Mobile search ad spend jumps 69% in APAC & Japan in past year
Asia-Pacific and Japan region outpaced all other markets in terms of the growth rates in paid search advertising spend, clicks and impressions, especially on mobile devices.
Asia-Pacific and Japan witnessed a 15 per cent rise in search advertising spend in the past year. This was underpinned by a phenomenal 69 per cent rise in advertiser spend on smartphone search ads. In comparison, desktop search ad spend rose only seven per cent in the year to end of June in the Asia-Pacific and Japan region, a Kenshoo report highlighted.
More than half of paid search clicks in the APJ region were on smartphones or tablets in Q2 2015. Desktop search CPC broke higher than tablets after trending together in the previous two quarters.
“Mobile is rapidly becoming the center of the search universe as consumers increasingly rely on the smartphone to find information on the move. Our data also shows that more than half of paid search clicks in the Asia-Pacific and Japan region were on smartphones and tablets in the second quarter of this year. The year of mobile has certainly arrived,” Yukihiko Imamura, Asia-Pacific and Japan Managing Director for Kenshoo explained.
The report also highlighted a 23 per cent year-on-year jump in search advertising impressions in the region, and a 17 per cent rise in click volume. Globally, social advertising is also booming with quarterly global spend on social advertising shown to be growing by 114 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in Q2 2015, twice as fast as a year ago, driving a 535 per cent increase in click-through rate (CTR).
Click-through rate in APJ declined slightly YOY after reaching a high point in Q3 of last year. CPC in the region has been increasing slightly over the last three quarters
Australia has a high cost-per-click for the region, but drives high levels of engagement with paid search ads for their Australian dollar.
Mr Imamura said advertisers in the Asia-Pacific region are still heavily focussed on driving search volume and he expects that advertisers over the next year will focus on making their search advertising programs more efficient, by implementing more advanced bidding management and better optimisation.
“We are at the start of mobile search becoming a key part of the digital advertising landscape in Southeast Asia and Japan. The sheer growth of smartphone usage in the region means advertisers need to adopt a robust mobile marketing strategy, underpinned by the consumer engagement opportunities that the mobile channel delivers,” said Mr Imamura.
