.67 respectively, falls behind the average CPC for desktop at $0.71. [See Figure 4]

kenshoo-cost-per-click-rates-by-device-in-americas-q4-2014

Figure 4 (Source: Kenshoo’s “2014 Americas Search Advertising Trends” report)

Kenshoo’s report also highlighted country-level cost-per-click and click-through rate for the United States, Brazil, and Canada. In the fourth quarter, the average CPC in the United States was $0.70, $0.23 for Brazil, and $0.49 for Canada.

View the rest of the search advertising trends within the Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) regions here.

Did your revenue from paid search advertising outpace your ad spend in Q4 2014?

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