Mobile Search Budgets Increasing 307% For Smartphones, 231% For Tablets

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Search marketers spent 307% more of their budgets on smartphone ads and 231% on tablets to date in Q4 2012 compared with the prior year, according to IgnitionOne.

The gap in cost per clicks (CPCs) between mobile devices and PCs remain strong, with PCs earning 28% higher CPCs than smartphones and 36% higher CPCs than tablets for the quarter.

Advertisers had a productive Thanksgiving weekend with search spend up 29% over last year, as consumers took advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Impressions by 29%; transactions 27%; and clicks, 24%, but the average order value (AOV) slid 2.7%, advertisers managed to increase revenue 23% compared to the 2011 shopping weekend.

The IgnitionOne report estimates the percentage of search spend on Black Friday at 30%, Saturday at 14%, Sunday at 17%, and Cyber Monday at 39%.

Across the board, Q4 spending rose 15% compared with the year-ago quarter among IgnitionOne clients, according to the company's mid-quarter report released Wednesday. The report includes trends across online advertising and insights into the effects of Hurricane Sandy and Google Product Listing Ads.

Hurricane Sandy impacted paid search; declines across many metrics for U.S. clients began Oct. 30, when the storm was at its worst compared to the week before. Impressions fell 30%. Clicks declined 15% and spend dropped 10%. Retailer budgets fell 15%.

Google PLAs fluctuate, ranging from 10% to 25% of total search spend for retail advertisers. The report highlights some "cannibalization" of regular paid-search clicks due to this movement. IgnitionOne included PLAs in the overall search numbers throughout this report.

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